COLLECTING AND HOARDING!
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
The best place to start is your own house! Yes, it's true most houses had tapes and if you didn't throw them out over the years you are in luck. If you have dumped them then you will have to trawl eBay or thrift shops which are good places for off the wall finds. I recently scored a sealed 3 Pack of TDK SF 90s from 1995 for one Euro. This won't happen again for a long time I'm afraid but it was a nice surprise. Always check the boxes of pre-recorded tapes as you may find blanks in their too. People make mistakes and while the average Joe Soap wouldn't notice, the highly-trained eyes of the Tapehunter would. High street music stores don't really carry tapes anymore but if they do it will almost certainly be a Maxell UR 90 as these are still in production. If you want to go back to Chrome or Metal then you will have to go online to sellers. It is pretty widespread knowledge now that the major players like TDK, Sony and Maxell no longer produce the beautiful high end tapes that once made our hi-fi's sing. So to secure these relics of the analog age there is no other option I'm afraid, unless you ask your friends if they have any in the attic! Go get 'em!
COLLECT OR NOT?
So ask yourself this. Do you really want to get back into collecting high quality blank tapes? If you are on this blog the answer is probably yes! There are two main ways to do it. First you can go for used tapes or if you want to start your own museum then it has to be sealed tapes. Now these, the Type II and Metal unfortunately go for pretty high premiums on eBay but you can be lucky. While I like sealed tapes, opened and used high end tapes can be good too and you can record on them and enjoy them. Just make sure the seller knows their stuff and any seller worth their salt will usually have the brand, type and year of such a tape spot on, then you can cross check on a fantastic site called Vintage Cassettes. There is northing worse than spending money on a cassette that looks fine to the untrained eye and then finding it has mangled tape and other damage. Most tape dealers know their stuff and even run their merchandise through decks before verifying them for sale. Below is the link to Vintage Cassettes, check it out, you'll love it!
SEALED WITH A KISS!
Sealed, mint, high end tapes are the holy grail for collectors and bead-winners for sellers. This 'hobby' can be very expensive and if you are not going to open them then you will be sitting on a pile of gold that may bring high returns down the track, there is nothing wrong with investing but I personally would be too curious as to what a sealed 1986 TDK SA-X would sound like so the temptation to open it would be to much for me so in that case it may pay you to purchase two or three, then at least you can use one, keep one, and if tempted by lucre sell one off online. I recently sold a sealed box of 10 Agfa Ferrocolor HDs to a buyer in Russia, I asked out of curiosity what she would do with them. She said she is a collector but will use them to trade for others she does not have. Simple but effective. Mark my words, blank tapes are getting scare now and the value is only going to go up over the coming years so now is the time to get them!
The Unopened Stash for fear of WW3!
MAXELL HOUSE!
If you go hunting for blank tapes in shops, the only one you are likely to see in Europe at least, is the Maxell UR as these are still being pumped out of Malaysia for all markets. This is a basic Type I and will do a good job for dictation, radio taping and compiling from CD for the car, Walkman etc., but it is not a high quality, superb sounding tape. It is your bog standard normal for general purpose use and while it doesn't sound too bad, it's no TDK SA. Checking a few online warehouse office and shop supplies I noticed that TDK no longer supply their standard D Type I and the Sony HF seems to now be gone too. This is very serious I'm afraid and soon Maxell may stop too, then it's goodnight Vienna for Mr. Compact Cassette! But, on a more positive note I have heard rumours that SKC in Korea are still pumping out cassettes in large numbers for the Asian market but I haven't seen any of these round my neck of the woods! So if you would like to partake in tape stashing with the intention of selling another day then here is a tip, start buying Maxell UR cassettes, they are still available and once they dry up, just like most good things, people will want them. You heard the old saying, "you don't know what you have until it's gone", well that applies to tapes!
The Maxell UR Stash!
This tape collection just keeps on getting bigger and bigger, all the time!
OPENED USED TAPES
There are a lot of good used tapes for sale online and these can be pretty cheap. It may be best to buy a few from one dealer as this will keep the postage cost down as many dealers will probably ship a few tapes for a fixed price. I have seen high quality tapes sell on eBay for very little. So keep a look out and while it is a niche market now the field is open to anyone to grab a bargain.
The old stash!
J CARDS
These, inlay cards that some people write the track names on are impotant. Why? Well however hard it maybe to find the tapes you want, trying to find the J Cards you want is another thing altogether. These are rare. I have lots of good tapes without the original cards and the only way I can replace them is by colour photocopying originals and that's just not the same is it? If the J Cards have been written on you can turn them inside out. Having the original cards adds that extra value to a tape believe me!
A hot looking Maxell XLII-S 60 J Card
