Avocado Memories: Photos of long-forgotten blank cassettes

Yes! I used to buy these by the dozens because they were cheap. If I recall they didn't even have a case, just came in a plastic bag AND no place on the tape to write the contents! Problem was they lasted about a week before jamming up!

 

good idea. I used to stuff little pieces of tissue, but that was only a short term solution.

 

I remember those C-46 cassettes. Perfect for recording a vinyl album. Of course, with the c-90's you could fit a whole album on one side, but there was a theory that the c-90's & longer tapes didn't last as long.

 

That's the coolest thing

 

If only the industry knew what was coming 20 years later!

 

I just rip the fuzzy thing off another cassette or find the original and glue it back on.

 

This is true. carrolls is way off base here.

 

in a thrift shop I came across a bulk tape eraser...big sucker! never used one.

 

they should have know since they introduced digital...opened the floodgates.

 

I do remember my 120 tapes were excellent for my telephone answering machine.

 

Here's another variation of the Scotch Highlander. This is sort of the "second generation" of Highlander cassette, from 1974 or thereabouts, shortly before Scotch phased out the brand entirely.

 

Nope

I'm guessing either Norelco or Audio Magnetics, this was back in 1968.

Scotch Highlander was a popular tape used in schools and institutions, I seen it in use in the early 2000's.

 

I always went for the 90's.

 

Very cool!

 

This is wonderful, thanks for posting! And my dad had some of those Audio Magnetics tapes too! (Probably still does!)

 

I remember those tapes! I don't know if we ever bought any, but I traded "letter" tapes in the mid-'70s with my cousin Grace in Corvalis, Oregon. I think she used one of these, although it was a different color. Might have been a 30 or 45-minute cassette - maybe they were color coded.

Yeah, the Certrons didn't have a case. A lot of cheap tapes in the '70s didn't.

Highlanders lasted a lot longer than that, at least in our part of the U.S. I was still buying them for cheap use 'till at least '83 or so. They weren't very good by that point, even for cheap tapes. I think by that point they didn't even come with a case.

 

Just picked up a couple of sealed packages of Memorex C-60s that appear to be from the mid- to late-1970s. Included in each package is an offer for membership in the "Memorex Recording Club." You get a certificate that's suitable for framing -- imagine that on the wall of your shag-carpeted rec room! -- plus a newsletter and discounts. No word on any meet-and-greets with Ella Fitzgerald.

Wonder if that club ever has reunions...

 

Hated these tapes, but loved the cases!

 

A while back, I posted a catalogue photo of the Realistic walnut-encased speaker I used to attach to my portable cassette recorder.
Recently acquired a new-old-stock one, still in the box, although the nameplate on this one is different from the one seen in in the catalogue.

 

Yeah, the Memorex cases were really clever.

 

For a very brief period in the 1970s, Memorex marketed a brushed-aluminum cassette stand that neatly displayed six of those uniquely styled Memorex cassette cases, vertically. As I recall, the grooves on the black L-shaped arm of those cases held each case in place, so you just slid each one down in place, with the outer label on the clear plastic half of the case facing outward. You could open each of the cases while they were still secured in this display stand, remove the tape, and then snap the case back shut. The stands were very nice looking, but I only saw them once at a local stereo dealer. When I went back a week later to buy a few, they were sold out and they never replenished their stock. Never saw 'em again.

 

Wow! This is exactly what I did as a kid, and I made plenty of air-check tapes with those exact tapes! Tracs, too.

 

The prices of premium, vintage blank cassettes are insane...
Below is an extreme example, but even so, I have seen boxes of 10 Maxell XLI-S tapes sell for well over $400.

 

Man, I shoulda bought a ton of high-end tape 10-15 years ago. I could retire on the eBay earnings...

 

Yes, and as the OP mentioned, a lot of ambient sounds were captured, like the tone arm lifting and the stack changer dropping the next platter....THAT is a nostalgic sound to hear.

Tracs60 & Tracs90! I knew them well!