Is There Really a Market For Cassette Tapes These Days?

I would buy some c60s and make some mixes if I had people to send them to. Dont have time to just do that for myself.

 

CD-IT! The only Chrome 120 i could find!

 

Did they use a voice actor over Patrick Dempsey or is it just synced weird? Also, is that a real song or just something they wrote for the commercial?

 

Just a thought I had recently which in turn make me think of this thread - it's hard to believe 25 or however many years on, but there was a significant period when (at least in the US, not sure about the UK) when cassettes were the dominant music format, topping music sales. So one can't blame the "superiority" of CDs alone for the long and protracted decline of vinyl - but even as a non-vinyl fanatic, I can't understand why cassettes would ever be more popular than both vinyl and CDs (given that much, if not all, of the cassette's period of dominance was actually after CDs came in the market). Anyone have any theories as to why they were so popular for a while?

 

car stereos - I didn't see a cd player in a car until the early 90s.

 

As far as I'm concerned the only advantage to cassettes was portability. Now, with CDs and portable digital players that is gone - and so are cassettes. All that rewinding and fast-forwarding, tape getting stuck or unravelling, warped sound / wow and flutter. And never sounded as good as vinyl. I can't really see them making a comeback the same way vinyl has - no real advantage, only disadvantages.

 

Because I could take them anywhere. The SONY WALKMAN made those cassettes sound great. Cassettes were cheaper, allowing music freaks like me to buy a ton of them (5.99 or even .99 vs 16.99? no brainer). Fed my music addiction quite well, though in the end, it was a fiscal nightmare as no one cared about cassettes... no value in them at all. I dont even own a walkman anymore but I hung on til the very end cos it was FUN making mix tapes. with CDs its just drag and drop. Call me old school but there is no romance in "the playlist" at all unless you really do it right. Cassettes sound like ****, melt in your car on a hot day and get eaten and have a lot of hiss. Do people write letters to each other anymore? Do people (gunfire) oh i just got shot....ahhh....Cassettes really suck, but I miss them. I miss CDs now too. No one wants a mix cd anymore..why cant i just get it from the cloud? f*&k.

 

I don't know about others, but some of that used to really freak me out as a kid. There are few things worse to a sensitive music lover's ears than a tape gone bad.

 

My panasonic walkman used to eat the first 20 seconds of any tape. I used to get so mad...

 

Don't forget walkman batteries running low and how it would slow music down. I remember that happening to me one time while listening to a tape of Yes' Close to the Edge. I had to laugh, Jon Anderson started sounding kind of like Gene Simmons.

 

I am sure that happened to me a couple of times. hahahaha!

 

The record store near me is now carrying a few cassettes.

 

Actually, yeah, folks are buying old tapes from www.usedbooksandtapes.com

 

Quite a few Beatles collectors look for cass.. Especially sealed and with packaging, etc..

 

This thread went wild becuase some guy looked on Ebay and thought cassettes were $5 - $20 and decks $200

Of course he didn't look at actual completed sales. So all discussion is moot

Cassette decks are not selling for $200 unless they are top end decks like Nakamichi and restored to working order. Cassettes for $20? Rare, sealed old stock maybe and perhaps one sale per year from the guy with 1000 for sale week after week.

Average cassette decks are at Goodwill stores across America for $5. At record shows I pickup cassettes for 25 cents ... most I pass on.

 

And still flawed on 2015...

 

When will nostalgia for the CD kick in?

 

Yeah. Try looking for them at the landfill.

 

I didn't even realize they were collectable until I got the latest and greatest (at the time) Perry Cox price guide.

Just to be sure I found a "lot" of Beatle cassettes on eBay from someone who clearly didn't own that price guide yet...

I've got an original paper label Rubber Soul cassette and a sealed Wild Life cassette from the late 70s I presume that I found for $1 at Lots and More....

 

Those late 60's era Capitol-Apple Beatles cassettes with paper labels are becoming quite rare. 8 track tapes, RTR and obviously vinyl far out sold cassettes during that 68'-70' time frame. They are now very collectible to Beatles tape collectors. I personally own quite a few, but they don't show up very often. Unless you rely on buying them off of eBay, good luck ever finding any. First issue UK Beatles cassettes are even tougher to find these days.

 

Have you heard the EU cassette of The Rolling Stones Bridges To Babylon? "Might As Well Get Juiced" is very impressive, for example.

 

Promo issue cassettes can go for decent money--depending on the specifics.

 

Have you priced a good used Nak Dragon lately? Or a Pioneer Elite CT 91 or 93, how about the Teac V-8030S or an Aiwa XKS-9000.

I'll take several of each if you can find them in good working order under $400.

 

Joanna Newsom is releasing her new album, 'Divers', on LP, CD, and MC!

 

I just got through my '80s prerecorded Yesterday And Today cassette, played through my Tascam 112 in my basement studio. It sounded tremendous.