Should New Prerecorded R2R be rewound first

I picked up a number of still sealed very collectable R2R tapes from the early 70's, should they first be fast forwarded and rewound before playing them or is it best just to pop them on and play them straight out. I'm looking to cause the least damage to the tapes.
Thanks

 

I'm no expert, but I think that playing them would be more gentle. If layers of the tape had become stuck together during storage, I would think that fast forward would more likely break the tape than playing would.

If the tapes are collectible why not leave them sealed?

(Remember, this is being asked by a person who has hundreds of still sealed/never played Beatles records.)

 

Don't fast wind them!!!!

It would be best to just play them. If any layers of tape have stuck together, they won't rip apart quite as hard.

The only time I fast wind tapes is when they are brand new (factory fresh). Once they have material recorded on them, I never fast wind them. My master tapes are never wound faster than 90ips, which is the library wind speed of my Ampex ATR.


By the way, what tapes are they??

 

What Joe said.

Most if not all of the tape stock used for mid-60's-on prerecorded reel to reel tapes is quite stable, even after all these years (only poorly-stored 50's and early 60's tapes would have stability problems as they were on acetate based tape which can deteriorate with time and poor storage, becoming brittle and warping/curling, making them difficult-to-impossible to play)...

-Aaron