Unwrapping a cassette for a mixtape and touching on the danger of 'saving for later'

Check out Don Wilson's channel! He reproduces Edison Diamond Discs, and conducts interesting experiments relating to phonographs. I'd love to get some of his discs one day! / @donwilsonlabs
I bought a box of cassettes a while ago for making mixtapes but was hesitant to start unwrapping and using them since they'd stayed all nice and sealed so long. But they weren't made to remain in their cellophane forever, were they?

[@ShedTV]

My parents have got a canteen of Sheffield steel cutlery which they got as a wedding present in 1965 and they never use, because 'it's too nice'. Madness.

[@toomanyinterests]

Yeah, my relatives have stuff like that too, my aunt showed me a silver plated tea setting bought by my grandparents, describing it as an "heirloom". I didn't have the heart to tell her that it's of very low quality and worth nothing. I also see stuff at work that must've been "the good set" and remained unused in the cupboard. I've even seen a whole dining setting with the upholstery still in plastic, never used lest got damaged. Sadly often these items have little or no monetary value now, so they've been preserved for nothing.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Good point about not using something.

[@toomanyinterests]

Thanks, I have a bad habit of keeping things for a never-eventuating future time because they're "too nice". I've been trying to get out of this habit, and realising that quite a bit of the stuff I'm saving will just be junk to others has helped somewhat. It's much better for these items to be used than to be wasted waiting for the "perfect" time that will never arise.

[@volo870]

Finding cassettes is an expensive hassle lately. People gather collections of blank tapes for some reason. I often have to overwrite music with programs to make my 8-bit computers useful.

[@toomanyinterests]

That's annoying, I have noticed cassettes being more expensive than they were. I wonder, are people building up their stashes or hoping the value will increase so they can sell them later on?

[@volo870]

@@toomanyinterests I literally mean people assemble collections: glass exhibition stands of sealed blank tapes of various brands! When shuffling through flea markets, I am often stunned by prices on "collector-grade" cassettes.

[@toomanyinterests]

@@volo870 There's a collector for anything and everything! I'm not surprised, people collect things like gramophone needle tins, tobacco tins, matchboxes, and the like. Cassettes are also small, colourful and have many different designs, and being all the same size are easy to store and display. Not exactly my taste though, I'd much rather have some nice pottery or antique glass on display.

[@mollyandaquafina]

Crazy because I bought a brand-new cassette the same as those maxima ones brand new at a market in melbourne

[@toomanyinterests]

The person I bought these from had a few boxes, and I have seen more for sale online. I wonder if someone came across a large quantity of unsold stock of these tapes somewhat recently and has been selling them off?

[@senilyDeluxe]

CassetteComback would classify these as Type Zero. They were pretty crappy when they were new. Still good enough to save Commodore 64 games on.

[@toomanyinterests]

Yeah, they're definitely nothing special. However for my purposes of recording random mixtapes and, once I fix it, saving Commodore 64 programs, these should be fine.

[@middlesbroughmike1027]

The problem you have there is that those Maxim Tapes were absolute garbage when they were new. Cheap market rubbish good for computer games at best. Their age has nothing to do with the poor quality, they've always been crap! 'Type 0'.

[@toomanyinterests]

Yes they are certainly cheap. I'm just gonna use them for recording random mixtapes and saving computer programs.

[@middlesbroughmike1027]

@toomanyinterests I really wouldn't bother using them for mixtapes buddy. They're garbage. Stick them on a shelf as an ornament and get yourself some TDK Ds or Maxell URs 👍

[@toomanyinterests]

@@middlesbroughmike1027 They're just gonna be really random tapes for background listening, so I don't mind about the poor quality. It's mostly for when I don't feel like changing records and needles on the gramophone every three minutes. As for ornaments, I've already got more than enough vases, clocks and stuff. There's no room for 100 tapes! I do have a few nicer tapes around somewhere, which I will use for more important recordings. If I see some decent tapes at a good price I'll buy them.