How Much Is a Cassette Tape Worth Today?
The days of having to wait for the DJ to finish speaking before pushing record on your stereo speaker to acquire a copy of your favorite song are long gone.
While digital formats swiftly surpassed cassettes as the preferred mode of music distribution, cassettes were pretty extraordinary in the 1980s and 1990s, but they gradually slipped into history. The motives for collecting are many; some do so out of nostalgia, while others simply enjoy the sound quality provided by music cassettes! Despite this, they retain a certain allure, which is why so many people collect them. Some are even willing to risk thousands when it comes to the value of old cassette tapes.
This begs the question, how much is a cassette tape today?
Are Cassette Tapes Worth Anything Today?
Yes, some of the cassette tapes do. Blank, unused cassette tapes might be worth just $2-$4 for the piece, but rare and branded ones might be worth much more. As it appears – die-hard collectors are now willing to pay top dollar to complete their collections of unusual cassette tapes.
Even though records have made a strong comeback in recent years, no one has contemplated the idea of the modest tape making a comeback in the modern-day.
A Belgian invented cassette tapes in the late 1960s, but they rapidly became the most popular tape format for pre-recorded music. Cassettes were first introduced during the Berlin Radio Show and rapidly became a fan favorite. Cassette tapes flew off the shelves for pre-recorded music and as blank cassettes for recording from the 1970s through the 1980s! This popularity only grew with the introduction of the Sony Walkman.
Because this type of supply is no longer mass-produced, your cassette tapes are likely collectible! However, when it comes down to how much is a cassette tape, several stipulations determine the value. Cassette tapes have varying values depending on the band’s popularity, age, and whether or not the music was professionally recorded.
Popular band cassette tape prices are obviously higher than others. Although obscure music may be less valuable, cassette recordings have already established themselves as a niche industry! When selling cassette recordings from your collection, you never know how many admirers you’ll get!
If you have any top-rated items, you should be able to get a good deal! You could have a hard time finding a buyer for your garage band’s demo, but don’t give up! Most vintage music fans enjoy all varieties of cassettes just for the pleasure of listening to old-school music.
Check out the market price for any cassette tapes you have, and it may help you figure out how much are cassette tapes in your collection! They may be worth more than you realize. You could come into an aural gold mine! Before you sell your memories, make sure you transfer all of your cassette recordings to a digital format so you can listen to them easily!
What are the Current Prices of Cassette Tapes?
The Official Charts Company (OCC) threw a bombshell back in July when it announced that the British music-buying public purchased over 65,000 cassettes in the first six months of 2020. That’s a whopping 103 percent rise in cassette sales from the same time last year, and those 65,000 purchases have already surpassed the total number of cassettes sold in 2018. If this increasing trend continues, cassette sales in the UK might surpass 100,000 copies for the first time since 2003 by the end of the year.
So, how much is the tape collection sitting in your basement? A cassette tape value all depends on a variety of elements when it comes to your own tape collection. First and foremost, they are no longer mass-produced. That implies you’ll be able to locate those that have previously been sold on the market. But because there aren’t many of them, they’re incredibly valuable simply because they’re rare and no one possesses them. It’s an excellent item to acquire, and it’s the sort of item that you’ll want to have if you’re a collector interested in old technology.
As you might expect, audiotape collectors are particular about what they consider valuable and less desirable. That’s why it’s a good idea to examine your cassette tape price on various platforms now because they might be worth a lot of money!
An online music statistics website, Discogs, has found that cassettes account for the third fastest-growing format being sold on their site, with consumers spending $500 or more for certain music cassettes.
While some collections may go for pennies on the dollar, there are some notable exceptions. For instance, a cassette of Xero – Xero (1997), sold for a whopping $4,500.
Since 2016, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince has had the most expensive tape ever sold on Discogs. However, a band that would go on to be known as Linkin Park, self-released demo tape is one of the group’s rare recordings from the 1990s, when they were still known as Xero. There are just a few of them circulating, which explains the $4,500 asking price.
How to Sell Your Cassette Tapes
There are several avenues that you can take when determining how much is a cassette tape to buyers, including:
Online Auction
Consider putting your cassettes up for sale on eBay. You must give eBay a credit card, debit card, or bank account information to open a seller account. You’ll also have to decide which payment methods you’ll accept (such as Paypal). Click the “Start Selling” option to establish a seller account.
Digital Garage Sale
Another option to examine is Craigslist. Go to Craigslist, select the state where you wish to sell your recordings from the drop-down menu, and under “Post To Classifieds,” select “For Sale.”
While there isn’t a cassette tape category, there are “CDs/DVDs/VHS” and “collectibles” categories.
Click “Continue” after filling out the “Posting Form” with the relevant information. You’ll be prompted to enter your email address. When someone views your advertisement and wishes to contact you about buying your cassettes, Craigslist will send you an email, showing that the value of music cassette tapes in your collection is worth it to a buyer.
Physical Garage Sale
Decide when your garage sale will take place, preferably a weekend, because most people aren’t working on those days.
Your garage sale should be advertised. You can distribute leaflets across your community, place an ad in the local newspaper, or publish an announcement on the internet.
On the day of your garage sale, organize your cassettes and sit in front of your house.
Finally, you may profit from antique music cassettes, but not every tape is precious, which is why you should first evaluate the rarity. If they’re really uncommon, you’ll probably want to sell them as soon as possible. Unless you have a good reason to keep them, in which case you might be able to sell them for a more significant cassette price later.
Convert Your Cassette Tapes
While your “Summer Jams ’96” mixtape probably won’t fetch much on the open market, its sentimental worth may be priceless. If you have an old cassette tape collection, whether personal recordings, rare and early band recordings, you can send them to EverPresent, and we’ll digitize your audio cassettes for you. We can also transfer vinyls to CDs. Contact us today, and you won’t have to worry about scouring through your attic to find your old Walkman.
