Opinions needed. Do I throw out my old cassettes?

[castleview]

It's basement cleaning time and I enjoy throwing things out way too much. Anyhow, I came across some old albums (33s ) and cassette tapes along with a boom box that has a cassette deck. I'm probably going to hold onto the albums because most of them are good and the days of cover art are gone - slight nostalgia. But the only reason for me to hold onto the cassettes and boom box is in case my kids ever want to pretend they're living in the 80s.

What are your thoughts? Toss them or not?

 

[BunsenH]

on keeping the albums. I've recorded mine to mp3s, but still keep some for the 'art'.

I thought that I might record some cassettes to mp3, but it is a very tedious process. I haven't tossed them yet, but probably will come Spring cleaning time.

I have a small boom box also. I use it to listen to baseball games outside in the Summer.

 

[Lassie Lynne]

I have kept mine. There were some songs that were obscure that I could not remember the title, so I played them, Shazam'ed them and then found them for my Ipod, so I was glad I hadn't thrown them out.

 

[Missy1961]

I've been tossing any I find.

 

[IdesOmarch]

Toss them if you don't mind tossing $$$ out the window. Before tossing, you could sell them to your local buy back record/CD store (most cities have these), or online on ebay. Or you could transfer them all to CD, and then sell them.

 

[DrCavin]

Toss them if you don't mind tossing $$$ out the window. Before tossing, you could sell them to your local buy back record/CD store (most cities have these), or online on ebay. Or you could transfer them all to CD, and then sell them.

I would never have thought that a cassette tape would be worth anything. The albums yes.

 

[cybrkitn]

I still have my old cassettes and don't plan on getting rid of them. Every now and then I'll listen to them. I have a lot that I've recorded off the radio that's now over 20 years old. Especially since some of them are concerts that were rebroadcast, interviews, etc. I've already asked DH about the possibility of transferring them over to MP3 or CD so that I can still have them. You just can't replace radio recordings.

 

[JCJRSmith]

You may want to try the cassettes - don't be too surprised if they don't play. The media tends to decay over time.

 

[IdesOmarch]

I would never have thought that a cassette tape would be worth anything. The albums yes.

Wouldn't be to me, but to some people yes, of course it would probably depend on if they still work true enough. And I'm not saying they will become millionaires with the selling of these , just a few bucks instead of throwing them out.

 

[debf]

I left my cassette tapes at the end of our yard in a free pile. Someone did take them. It was kind of sad to let them go,but they weren't being used anymore.

 

[CandyMandy]

You may want to try the cassettes - don't be too surprised if they don't play. The media tends to decay over time.

Actually, audio tapes hold up a lot better than you would expect, unless you store them on top of something like a TV or stereo amplifier (ergo, a device that puts out a relatively stong magnetic field, that will kill them).

As example, my older brother has cassettes from the mid 70s that still play just fine; that also may have to do with the fact they were recorded and only played on good equiment with clean heads (he has a Nakamichi). Obviously a store bought, pre dolby tape that has been chewed up in cheap boom boxes isn't going to sound nearly as good.

And as others have pointed out, there is a healthy market on eBay for cassettes, particularly if the recordings are of now out of print music. That's because there is a huge amount of great older music that is not on Itunes.

 

[tvguy]

One of my co-workers just put an 8 track in his Luxury SUV.
My wife's luxury SUV has the top of the line MACH audio system with AM/FM CD and CASSETTE player, so I'd say, hang on to the cassettes.
I never got into 8-tracks, but I have a ton of LP's and Cassettes. And I used to work in radio, so I have a Sony reel to reel tape deck too!

 

[castleview]

Okay, I decided to break out some of them and showed my two youngest kids what a cassette player and tape are. They watched me hit power and set it to tape deck, press play and fast forward (didn't stop in between like I'm supposed to either ). I played Stevie Nicks "I Can't Wait" (A side first song) then decided I wanted "Talk To Me" so I fast forwarded before I remembered it was on the flip side. Did the flip the remembered that song was first which meant I had to rewind all the way to the beginning. The kids said "Wow, that thing is sooo cool!"