Thread: What do you do with your old cassettes and LPs?

I was clearing out the garage yesterday (the wife is away for a week) and I managed to dump all sorts of junk that will not be missed. Looks a lot better now!

I came across some boxes of classical cassettes - some recorded by myself from my LPs/CDs and many commercial DG, Decca cassettes. I never used to buy new cassettes as I considered them a rip off at 10 to 15 pounds a piece. I used to go to Oxfam or other charity shops and get them for 50p each. Anyway I decided to trash a lot of the cassettes which i recorded - I no longer have a cassette option in the car - and am unlikely to play them in the house - so I dumped nearly all of them - but kept the nice looking commercial cassettes. Sad in a way to do it.

So what do you do with your old formats which you are unlikely to play again? Trash them - or hoard them?

Trash them !!!!???? Such treasure !!!!????

Originally Posted by stomanek

So what do you do with your old formats which you are unlikely to play again? Trash them - or hoard them?

Digitize them

Originally Posted by Il_Penseroso

Trash them !!!!???? Such treasure !!!!????

My cassettes which I recorded from LPs are about 20 years old - I find a lot of them have oxidised up anyway.

The cassettes I keep, and listen to occasionally - when they are playable; a significant percentage of them aren't. The LPs undergo triage; there is a to-be-transferred pile, and the other pile. That other pile gets fed into the trash gradually. One of my wintertime hobbies is the transfer of music from LP to CD-R. After transfer there is a second triage, resulting in a to-be-stored-just-in-case pile.

Originally Posted by Hilltroll72

The cassettes I keep, and listen to occasionally - when they are playable; a significant percentage of them aren't. The LPs undergo triage; there is a to-be-transferred pile, and the other pile. That other pile gets fed into the trash gradually. One of my wintertime hobbies is the transfer of music from LP to CD-R. After transfer there is a second triage, resulting in a to-be-stored-just-in-case pile.

Does it make sense to transfer LPs? Many old performances you can get on CDs for a few pounds on ebay or amazon - it can take an hour to do a transfer.

Donate them to a charity or thrift shop if they are still playable. I work as a volunteer in a local charity/thrift store, and cassettes and old LP's are a really hot item. We price cassettes at 50 cents (US) and LP's at 25 cents (US) and all proceeds from our sales (after expenses like rent, electricity, etc) flow back into the local community to aid the poor people.

Originally Posted by stomanek

Does it make sense to transfer LPs? Many old performances you can get on CDs for a few pounds on ebay or amazon - it can take an hour to do a transfer.

1) Many 'old performances' you can not get on CDs - for any price. I usually check before transferring.

2) If the LP is well cleaned and in good condition, an hour's attention isn't required to do a transfer.

3) I enjoy the process.

4) In wintertime I have lots of indoors time to 'waste' on transfers.

5) I often don't make 'external sense', i.e. what makes sense to me is often incomprehensible to others. (You may have noticed that phenomenon in some of my posts.)

Originally Posted by Hilltroll72

1) Many 'old performances' you can not get on CDs - for any price. I usually check before transferring.

2) If the LP is well cleaned and in good condition, an hour's attention isn't required to do a transfer.

3) I enjoy the process.

4) In wintertime I have lots of indoors time to 'waste' on transfers.

5) I often don't make 'external sense', i.e. what makes sense to me is often incomprehensible to others. (You may have noticed that phenomenon in some of my posts.)

OK if you enjoy it. 70s and 80s LPs generally seem to be in good condition - but 50s/60s can be a pain - and I used to find myself messing about with Audacity to get rid of little clicks here and there. I gave it up as a bad job.

Originally Posted by stomanek

OK if you enjoy it. 70s and 80s LPs generally seem to be in good condition - but 50s/60s can be a pain - and I used to find myself messing about with Audacity to get rid of little clicks here and there. I gave it up as a bad job.

The decade of issue doesn't matter much - except during the vinyl shortage ('60s?). There was a tape hiss issue until DAT came along - pretty close to CD time. In general, classical music LPs have less wear than the more popular genres, but dirt induced pops/crackles can still make me change the 'pile' designation. The music has to be 'special' to warrant digging down to get at stubborn pops/clicks.

You could try to sell them on EBAY

I have a boom box that plays cassettes and runs on batteries. Perfect for my old cassettes. I find amazing stuff I don't remember taping!

Originally Posted by Hilltroll72

The decade of issue doesn't matter much - except during the vinyl shortage ('60s?).

It was the oil crisis... Mid to late 70s. Things didn't get a whole lot better at the end of the era either.

Originally Posted by stomanek

OK if you enjoy it. 70s and 80s LPs generally seem to be in good condition - but 50s/60s can be a pain - and I used to find myself messing about with Audacity to get rid of little clicks here and there. I gave it up as a bad job.

What's the problem with little clicks here and there?

Originally Posted by Hilltroll72

The decade of issue doesn't matter much - except during the vinyl shortage ('60s?). There was a tape hiss issue until DAT came along - pretty close to CD time. In general, classical music LPs have less wear than the more popular genres, but dirt induced pops/crackles can still make me change the 'pile' designation. The music has to be 'special' to warrant digging down to get at stubborn pops/clicks.

Buy a Nitty Gritty cleaning machine they are made in the USA.
Is the oil crisis the reason HMV's pressings were so dreadful about then and the reason for RCA's flipper floppers ?