Tape Project Forum
General Category => Prerecorded Tapes => Topic started by: ironbut on May 24, 2012, 12:02:33 AM
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I still have a number or BC's to complete my collection. Luckily, I'm in no big hurry and I'm no "completest".
I did bid about as high as I plan to on about 10 this past week. I usually pick up a couple when I do this but it wasn't to be this time.
I'm not sure about the other 20 or so that I didn't bid on but one I did went for $122!
Another 4 sold for close to $45!
Yikes!
I guess I'm glad I started collecting these tapes when I did (I paid under $15 for the majority).
I do love these tapes and think they're certainly worth the sub $30 that I've had to pay for some lately so I can't say that the folks willing to pay these prices are crazy (as long as they're rich).
All I can say is my collection of BC's is killing my 401k plan!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150818874441?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
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I have maybe half of the catalogue. But I've been out of the market for a couple of years now so don't blame it on me. Unfortunately I don't think prices are coming down. Demand for tapes continues to go up and supply is certainly not going up. Maybe there's a market for 7ips high quality tapes again?
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Oh,.. stop lying to me Xavier! I know that you have some app that alerts you everytime I bid on something!
Seriously though, it would be great to think that there's a big enough market to make something like 7 1/2 ips tapes profitable but I think that you'd have to produce a large number of them to bring the price within $120 or so.
Maybe there will be enough folks interested one of these days.
I'd think that someone like Mike Spitz would be in the position to partner up with someone and make a go of it. Of course the tape wouldn't be free, but he's be able to cut corners like nobody else.
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All I can say is my collection of BC's is killing my 401k plan!
your collection of BC's *is* your 401K plan...
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I noticed the price spike as well. I had the opportunity to buy the entire catalog back in the 1970s and 1980s when they were being produced, and at discount in the 1980s when they were being remaindered at the Tower Records outlet in New York. I bought a few that interested me, gave some away, and sold some on eBay in the $20 - $30 range. The ones I kept still have a Tower $4.99 AS-IS price tag on the back.
When B-C was still on lower Broadway in Manhattan, I visited and got their nice tour of the duplication room. I still believe it's unfortunate Dolby B was used, as it limited the customer base. and was not really necessary with the high-output low-noise tape B-C used for duplication.
In the end, the tapes sounded good, but not that good, at least compared to cassettes and vinyl available at the time.
Does anyone have a copy of the quantities list B-C issued towards the end? Would greatly appreciate it, and (with permission) would post it to the reeltoreel yahoo discussion group.
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Hey Michael,
There are a few other folks here that got to visit the BC duplication facility. I wish I was one of them.
I don't know if you've done a search here regarding them but there was a post a while back from the fellow that bought the duplication line lock stock and barrel and still has it intact.
Also, their last duplication engineer also posted here a while back.
I agree that it's unfortunate that they found it necessary to use Dolby B. I guess it was one of those things that came with the territory at that time. The sound is very dependent on the sound of the decoder used and frankly, all the consumer units are seriously lacking IMHO.
When I get a moment, I'll scan the quantities list and PM you. I think the Yahoo Reel to Reel group is a great resource and I'd be happy to get it up for interested folks to download. IIRC, mine is 1983 or 85.
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Hell,
I'm new to this forum after searching for BC infos.
I collect 2-track tapes (moslty radio arvhices) as well as early German machines and tapes, but I really enjoy commercial pre-recorde tapes.
Anyone has scanned the BC catalogs especially the last one showing the number of specimens made for each title released ?
Thanks,
David
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Hi David,
Welcome to the forum.
I have what I believe to be the last listing of the BC releases which was provided to the distributors of the tapes. For some reason, it isn't totally complete and is missing a few of the MHS tape listings for sure.
It does however, include the number of tapes issued at the time.
If you're interested, PM me with an email I can send a pdf. to.