Pre-recorded Reel-to Reel tapes

Open reel tapes on Ebay -- they list maybe 8,000 at any given time -- are a total crapshoot. Most sellers don't have a tape deck to play them on (they found them at estate sales or wherever). But there are real gems to be found if you're patient (and obsessed) enough.

Buconeer, you might note that all Barclay-Crocker tapes were Dolby-encoded (except the few that were dbx-encoded), so you need a Dolby deck or a way to cut the highs if you play them back on a standard deck.

That 2-track "Kind of Blue" has only 3 of the original 5 tracks, which works out to $36 minute!

Pretty much the only reason to get into reel-to-reel today is that the great tapes sound so awesome :-)