As i don't know how many viewers I have ( maybe only a half dozen) this question may get little traction, but I've grown slightly suspicious of the enormous disparity between availability of very old, rare tapes in the rest of the world, and Australia.
I'm not referring to ones that even in excellent condition , are clearly used, but ones that, for all practical purposes look almost new, despite being 40 to 50 years old.
First, some statistics.. the way it generally works out is that if a tape, or a label, is rare in one part of the world, it will be rare in the rest of the world. Naturally theres variations, sometimes wide ones, due to , say pressings .. it's natural that British issues would be rarer outside of UK than in, for example , but still, compared to the rest of the tapes available, they'd still be scarce.
However, Australia doesn't , in any way, fit that model.. it's as if several hundred thousand tapes were stored in a climate controlled warehouse for 30 to 40 years, and then just recently, all let out.
Furthermore, every single one I've seen, has paper labels, with no printing on shell, ever..
By "enormous disparity" referred to at the start, incidentally, i meant that for any album there wasn't a single copy available on any ebay international site, yet over a half dozen australian ones listed..
This has been the case repeatedly, with , especially, Beatles and Pink Floyd albums, plus others i can't recall now..
They all appear to be in the identical condition with no yellowing...
I think the conclusion is hard to miss....
Comments? Opinions?
P.S. I consider myself lucky, then, for the contributed Aussie scans from Tony.. These authentic ones are becoming harder to spot in the mix.. Frankly, I haven't seen more of the clearly used ones in Australia than in the rest of the world, but rather, less.. I suspect the harsh weather may be hard on tapes..
Thanks !
Yeah, well, here's the thing.. if in the rest of the world there's very few copies , and yet in Aus there's 4 times as many of the same one, in perfect condition.. it gives me pause. And if it happens over, and over again, I think there's a few folks that *are* doing just that.. prointing and material selection has advanced enormously over the last few years.. I know,, there's more than a few occasions that I've had to replace a ripped label, or make a new sleeve for a tape .. and have been able to perfectly match the old printing, cardboard and ink texture.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the line is crossed when making one from scratch, especially if put up for sale after..
I've noticed, however that it was only a handful of Australian vendors with the majority of those tapes..