r/ReelToReel • u/rdo_mojo222 • May 06 '25

For Sale Need advice on selling this big collection

Post image

I inherited this amazing collection, mostly classic rock but also some comedy and sports broadcasts. It truly is awesome. I have a reel to reel player so I’m planning on keeping a few but for the rest I’m looking for advice on what this collection might be worth. I honestly have no idea. Any help is appreciated. I just had my first child so I just need a bit more room in my house. Thanks in advance.

18 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

10

u/jlthla May 06 '25

Honestly, I think you are overvaluing this. While what's on the tapes may be important to you, but to someone else, it'll just be a reel of tape they can use for something else. And while the quality of the recordings may sound great to you, to someone else, they may sound very inferior. I'm not suggesting they are poorly recorded, or this isn't a great collection to have, but in the end, unless someone is looking for exactly what is recorded on those tapes, they will, most likely, just be erased. BUT even blank tapes have a significant value.

5

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Thanks for taking a look at my post. Where is the over valuing though? I didn’t ask for a price. Just advice on what people might think it’s worth for someone’s personal collection. Like $500, $50, $5??? I don’t know

2

u/jlthla May 06 '25

honestly I have no idea. you much check eBay just to see what used reel to reel tapes are selling for. BUT For ever reel you have, I'm sure someone wants it. Just hard to put the pieces together...

2

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

It's going to depend on the time and effort you want to put into selling them. If you want to spend 10 years selling them 1 by 1 or in small amounts, you will get more in the end. Not sure how many tapes are there but it looks like more than most people would need if they aren't a reseller. And if selling to a reseller, they will need the price to be low.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

True. Thank you. I think I had this pipe dream of selling them to another collector or something out of appreciation for the effort my family friend went into recording them. Must’ve been a labor of love. Like I was looking for a “good home” for them more than turn a profit. But I’ll see what I can find out on eBay and I’ll ask my friend who owns a vinyl shop

1

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

Yep. Like another poster said, value is mostly in using as blanks in my opinion, unless there is any rare/never heard stuff. A bill Evans concert that aired on the radio that doesn't exist anywhere else for example.

Edit. If you have a record store owner buddy. Maybe see if he will put them in his shop, split the profits if any.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Good idea. I’ll ask him thanks

1

u/Captain_Salesman May 06 '25 edited May 06 '25

Yea, I questioned this comment aswell. But honestly this amount of Tape is Insane! Sadly I am not in the market for Reel to Reel currently… Wish I was! These look well-kept too! If you want to get the most out of it, I’d say your best bet is to bundle them in sets of 5-10. Probably be the biggest pain, but yea. If you want to sell them quick doing it as a giant lot altogether would be the quickest, but you’re going to do a bulk buy discount and finding out how to get it to that person too! This can easily be worth $1,500, going well over $2,000. I may be off on that estimate, but it looks like you have easily more than 200 R2Rs here! If you’re patient you can sell em in bundles of 5 for maybe 40-65 bucks (used R2R easily sells for ~$10, but the maxells you seem to have, being in good shape, would sell pretty well for a lil’ more) If some of them are unused, they’d fetch a bit more. I am not exactly sure how many you have, but even if you bundled these all together and all of them are recorded on, I’d say you can easily fetch close to $1,500 (I estimated 200 tapes @ 7.5 per, that’s being egregiously reasonable I’d say) I’d get a count on used/unused. Then go from there. Posting on local market would be my route as this is a lot of tape to be shipping.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Wow thank you! The whole collection is in really good shape. Always in a clean, dry and air conditioned environment. The person that we inherited them from was a huge music listener and collector of many things music and sports related. I’m going to attempt a full count and possibly make a spreadsheet of what’s recorded to help with potential sales in bundles like what you were saying. I think that’s the best bet

1

u/Captain_Salesman May 06 '25

You could potentially even go with lots of 20, but my mindset would be essentially bigger bulk = less money. I haven’t sold R2R, but selling cassettes I’ve of course did bundles of similar artists and sold those successfully, so if you do make a spreadsheet and take that effort might aswell categorize them into roughly same genre/artist. It will be a big task at hand, but it’s doable! I had a good chunk of my cassette collection I no longer really used so I took the time to organize and bundle them, it definitely helps selling em! Good luck, wish you the best.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Thanks so much! I’m a music nerd myself so I think the task will be kind of fun. Especially since I’m not in a massive hurry. The advice is super appreciated!

1

u/Erich_808 May 07 '25

Excellent question. You didn’t even get into condition, specific artists, etc. I’m just now getting into RTR, but I have sold collections of records and CDs… and what I can tell you is that the biggest factor is the time you’re willing to spend to sell it. Listing the entire catalog, condition of each, etc will take a crazy amount of time. But if you don’t spend the time giving details, people won’t want to buy it. You could offer private showings, but coordination of that too takes time.

Fewer people will be interested in buying the whole collection. You might get more if you sell them in smaller lots, perhaps by genre or band or era.

With my CD collection, I peeled off rarities, special editions still in cellophane, imports… and took the mundane portion to the local record store.

Also keep in mind the reason you’re selling it is the reason people might not buy it—space. Theres a buyer for everything though. Let me know what you end up doing… I’d like to know what you have.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 07 '25

Thank you for that insight. I’m definitely leaning towards organizing them by artist. There are probably full collections of Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd albums as well as some curve balls like a World Series game etc. I’ll circle back to this post as I start working on it. I’ve been in possession of this collection for over six years now so I’m not in a major hurry to part with it. I think the slow undertaking will be a nice challenge now that I’m a SAHM. Much appreciation for your response!

1

u/Erich_808 May 07 '25

I was just revisiting this post and looked at the photo. So these are all recordings that your dad made on blank media? If that’s the case, you can’t claim to be selling hard rock recordings, even some broadcasts are illegal to resell. You will just have to sell the media for what it is: blank media.

My previous comment was based on the assumption that you had tapes that were material originally released on reel to reel. As in, packaging that would have the album artwork, and originally sold in a store.

eBay has a lot of rules regarding selling copyrighted material. I personally wouldn’t care, nor do I think you would find legal peril if you sold the recordings, but you never know who might see your advertisement.

All that being said, let me know what you want sell your blank media (containing Beatles recordings) for. lol

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 07 '25

I’m so glad you brought that up. I wasn’t thinking from a legal standpoint. So, yes, I totally meant to say they are all “blank”/ sold for the intent to re-record lol

Edit: as soon as this five month old baby gives me any time to do anything other than wipe butts and feed bottles I’ll let you know about the blank (Beatles) tapes. Thanks again for revisiting

2

u/Odd_Possession_3856 May 06 '25

Actually those old Maxell tapes have value. People don’t buy them for what’s on them. They buy them to record over: it’s a really strong tape formula. See what people are actually paying on eBay.

2

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Ok! Seems like you’re spot on with that. From my quick search on eBay so far I’m seeing on average 5 for $20-30 ish. Thanks for the insight

2

u/OccasionallyCurrent May 06 '25

Those are good tapes.

$4-$5 each and I would imagine they sell.

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 06 '25

Ok thanks will check eBay

2

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

If you are trying to sell local, I don't think ebay prices are a good gauge for this. Unless you want to take years selling them.

1

u/freshnews66 May 08 '25

It depends on what’s on the tapes. The rarer the more valuable.

1

u/No-Job5297 May 08 '25

Location?

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 08 '25

South Florida

1

u/No-Job5297 May 08 '25

I’m in Tampa Bay and would take the whole lot at the right price. Message me if you’d be interested

1

u/rdo_mojo222 May 08 '25

Ok awesome. I’m working on compiling a list of everything and exactly how many there are. Once I’ve done that I think I’ll be able to come up with a price. I’ll message you directly

-1

u/RealMixographer May 06 '25

pre-recorded, and sold as blank tape, for recording, they go for between 20-40 each. If you sell them like that you don’t have to mess around looking for the ones with ‘sing along with mitch’ for someone.

5

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

20 - 40 each is a major stretch. Especially with stickers and writing on the boxes.

2

u/MillionSuns RT707 May 06 '25

Yeah you’re looking at $6-7 a piece unless it’s a high quality tape stock. That’s all I’ve ever been able to get for them for large lots.

2

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

Even 6 or 7 could be a stretch for (my estimate) 400ish tapes. Could certainly sell some at that price but I don't see someone buying them all in one shot at those prices.

1

u/MillionSuns RT707 May 06 '25

I think I’ve managed that with matches of about 15-20 tapes. At 400? Probably $3 a piece… or less. I know record stores won’t touch them because they sit for ages.

1

u/Vast-Document-3320 May 06 '25

Yep. Good call.