In a Case of Tape Delay, the Eight-Track Is Back
The cool thing about eight-tracks, for those of you born after 1979, is that they would never end. Stick a cartridge in the machine, and round and round it would go, spewing out groovy tunes until you (or your gun-toting neighbor) shut it off.
Turns out that endless flow was a metaphor for eight-tracks themselves, which, by the early ‘80s, most of us were using for coasters. But during the past few years, interest in eight-tracks has risen among kitsch lovers and serious collectors.
“A lot of people secretly kept all their eight-tracks,” said Malcolm Riviera, Web master for https://www.8trackheaven.com. “I get mail every week from someone who says he thought he was the only one doing this.”
Riviera, former keyboardist for the defunct band Gumball, has more than 10,000 tapes. His site offers free classified ads, eight-track tips and links to a wide range of other cartridge-related sites.
Naturally, there’s controversy. A Texas dealer was savaged by other collectors three years ago when he sold a Sex Pistols tape for $100, fueling fears that cash-rich collectors would drive up prices.
The response: A hastily convened Chicago eight-track swap meet, where cash transactions were limited to a token 50 cents. After all, how can you put a price tag on art?
