| OK, I admit it: there's something about
forgotten and moribund technologies that appeals to some demented quirk
in my character, and is there anything quite so "out of it" as
an 8-Track
tape?
Folks respect vinyl...Hell, even a wobbly 45 will get an approving analog nod from most of your audiophile collector-boy types. So what is it about an 8-Track on the other hand that elicits such a dismissive mocking attitude? Well, whatever it is, that's probably exactly what appeals to me and explains why I've got players in both of my regular drives, a '67 Amphicar and a '76 Dodge van, as well as a couple-few players and even recorders scattered around the house. |
|
Up until just a few years ago, when online auctions like eBay suddenly made it possible to thrust abominations like Engelbert Humperink's Greatest Hits or Robert Goulet Sings The Beatles 8-Tracks onto a world market as "rare collectibles," it was still possible to buy big grab bags of mixed title lots of 8-Tracks from certain now-extinct mail order joints, warehouses where 8-Tracks had been banished to mulch out of sight after the rest of the culture turned its back on them. It was simple: you'd send them $10 and they'd send you 50 mixed titles, most still sealed in their original cellophane. OK, so maybe 30 to 40 of those 50 carts were, let us say, not exactly "top shelf" for my tastes, but those that made the nut were either old favorites I couldn't afford when they were on the charts and Nixon was President, or, even better, artists or works I'd never even heard of that turned out to be real gems in the rough.
But then that leaves all those other carts and the inevitable duplicates. Sometimes I auction this or that on eBay, and you can see anything I have on the block right now by checking my eBay auctions. Otherwise, you'll find what I have on hand to trade right here.
