More Rare 8 Track Tape for the Last Week of February

This past week didn't have the highest priced 8 tracks on eBay, but there were a number of rare cartridges that fetched decent prices.

You can view the ongoing 8 track tape price guide here for a larger list of rare and somewhat valuable 8 track tapes.

Kraftwerk: Ralph & Florian (Sealed) - $60
Bob Dylan & the Band: The Basement Tapes (Sealed) - $57
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers (Import) - $50
Yma Sumac: Miracles - $45
Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (Sealed) - $40
Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (Sealed) - $40
Bob Dylan: Self-Portrait (Sealed) - $35
Bob Dylan: New Morning (Sealed) - $35
Beatles: Yellow Submarine (Sealed) - $31
Ramones: Road to Ruin - $30
Jimi Hendrix: Smash Hits (Sealed) - $30
Bob Dylan: Hard Rain (Sealed) - $30
John Lee Hooker: Untitled (Sealed) - $28
Various: Smokey and the Bandit Soundtrack - $25

Rare 8 Track Tape - Bob Dylan: Bringing It All Back Home

Sealed copy of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home 8 track recently sold for $66 on eBay.

Visit the 8 track tape price guide for more valuable 8 track tapes, updated weekly.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Kraftwerk: Autobahn

This recent eBay sale is a pretty neat tape. It's a Columbia House tape club version of Kraftwerk Autobahn.  The tape was still sealed and sold for $70.

The quadraphonic version of this tape is worth at least a couple hundred dollars, probably more if still sealed.

$510 for a Michael Jackson Thriller 8 Track Tape

This past week an eBay seller sold the Michael Jackson Thriller album, pictured at left, for $510. This was a Columbia House tape club release, still in original shrink wrap. The album was released in 1982, so it isn't even one of the scarcest Jackson albums out there. Did someone really pay $510 for it?

Also this week, a seller offered a lot of Michael Jackson 8 tracks with Thriller included with Off the Wall, ABC, and Maybe Tomorrow. Now these tapes weren't sealed, but the whole lot brought in a whopping $15.  ...and the seller of this lot even had the correct keywords "Michael Jackson Thriller 8 Track Tapes" in the title.

I've noticed that it seems to be, or nearly so, easier to find sealed Record Club tapes from the 1980's than other popular titles from the 1970's. And certainly much easier than finding Leer Jet flat packs in their original containers. I believe (just my theory) that this was due to the fact that many people in the 1980's started the transition to cassette tapes or CD's, but were still subscribed to the tape clubs. Then when tapes arrived, they had already purchased the album in another format (when it was originally released) and so did not open the tapes.

Anyway, look for a flood of Thriller 8 tracks on eBay in the coming weeks once people start seeing that someone supposedly paid $510 for one.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Night Ranger: Midnight Madness

This sealed copy of the 1983 Columbia House Record/Tape club released Night Ranger, Midnight Madness recently sold for $50.

Other 8 tracks from this week that sold for decent prices included:

Def Leppard: Pyromania - $45
Beatles: White Album (2 Tape Box Set) - $45
Various: Steppin Out, Disco's Greatest Hits - $41
Beatles: 1st Live Recordings, Live at Hamburg - $38
Thin Lizzy: Self-Titled - $36
David Bowie: Tonight  - $31
Kiss: Ace Frehley (Sealed) - $32
Kraftwerk: The Man Machine - $30
Jimi Hendrix: Smash Hits (Sealed) - $30
Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene - $30
Kiss: Kiss - $30
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (2 Tape Box Set) - $27
Funkadelic: Self-Titled (Sealed) - $27
Various: American Graffiti Volume 1 - $26
Foreigner: Agent Provocateur - $25
Tammi Terrell: Irresistible (Sealed) - $25
Rolling Stones: Milestones (UK) - $25
Rolling Stones: Rock N' Rolling Stones (UK) - $25
Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street (UK) - $25
Black Sabbath: Self-Titled - $25
Beach Boys: Surf's Up (Sealed) - $25
Kiss: Dressed to Kiss (Sealed) - $25
Bryan Adams: Cuts Like a Knife - $25

Rare 8 Track Tape - Michael Jackson: Bad

This copy of Michael Jackson, Bad, sold recently on eBay for $153. It was one of those deals where the seller listed it with a title that might lead the buyer to believe it was factory sealed, but it was not. Still, it was in very nice condition. Bad was released in 1987, which makes this one of the last few tapes ever produced, and makes the $153 price tag seem a bit log. I've certainly never seen one in person.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual

This past week somebody got a great deal on eBay when the won an eBay auction for Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual on 8 track for only $50.  Released through the Columbia House record/tape club, this is possibly the only 8 track tape that Cyndi Lauper ever released. She's so unusual was released in 1984, her follow up, True Colors, wasn't released until 1986. If a True Colors 8 track tape exists, I've never seen one.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Iron Maiden: Killers

This scarce 8 track is Iron Maiden, Killers. It was released in 1981. This copy recently sold for $51 with a label that is crackled and worn, but probably not so much that would make it be only worth $51. I've seen this sell for much more. Pretty much any Iron Maiden album on 8 track is rare and desirable.

The previous year's self-titled debut album on 8 track is really scarce, with a value of pushing $200.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Ultravox: Vienna

This scarce 1980 New Wave 8 track tape of Ultravox, Vienna recently sold on ebay for $206.50. It still brought that price despite have bubbling and wear to the label on the front. So don't pass this one up if you see it at a thrift store or flea market.

New (The Only) 8 Track Museum to Open in Dallas

The world will no longer need to yearn for an 8 track tape museum. Monday is the scheduled opening of Bucks Burnett's Eight Track Museum in Dallas, Texas. But if you are thinking of waiting until the huge crowds die down, you'd better think twice, the museum won't be a permanent installation.

Burnett plans to display 500-1000 tapes from his collection of 3000 tapes, as well as some other early tape music formats and players. Burnett admits that he doesn't even listen to his 8 tracks, but says he wants to keep the format from dying. Seems a bit odd for someone who credits himself with single-handedly starting the 8 track tape collecting fad (is it really a fad?) by selling a Sex Pistols 8 track for a hundred bucks fifteen years ago. Burnett started his own 8 track recording label, sells T-shirts and merchandise in addition to charging $20 a head to view his little collection of 8 tracks. It's cool to see a museum dedicated to 8 tracks, but it would have been better if it had been done by a collector that really loved them and wasn't seemingly out to just make money. Someone like Tracker Bob (below).

1960's Chevy Camaro 8 Track Player Sells for $1200

It's been awhile since I've seen an 8 track player sell for this much. It's a late 1960's 8 track player for a Chevy Camaro. It recently sold on eBay, completely refurbished for $1200. When this was produced, 8 tracks were still only the Lear Jet flat pack type tapes, which are quite rare to find today. The person who bought this will likely have to spend another $1200 to fill one carrier with the Lear Jet type flat pack tapes with rock music. If he's into easy listening music, he'll get off a bit easier.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Madonna: Like a Virgin

Madonna's Like a Virgin album on the Sire label. The one pictured was distributed through the RCA Music Service tape / record club. It's a pretty scarce album, released in 1984, near the end of the road for 8 track tapes.

A sealed copy recently sold on eBay for $71, but I've seen unsealed used copies fetch around $100. Values for 8 tracks are like anything, they go up and down and are affected by economic condition and scarcity.

The Most Valuable 8 Track - Sinatra Jobim

I've found lots of free 8 tracks at yard sales and routinely get them at thrift shops for a dime. Almost every church benefit rummage sale has a bunch that have been donated. But that doesn't mean they are worthless, and some of them can be quite valuable. Check out my 8 track price guide, it's a work in progress.

While most 8 tracks that are "valuable" are worth a couple of hundred bucks, tops, for super rare and desirable tapes, one tape at least has sales records to back up its $6000 valuation. That 8 track is pictured to the left.

The album is Sinatra Jobim on the Reprise label. It's a Frank Sinatra album featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim. The story goes something like this...only a few thousand copies of the 8 track were made and sent to retailers. Some sort of disagreement led to the record label cancelling sales of the album and even trying to pull them from stores. The album was not released on any other medium, so the few 8 tracks that are out there are all that exists of this album, aside from the acetate - if it exists.

Over the course of the past ten years, I've seen two of these, both of them on eBay. The one that sold highest fetched $4550 in pretty scuffed up condition. The other was right around the $4000 mark. Both were opened and used. I would expect a sealed version, if it existed, to sell for $6000. Most 8 track collectors wouldn't shell out six grand, but a diehard Sinatra addict would probably love to have the album.

But is this tape the most valuable ever? It's the highest priced 8 track that I've ever seen, by far. There could possibly be something out there that a collector or fan would pay more for, but right now there's nothing I've seen or can think of that would come close.

Saw 3D - More Blood, Gore and an 8 Track Tape

No, the player didn't just eat his tape,
he's super glued to the seat.

Watched Saw 3D last night. "The Final Chapter..." ...until next year when they come out with Saw 8. It was just like the other saw movies, entertaining, as long as you don't think too much about them.

But Saw 3D was a bit different in that Jigsaw, or one of his accomplices, recorded a message for one of his games on an 8 track tape. When the subject (this time a racist) awoke, he realized that he had been super-glued to his car seat. There was an 8 track in the player with his name on it that gave him instructions on how to make it through his test....which was that he had to pull himself off the seat to grab a lever, or his car would run over his girlfriend, pull a friend's arms off and then slam into another friend. No spoiler alert for the scene here, in case you haven't seen the movie, but I will say that even before the time runs out he's in a lot of pain.

Every time I watch a Saw film, I can't help but wonder how many recordings Jigsaw has made for people he wanted to be in his traps. He's been dead for awhile in the series, but tapes keep getting used.  And without even starting to think about the engineering marvels that his accomplices produce, I'd like to know what kind of filing system he has so that his minions don't get people mixed up. Heck in the scene with the 8 track, there were four people that had to be gathered up at the same time. Whatever system they use is effective though, you never hear the victim start screaming in denial when Jigsaw accuses them.

Anyway, Saw: The Final Chapter (Formerly Saw 3D), has an 8 track player and tape in it that works, sorta cool, would have been cooler with a 3D TV.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Eddie Grant: Killer on the Rampage

This rare 8 track recently sold on eBay. It is a 1982 record/tape club release of Eddy Grant - Killer on the Rampage.  Originally on the Portrait label, released by the Columbia House Record Club. This copy sold for $73.

Other Rare 8 Track Finds for January 2011

Led Zeppelin: Zoso (Sealed - Pictured at left) - $50
ZZ Top: Eliminator (Sealed) - $45
Tom Petty: Southern Accents - $42
The Cars: Greatest Hits - $41
Kiss: No Kissin Time - $41
The Runaways: Waitin' for the Night - $40
Duran Duran: Rio - $37
Blind Faith: Self-Titled - $34
AC/DC: Flick of the Switch - $32
Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks - $31
Paul McCartney: Wild Life - $31

Scorpions: Blackout (Pictured at left) - $30
Brian Adams: Reckless (Sealed) - $30
Scorpions: Sting - $30
Jimmy Hendrix & Curtis Knight: Flashing - $29
Vicky Leandros: Dreams are Good Friends - $29
ZZ Top: Afterburner $28
Yes: 90125 - $28
Soundtrack - Vision Quest Soundtrack - $28
Soundtrack - Smokey & the Bandit - $27
Prince: Around the World - $27
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon - $26

The prices are for those realized on eBay during January, 2011 for the stereo version of the tapes listed. The prices may not reflect actual selling or retail or wholesale prices....just what they did on eBay in January.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Frank Zappa / Mothers of Invention: Uncle Meat

This rare 8 track is a late 1960's original release of Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, Uncle Meat on the Reprise/Bizarre label. This tape recently sold on eBay for $50. The tape is a double play album that has the equivalent of 2 LP's worth of songs on one tape.

The tape also has some errors that were later corrected for later releases, including the song 400 Days of the Year, which was supposed to be titled "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution."  Also Electric Aunt Jemima is spelled "Jemina" on the playlist.

Rare 8 Track Tape - Van Halen: 1984

This rare 8 track tape is a 1984 tape club release of Van Halen's 1984. This tape recently sold on eBay for $50.

Rare 8 Track Tape - The Cars: Heartbeat City

This rare 8 track is a 1984 record club release by RCA Music Service of The Cars, Heartbeat City. Tape sold recently on eBay for $50.