Yes, you can sell cassette tapes on Amazon (and people buy them). Here’s which tapes to look for that have the highest value on Amazon
Why I sell cassette tapes on Amazon
Cassette tapes are one of those “micro revenue streams” that don’t generate a ton of Amazon revenue for me on a monthly basis, but add up to something significant by the end of the year. I love selling cassettes.
And cassette tapes have that perfect recipe for “buying low and selling high”: Having low perceived value (everyone thinks they’re obsolete and don’t have value) and high actual value (or certain genres do – as I’m about to cover).
On top of those things, most people don’t even know you can sell cassettes on Amazon.
Do cassettes actually sell on Amazon?
I first read an ebook in 2011 where the author talked about reselling used cassettes on Amazon. I literally decided his whole book was fake based on this chapter alone – that’s how much I was in disbelief that anyone would buy a cassette on Amazon.
But the evidence began to mount that people still buy cassettes on Amazon. I still didn’t believe.
I was finally convinced the month my girlfriend and I broke up. When she moved out, she left behind an abandoned FBA shipment. I went through it, and inside was an entire box containing 20 copies of a single cassette tape.
I scoffed at her ignorance over thinking she can sell 20 cassette tapes on Amazon. I took one out, shipped it to FBA myself, and discarded the rest.
That cassette sold almost immediately for $20. And scolded myself for throwing out the other 19. But I knew then for certain that people still buy cassette tapes on Amazon.
And when you’re hunting for valuable cassettes, you can save yourself huge amounts of time if you know what genres to look for…
What cassettes you can profitably resell on Amazon: Top 2 genres
Here’s a way to find valuable cassettes that took me awhile to figure out, and I’m passing it on to you:
There are certain musical genres & subcultures where the fans still buy and collect cassettes. I.e. there are types of music where cassettes are still “cool.”
And I’ve figured out two of them.
The top 2 cassette categories that are most valuable
They are:
- Hip hop
- Heavy metal’
Again, don’t ask me why. But the pattern is unmistakable. People into metal and hip hop still buy cassette tapes.
Why is it so important to know which cassette categories are valuable?
When I’m at a thrift store and I’m looking at a bin with 500 cassettes I don’t have time to scan all of them. In fact, a lot of cassettes don’t even have barcodes.
So I’m scanning shelves for fonts and layouts that indicates the tape is from genres that has a high likelihood of value. Only then I then scan (or key into Amazon manually if I must).
Metal and Hip Hop both have vastly disproportionate number of releases that have held their value on Amazon in the cassette format.
I don’t know why this is. I just know that around half the time I scan a release in either of these genres, its worth money on Amazon.
How obscure the artists are don’t seem to matter. By far the biggest “heavy metal” band (if you can call them that) is Metallica, yet every single one of their releases (that I’ve found) is worth money on Amazon in the cassette format.
No one is getting rich off reselling used cassettes, but its a great way to give yourself that “10% edge” over your Amazon competition.
-Peter Valley
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