I've started a blog! How original... This might be a strange topic to start with, but I really want to brag about my lucky Goodwill find!
Over the past year, and especially in the last few months, I’ve been slowly building a cassette tape collection. Well, only to the extent that an unemployed person can. It’s a very tiny collection consisting of mostly recent releases, but I’m happy with it.
The embarrassing part is that I didn’t have anything to play my tapes on. Right now I don’t have the kind of money to spend on a refurbished vintage tape deck off of eBay, and I’m too stubborn to buy some $10 Temu walkman (Not that I blame people who would, I’m just picky for no reason).
I decided to take a chance and try my local Goodwill. I wasn’t very hopeful. I’ve already checked this Goodwill a couple times with no luck. Also, many Goodwill locations have gotten internet savvy and auction off the good stuff online.
Anyways, I walked through the electronics section multiple times and couldn’t find anything that resembled a cassette player. I thought it was another bust. A little further ahead was one of those metal carts full of random unsorted junk. That seemed promising, but of course, it had nothing. Or so I thought. I eventually got down on all fours and checked the lower level of the cart again. Underneath a bunch of stuff, I found exactly what I was looking for.
It was a boombox with a radio, CD player, and a cassette deck. It even had detachable speakers! All for $6. It was surprisingly heavy for its size and I had to go back and get a shopping cart to haul it around. I felt a little awkward bringing it to the register, but I eventually got it home to test it. The model is a Sony CFD-440 if you’re curious. Nothing amazing, but for $6, I think that’s a steal.
After dusting it off and plugging it in: The radio? Works perfectly. The CD player? Works perfectly. The tape deck? Broken of course. I kind of saw this coming, since I read that the belts on old Sony models disintegrate after a while, but I still felt a little disappointed. Oh well. I ordered new replacement belts on eBay and thought the repair could be a fun afternoon project. While waiting for the belts to arrive, I rearranged my room a little to accommodate the system and enjoyed using it as a CD player.
Having everything I needed, and having found the service manual online, I was read to start the repair. After a lengthy and stressful disassembling process, I managed to replace the belts, and it works! It runs a little faster than it should, but I'm shocked that I managed to get it working at all. I felt like a god.
Now this is something I should have put at the start, but you might be wondering why I would even want to have and use cassettes in the first place. I was born in 2004, well after the cassette tape had gone out of fashion, so I don't really have any prior experience or nostalgia for them. I think just having a physical representation of the music I like feels good. It's like a way for me to externalize a part of my inner world, as weird as that may sound. And also, vinyl is expensive.
Thanks for giving this a read! Sorry if it's a little rambly and unfocused, I'm clearly new to this. Look forward to future entries!