Hello fellow collectors. I just wanted to see what your thoughts are about why we collect walkmans.

I'm 22 years old (born 1988). Most of my Walkmans are older than me. I also listen to music that's before my time. I've kinda felt that I was born about 30 years too late.

When I talk to my friends at work about collecting walkmans, they aren't very interested and they usually look at me funny and then ask "WHY?" And honestly I really don't know why I do.

I've always liked vintage electronics and I also listen to older music. I grew up using cassettes to listen to music. So of course I would have to have a cassette player to play them. I usually found them at the second hand stores for very cheap. The two that remember the most was the Sony WM-AF50 and the Sanyo M-4430.

I guess I partly started collecting because of ones that I grew up with being the nostalgic person I am, but I was also thinking about what they're value would be 10-20 years from now if I saved them. But after buying so many I have learned something about that. "Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay to get it."

The other thing I was wondering was if there would even be a demand for vintage cassette players 10-20 years down the road, when the cassette will be a dead and buried music medium. Just look at 8-tracks. Does anybody collect 8-track players? But then again, I don't think the 8-track started a portable music player revolution like the cassette did. The Walkman is definitely far above the 8-track. So there may still interest then.

I hope nobody misunderstands what I'm saying here, I love walkmans. It's just that these question have been rolling around in my head and I wanted to get some perspective from other collectors. Because it doesn't seem like a very socially excepted to collect vintage cassette players. So I wanted to hear your input on why we collect these great pieces of history.

Why does anyone collect anything ?

Many reasons are possible.

Most of us buy things we could not afford in childhood and youth. We fulfil our old wishes. Also we enjoy some kind of emotional time travelling - flashback to a state of conciousness we have lost. To bring back forgotten memories. Also a way to process and work up our own past - which is an elementary need of all human beings.

First it is a single unit. After some time, another unit arrives. And another. And another. At a certain point, additional processes start to happen in us. For example, we want to own all units of a serie. Just to make something "complete". Or we start to try to repair a unit. This increases our level of connection. We start to search contacts for help and swap. The hobby starts to get a social element with all its different advantages - friendships start to develop. Owning and presenting the units also can strengthen self confidences and status in a community (= status symbol). And last but not least, there is the thought, these things might be some kind of investment. Financial aspects can get important and increase the attraction. Other people´s passion reinforce one´s own passion.

So one thing comes to the next and in the end you are what we call a "collector".

I think collecting anything that's out of the mainstream is going to generate quizzical responses from others. But I think you could make the argument that "mainstream" collecting, like say, sports memorabilia, doesn't really get interesting until one day you realise that everybody else and their brother already collects Yankees stuff, and that you're going to get more personal satisfaction out of pursuing things related to some obscure minor league team from Cleveland.

What fascinates me about the Walkman is the way it evolved, taking an idea (a personal stereo cassette player) and then bending existing technology (lecture recorders) to make the idea work. And then later, the idea starts shaping the technology itself in a more profound way (the WM-2), which then progresses into really testing the limits of engineering, the "how small can we make this thing?" approach of the WM-10. So for me, there's this gadgety element to the whole thing, and they appeal to me for a lot of the same reasons that mechanical watches do. It's so much more than just "a way to play a cassette".

Ah David how man himself loves to question. If there were no other "people" around us how much more free we would be to pursue life and passions because we would not allow or be influenced by what others think or do. I think collecting anything gives a great sense of personal accomplishment. So many endeavors in life must depend on others and business for us to "accomplish". Collecting you control it all like your own business and in a way it is.
I have been a collector of "something" much of my life. The others members each have touched on real truths about your questions. I think it is in a persons nature born with desire to collect. Often to great degrees of dedication. Of all my collecting, walkmans have and continue to be a growing ever challenging hobby. The thrill of finding a unit no one has ever seen. Learning about the marketing, the mechanics/ technology, repairing them eventually. Gathering on knowledge and the physical item what a great freedom.
Yes certainly for me each time I hold one in my hand and listen to it there is a moment of me 30 years ago ( now 52). They bring me joy and a smile even just to look over at my display cases.
So David '"COLLECT AS IF NOBODY IS WATCHING" to coin a phrase. I admire that your spirit is not held down by doing what everyone else is. That you like older music and this technology is wonderful. And as we all know digital does not have the warmth and that unique sound that tape does. Each medium of recording sound be it records, reel to reel, cassette, cd, digital Ipod all change sound in some small way each unique. Why should someone say one is so superior. It simply depends on what one person sees,hears and feels. WE are glad your part of our unique world community and look forward to more topics and posts from you.

cause im on drugz, and i need something to play my old school tapes!!

Well, I collect them so I can take them around town and get stares. People often reminisce publicly, ask to look at them, ask if they record, ask what I'm listening to, and otherwise extend attention. Same with my boombox and impromptu B-52s dance parties. Walkmen and boomboxes are relatively affordable and practical collectibles that can be taken out every day and enjoyed without too much fear, as long as one skips rarities like the TPS-L2. I suppose I could collect something else, but I've long been into vintage electronics, and these are compact and fit into my hectic yet random lifestyle. I know when I was younger, I'd spend my allowance on 70's hi-fis at Goodwill. Now that I'm 22 and don't have a massive playroom, these are right-sized.

I'll admit - some people have a crush on fine velvet or fine tobacco. I have a lust for chrome and funky colors. I love the solid weighted feel of a heavy flywheel, the clunk of a mechanical solenoid, and the thump of a primitive amplifier, the idea of something so heavy it needs a lanyard. The hiss and wow sounds euphonic by now. They're not the machines of my youth - I had a soundtrack supplied by a string of $8 walkmen with bass boost and anti-rolling mechanisms that did nothing - but golly, these older ones are stately. My newest is the Parasound Companion, and generic it may be, but I can scarcely imagine the TPS-L2 it rips off as any nicer. The buttons clunk, the volume sliders glide effortlessly, the hotline function works clearly, and the fidelity ain't bad with Grados.

RE: David: give me tapes or give me death. I'll have to send them off for a recap if they get that old - by Jove, I will. I've owned MP3 portables, and I prefer tapes. As the machines fade further into the sunset, their mystique only grows, and the wondrous stares come smiles only get better. Today, I was sharing a stereo - two headsets hooked up - A+B = cassette love. That's already enough to prompt a hotline conversation. Imagine a decade from now - probably win one a free drink at the bar, or a free coffee at the very least. Who'm I kidding. I already get free coffee at one shop, and I do believe busting out my Panasonic KT-S1 and setting it on the counter sure didn't hurt.

But yeah, walkmen. Good times and bad, with a little lube and azimuth love, they'll be there for me, my soundtrack waiting in richly hissy stereo.

RE formats from the first message in the thread: I suppose there probably are, now, folks who collect 8-track stuff, but I'm pretty sure that 8-track was always Kind Of A Bad Idea - the format was in general pretty limiting in lots of ways. When I was a little kid in the 1970s, even at that young age I sensed that 8-track had this aura of "disposable junk". I just don't think it ever really caught the imagination of people who were really serious about music.

But cassettes...they stuck around long enough for the format to become pretty "mature" in terms of the technology that went into tape formulations and into the equipment used to record and play them back. As manimal (cue snarling sound effect) mentioned, they can sound pretty durn good.

I just wish there was more of a selection of blank cassettes these days. Not that the Maxell UR makes me unhappy - with a little bias adjustment, I get pretty fabulous sounding recordings, but oh, what I'd give to be able to walk into a shop and pick up a couple of blank TDK MAs...

i think ebay is going to have a great supply of never used,sealed cassettes for many years to come. i wouldn't even give it a thought for many years to come. for 2-3 dollars you can get some decent grade tapes which record very well. i have right now maxell metal capsule and XLii-s,radio shack, JVC, maxell XL2-90, goldstar and a bunch more. all of these are sealed and new. i never paid over 1.00 for any of them at thrift stores. i am not a "hit em" everyday person but if i pass one by and have a little time i will stop for a quick look and it's fun too.

quote:

Eingang

Perfect answer.