New Warning When Buying “New Old Stock”

[Beck]

In just a few short weeks I’ve been duped twice buying from eBay sellers who have obviously resealed a product in plastic to make it look new. Either that or they bought it from someone else that way, so they were also misled.

The first item was a half-inch reel of Ampex by Quantegy 456. On one side of the plastic around the reel the seal left a non-standard imprint that I’ve never seen. I’ve been through enough tape in my lifetime to catch the most minuet details. Upon opening the bag the tape pancake was totally loose on the reel, flopping back and forth like it wasn’t wound properly. This is an indication the tape had been baked. If someone doesn’t rewind a tape after baking it will be unusually loose like this because the wind loosens as the moisture is evaporated from the tape. You will regularly see uneven winding in brand new tape from storage and transport, but a floppy wind due to baking is much different.

The second item was a CPU adaptor for a computer. The item came sealed in an antistatic bag and was advertised as new. Upon opening the airtight bag the item smelled strongly of tobacco smoke, a plastic piece was broken off but it was not inside the sealed bag, and worst of all I found a small piece of dried toast or breadcrumb lodged in it.

So it appears people are getting access to some type of resealing device, though I have no idea what. I don’t know what’s available for something like this and have never seen anything like this advertised. So Great! Yet another thing to worry about when buying NOS.

What to do? As always, buy from an informed trusted seller who knows something about the product. Avoid pawnshops if you can tell that’s what they are. When you receive the tape or other item look it over carefully. The seals on all four sides of an Ampex/Quantegy tape reel should be very similar, with perhaps little fine threads of plastic from the final end to be sealed as well as a thin line from the sealer. If you see something like a quarter inch wide seal, you know that’s NOT from the factory.

Another thing to know is how Ampex/Quantegy hold-down tape for new reels has evolved over the years. Ampex was most elaborate, having a pull tap with numbers on it. Early Quantegy that was still branded Ampex had plain white hold-down strip. Shortly after that Quantgy started using either ¼” green or blue hold-down tape. The latest new reels I have use green. It’s very low tech and just serves to secure the tape. Even when I first saw that years ago I wondered about it. So, I called Quantegy and they confirmed the use of simple blue or green hold-down tape, so I know we’re good there. A pancake without a reel is almost the best bet because Quantegy continued to use a dated label on pancakes like Ampex did.

Also feel free to ask here if you have doubts. Post a good picture and many of us here can tell you if it looks right or not.

Be careful out there!

 

[Chilljam]

So with the tape reel, was the cardboard casing also 'sealed' or just the reel inside? I'm usually more weary when the case isn't sealed because I think it would be more difficult to remake an authentic seal around the case.

So given that your tape appears to be baked, that means they must have put sticky tape in a box that was from a non-sticky manufacturing era... unless you were buying tape you knew what shedding? If so, that's kind of scary how much effort they are going through to scam someone.

I bought a box of 7" BASF SM911 the other week that wasn't sealed.

Here was the listing: eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

They weren't sealed but I trusted that seller and figured it was incredibly unlikely he could get all 11 tapes perfectly wound up and have all the correct stickers in perfect positioning at the ends of the tapes as you can see in the pictures. Was very happy with this deal at less than $10 a reel.

In my part of the world I find that Ampex and Quantegy branded tapes seem to go for a much higher price than equivalent Scotch or Basf tapes perhaps because they are a better known brand around here. But I actually prefer the sound of the BASF tapes and given that they have no sticky shed, it makes it really easy to find good, affordable tapes without worrying too much. However, it is impossible to find any 1/2" and above tape hat isn't 30 year old sticky Ampex... unless you buy new RMGI of course (at $100+ a reel).

 

[Beck]

Yes, those look perfectly fine and nice deal by the way. When those BASF hold-down strips are first peeled off they normally take a bit of backcoating with it and are not going to be easy to put back on that neatly. BASF/EMTEC, Scotch and Maxell have a nice hold-down strip and you can tell when it’s been disturbed. Also BASF/EMTEC did not always seal their 7-inch tapes on the outside with a plastic wrapper, though most everyone else did. I have several brand new reels of 7-inch EMTEC SM468 I bought from an authorized dealer years ago and they have no plastic outside wrapper around the box, but they are obviously new due to the appearance of the factory hold-down strip like you have pictured here.

One of the problems with 10-1/2-inch reels, is that most professional level tapes are not sealed on the outside, except for Maxell, so you have to trust the inner plastic bag has not been opened and somehow resealed. 3M/Scotch at least had a paper seal that you had to break to open the box on later style boxes.

7-inch reels of Maxell, 3M/Scotch and Ampex/Quantegy have been sealed on the outside of the box with plastic wrapper going back to mid 70’s at least. Now and then I see a seller with pictures of an open box of Ampex or Quantegy 456 and he states he’s not sure if it’s new or not. The answer is simple… it’s not new! If it’s not sealed, it’s not new. Someone could have taken the wrapper off and not used the tape, but the odds are against it.

If ever in doubt, put one of the tapes you bought on a machine and carefully listen to it at a good volume with headphones. Tape erasers and the process of bulk erasing isn’t perfect, so you may hear faint music indicating the tape was obviously used before. Then you send an ”Item is Not as Described” email through the eBay system to start the process of getting your money back.

Well, I’m sure tape manufacturers could not have foreseen the end of tape or imagine that people would be in the business of trying to pass off used tape as new, so they didn’t take a lot of precautions. We’re living in different times for sure.