What is tape trading?
There are hundreds of live Springsteen shows that tape collectors have on audio tape, some from soundboard tapes, most from audience tapes; collectors trade each other tapes on a 1-1 basis. Quality of tapes is really the biggest issue in trading, and almost any trader has a list of their tapes which includes their own subjective rating system. The most common seems to be (Excellent (EX/EX-), Very Good (VG+/VG/VG-), Good (G), Fair (F), and Poor (P). Generally, anything rated Good in tape trading is almost unlistenable, anything below Good is definite trash, IMHO. In a perfect world every show would be available in EX quality, but it just ain’t so, and what one trader might consider excellent, another trader might consider just good, so you can be let down on quality. You makes your trades and you takes your chances, the best you can do is to always start slow with someone you haven’t traded with before.
