Have you ever found any audio treasures by buying unknown audio reels?

I've heard some decent music but unfortunately recorded at 3-3/4 and it is missing some sound quality. Picked up some that had special versions of some dance tunes from a few decades ago. Radio DJ put the tapes together. Great for long play time (10½" reels of Maxell) just wish they sounded better. An 80s jazz tape, too.
 
Greetings from RojoLand!

Dunno if folks would consider it a "treasure," but in a recently-acquired load of old tapes from the 1950s I found the 13 October 1957 CBS-TV special "The Edsel Show," taped live off-air (with a microphone, unfortunately). And also unfortunately, parts of it had been taped over years later. Good news is that "The Edsel Show" is up on YouTube currently, from the original videotape (oldest known videotape program in existence!), so this R2R tape can be "restored." (Everything else in that tape lot was church services and baby talk, typical stuff.)

Take care,

J. E. Knox "The Victor Freak"
 
I have found a few interesting things. Treasures?-well, not really.

A copy of a UK album-never heard of them before. Worth keeping.

A copy of a Herman's Hermits recording from and album-has one strong track that is better than their mainstream stuff-in my opinion.

A reel to reel tape with a recording off a radio station-typical 80's tunes, but the commercials are fun. Just like looking at an old newspaper, and looking at house ads, "appliance store' ads, etc. A window back in time.
 
Well, treasures is a flexible term. Lets just say have you ever found something that was exciting to you and worth saving.
 
I have some radio station interviews of Roy Rodgers and Gene Autry. As well as some of the series episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, etc.
I wish I had more, I really love that stuff.
 
Bought some cassettes that turned out to be mix tapes from some big bash in NYC in the 90's I think. I believe the DJ was well know at the time. Not sure if the tapes were originals for the bash or recorded during the bash. Still got them somewhere.
 
Bought two Maxell 35-90 from the auction site. Seller said they had recordings on them. Turned out they had Canadian RTC or ATC (or something like that). Good tunes and good recordings at 7 1/2". One tape was recorded off speed a little but I have an adjustment for that on playback so no problem. I kept the tapes as they are and still play them every now and then.
 
Several times...thats the best part of this hobby. The most recent was last year, when I bought eleven RMGI tapes on 10.5" metal reels from an electronics recycler in Seattle based on blurry pictures alone (no readable notes). Turns out they were all 1/2" tapes and I needed 1/4" but they were in terrific condition. So I auctioned them off to someone who could use them for 1/2" recording tape. The buyer later contacted me and told me they were original studio masters of an obscure grunge band he followed in the 90's. What luck for him! He even contacted the producer in Seattle and discussed the tapes. He said he'd send me a few digital transfers, but I never received any (I'm still waiting if you are on this site buddy!). OK though, I was glad they were saved and went to someone who appreciated the content.
 
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I didn't buy them but a friend found them and l sold them for him.
A year or so ago a mate rung me asking what were those big reel things with tape on them.
I told him what they were and asked why.
He said a guy is putting boxes of them on the foot path for hard rubbish pick up.
I told him to race back and pick them up.
A few days later l dropped over and was totally amazed by not only the amount, type and what a lot of them were.
They were master tapes from Cherry Pie records here in Australia.
Which recorded a lot of Australian jazz artists
Don Burrows, George Golla and other jazz artists , sound tracks to a few movies, Breaker Morant is one l remember.
I have some of the albums from these very tapes
My mate asked if they might be worth something as he was going to cut the tape off the reels and scrap the aluminium.
I told him that would be criminal so l quickly went through the boxes( at least 25 to 30 boxes)and pulled out the clearly labelled ones and took them home so he couldn't do something stupid.
Most of them were 1/2" tapes but there were quite a few 2"

After posting about the find on a local audio site a gentleman told me to contact the film sound Archives in Canberra which l did and brokered a deal for them to purchase which they did.( about 10 or 12 boxes)
The rest l have sold off in the intervening period.
The first 6 or 8 boxes went to a guy in Tasmania who contacted me saying l missed one which was the master reel for an Australian test record which he was very pleased with.
The last 6 boxes were purchased by a gentleman in Perth only last week.
 
Treasure is a strong word.....I have a live recording of a bar band somewhere, a tape of a drunken garage party from the early 60's, and a live air-check recording of Willie Nelson from the late 70's......he did a live LP of the same tour/material, but this is better sounding and performed.
 
Treasure is a strong word.....I have a live recording of a bar band somewhere, a tape of a drunken garage party from the early 60's, and a live air-check recording of Willie Nelson from the late 70's......he did a live LP of the same tour/material, but this is better sounding and performed.

That reminds me, I have or had a tape of a couple stoners BS'ing.

I also have a tape (somewhere) that my classmates recorded at a Christmas Party and sent to me while I was stationed overseas. That is a treasure. I think I digitized it. I need to find that....
 
Well, I’ve taken quite a few chances on auctions where the seller didn’t know whether the tape was in fact what the box said it was...and generally it was...got lots of great live concert tapes that were sent to radio stations to broadcast that way.
 
Yes, twice.

Once, about 15 years ago, I bought at an estate sale, about 200 reels of paper tapes. About half were family recordings which I transferred to CD for them and the remainder I combed through and put most of the content up on my web site:

http://www.otrannex.com/papertapes/

Yes, there were treasures there including many big band remotes and sporting events not previously in circulation. The real treasure was a series of recording from the Horace Heidt show which was like American Idol and traveled here to Billings, MT. The next door neighbor of the man who made the tapes, about 16 years old, won the contest and left with the band to pursue a musical career. That was big news here in 1953. The kid didn't make it that big and eventually moved to Las Vegas and had a career in the mortuary business. About 3 years ago I bought a 1965 Triumph TR4 off Craiglist from a guy who had just retired from Las Vegas. Turns out he was the singer's business partner down there.

About 12 years ago I bought 561 reels of tape from an estate sale and spent that last year going through them. It turned out to be a reel mix (pun intended) of treasures. Lots of live local recordings, some quite candid, as well as many, many hours of religious/political broadcasts from the Cold War era. Another treasure were the phone recordings from a local blood band from the early 80s. All of what I found I put on my web site here:

http://www.otrannex.com/the600/
 
David Bowie Pinups 3.5” reel. Guessing it was a promo tape for Radio stations since I found no history of this size released to the public.
This was in a lot of 200+ 7” reels
 

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A few great compilations made by other folks,but more recently,about a dozen full 3hr Alan Freeman Saturday shows from late 75/early 76,these are superb
 
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