The Most Valuable Cassette Tapes That Could Be Hiding In Your Music Collection

Artist: Pearl Jam
Est. Value: $4,000*

Pearl Jam was the rock band that people couldn’t get enough of in the nineties. They’re still quite popular, with thirteen million monthly listeners on Spotify. Many of these listeners rock out to Ten, Pearl Jam’s most commercially successful album.

Ten (1991) @VinylJunction/etsy

If you have a sealed, first-edition cassette tape of Ten from 1991, you could be sitting on a four-figure item of value. Ten has reached a price as high as $4,000 on some collectors’ markets, as people want to own a piece of OG rock history.

Artist: Nirvana
Est. Value: $1,500*

You already knew Nirvana was going to be on this list, as how could it not? Nirvana was the grunge movement of the nineties, and the band’s legacy lives on, even after the passing of the inimitable Kurt Cobain.

Nevermind (1992) @Cassettestalker/etsy

Nevermind was Nirvana’s first #1 album when it came out in ’92, knocking out Michael Jackson’s Dangerous on the charts. A sealed, first-edition cassette tape could net you as much as $1,500 on sites like Etsy, eBay, and more resale venues.

Artist: Beastie Boys 
Est. Value: $1,500*

Were you a Beastie Boys fan in the ‘80s? If so, you definitely had Licensed to Ill on repeat, the Boys’ album produced by SONY and Def Jam. If you have the cassette tape, that could be worth as much as $1,500.

Licensed To Ill (1986) @Blavity/Twitter

The original name for Licensed To Ill was something far different and more offensive, and Columbia refused to release the album. Beastie Boys changed the name, and, thus, the legend of LtI was born.

Artist: Metallica 
Est. Value: $150-$,1000*

Did you know that the name for Ride the Lighting, the heavy metal record by Metallica, was inspired by a Stephen King novel? The phrase “ride the lightning” was used in The Stand to reference Old Sparky (the electric chair).

Ride The Lightning (1984) @Google/Pinterest

Ride the Lightning was making kids’ parents mad in ’84, as they told their metalhead sons and daughters to turn down that racket. The sophomore release, in cassette tape form, could be worth anywhere from $150 to $1,00 today, depending on the cassette’s condition, the marketplace, and other factors.

Artist: Nas 
Est. Value: $900*

Nas’ Illmatic is a hip-hop classic, one that irrevocably changed the rap world forever. It came out in the mid-nineties, and you couldn’t walk down the street without hearing Illmatic blasting from someone’s car.

Illmatic (1994) @Google/Pinterest

This revered piece of ‘90s hip hop history, as a cassette tape, is worth around $900, if it’s sealed. After all, a sealed, vintage Illmatic cassette from 1994 isn’t something you can two-day-ship from Amazon.

Artist: Celine Dion
Est. Value: $1,500*

Celine Dion has had hit songs in quite a few movies, not just PARA Titanic in ’97. She sang “Dans la main d’un magicien,” her first single from the film Operation Beurre de Pinottes (The Peanut Butter Solution).

Operation Beurre de Pinottes (1985) @kalentimer/Pinterest

This cassette tape, which is valued as highly as $1,500, was the soundtrack to the whimsical movie about a little boy who loses his hair from “fright.” Ghosts restore his locks, but, then, they won’t stop growing.

Artist: Lil Gin
Est. Value: $1,500*

Were you a Lil Gin fan, back in the day? Lil Gin was a hip-hop artist who was particularly popular in the nineties, with singles such as “Once Again It’s Lil Gin” and “Demons in My Soul.” According to his IG, he’s releasing a new album soon, so he’s still rapping.

Tha Surpents Step Son (1995) @ella777111/Pinterest

Tha Surpents Step Son is a rare-ish Lil Gin project that came out in the mid-nineties. The Memphis rapper’s tape, in cassette form, has hit as high as $1,500 on resale and vintage markets.

Artist: Macintosh Plus 
Est. Value: $1,299*

Though most of the cassettes on this list are from artists from the eighties and nineties (the cassette tape’s prime), there are some that are newer. For example, Floral Shoppe was released in 2012 on multiple formats, including cassette.

Floral Shoppe (2012) @etsy/Pinterest

The artist behind Floral Shoppe was Macintosh Plus. Their ninth studio album, which you can find on Apple Music and other platforms, is worth as much as almost $1,300 in cassette form.

Artist: Boards of Canada 
Est. Value: $1,463*

Released in 1996, Boc Maxima was a limited-edition studio album that Boards of Canada self-released via Music70. Though that label, which BoC owned, was not a big dog in the music industry, Boc Maxima still got a cult following.

Boc Maxima (1996) @FINALVINYLNY/etsy

As far as its cassette tape value, Boc Maxima has hit almost $1,500 on vintage markets. For reference, Boc came before Boards of Canada’s more widespread trip-hop albums, Skam and Warp. 

Artist: Eminem
Est. Value: $1,400-$5,000*

Stretch Armstrong Presents Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP Snippet Tape was a promo tape used to hype up The Slim Shady LP, one of the most influential rap albums of the nineties. TSSLP helped launch Eminem’s career.

Tracks From The Slim Shady LP, Promo/Sampler (1997) @Google/pinterest

Marshall Mathers/Eminem/Slim Shady is worth hundreds of millions of dollars now, and The Slim Shady LP is still bumping to this day among his cult fanbase. These fans can pay big bucks for sealed, vintage copies of this rare promo tape, which is worth as much as $5K in some markets.

Artist: Alanis Morisette 
Est. Value: $600*

Jagged Little Pill—what can’t we say about it? This defined the nineties for a lot of people, and Alanis Morisette’s unique voice still reigns supreme to this day. Jagged Little Pill came out in 1995, and it was a mega-success.

Jagged Little Pill (1995) @theNineATX/etsy

Dominating charts, album sales, and radio airwaves, JLP still slaps. As far as its value goes, some sealed, original cassette tapes have hit as high a price as $600, no doubt purchased by some chronically-nineties Alanis superfans with disposable income.

Artist: Children of the Corn 
Est. Value: $1,350-$5,000*

Children of the Corn wasn’t just a terrifying Stephen King story (and a rather lame horror movie franchise from New World Pictures), it was also a hip hop group that consisted of big names like Ma$e, Big L, Cam’ron, and more.

The Last Chapter (1996) @Google/Pinterest

The Harlem group released The Last Chapter in 1996, three years after it formed. This sealed cassette tape is hard to find, and it is a piece of Harlem rap history, so its price has reached a maximum of $5,000 in past sales.

Artist: Primus 
Est. Value: $1,250*

Primus was an alt band that was formed in California, and it was signed, for a time, to Interscope Records. Primus started in 1984, the same year it released its self-titled, eponymous album.

Primus (1984) @etaidade3983/Youtube

Primus, as a cassette tape, has sold for as much as $1,250, according to Discogs. Don’t worry, Primus fans, as the band is still around, and it is currently composed of Tim “Herb” Alexander and Larry “Ler” LaLonde. They may be in their sixties, but they still rock.

Artist: Phish 
Est. Value: $1,250*

Phish was so eighties and nineties, and they released an eponymous album, Phish, in 1987 that people quickly became obsessed with. They’re still obsessed, as Discogs recorded an album sale of $1,250 for a cassette of Phish from the late ‘80s.

Phish (1987) @Google/Pinterest

Phish has a really devoted fanbase, which could explain the tape’s high price. Phish fans are known as Phish Heads, congregating on Phish.net to find tickets and talk about how much they love their fave band.