Hello Tony.I'm from China and I know these cassettes.It brand as 大自然 in China and used to be a leader in Chinese cassette market during 80s to even 00s.Be famous of cheap and almost as same as TDK Ds that made in Japan.Same shell same quality and halfof the price.Although they no longer make tapes anymore,but NOS cassette are not hard to find in China,usually for 5 to 10 yuans.Strong suggest you try some Nature AE in black shell,they are really amazing cassettes.I thought they are as same as 1982 Ds.But made in main land China.Try use keyword "大自然 AE 磁带" at Taobao not the aliexpress.You may find some thing.
As a few other comments suggested, Hangzhou-based manufacturer Nature used to sell bank tapes with imported TDK tape stock. Their earlier offerings included AE (TDK AE happens to be the Japanese domestic version of D) and AD. Definitely check out earlier ones with black shell, as they cut corners with later ones with Korean tape stock and transparent shell.
Well upon further lookup, I found a small documentary of Nature Cassette manufacturing Company. It was once the largest manufacturer for music cassette in China. It was actually the Chinese government who decided to import the whole assembly line of TDK from Japan, thus it has basicly the same look and feature of 1980s TDK cassttes. Nature still exists as a company but moved away from cassettes since 2005 to CDs around that time and now to producing plastic film I believe. These are indeed NOS, sadly.
I came across a couple of 1984 maxell xli-s 90 the other day still new and in excellent condition. Would you know what they are worth. Thanks a bunch and keep up the good work.
Just received my package today. Gotta love those upper east coasters. They like to play with people’s heads. No worries here. I got more than I bargained for mate and that’s a fact. People have no idea of what kind of guy you really are! You’re the kind of mate I could have stood by years ago. I’m here for you! Count on it!🤝👍🏻
Glad you're happy. That's the beauty of this being a hobby, you don't have to look at the cost all the time, you can just go "What the heck" when it comes to the good guys.
Found a couple of sealed "Standard" cassettes the other day that look exactly the same as the 1975 TDK D-C60's. Opened one of them and the inlay says they are from Hong Kong. Anyone have more information on these?
Well, I’ve sure ridden the oxide rollercoaster today... I suppose there’s still a faint chance the equipment and moulds might be stashed away in a warehouse somewhere, has anyone bothered contacting HNOE Co.?
Cassette Comeback Who knows? After seeing general magnetics outdated website mentioning cassettes they offer, I actually contacted them via email if they still have or produce any. I got a manual response the next day. Unfortunately, they weren't making any more or have any left
It seems that the company was named Hangzhou Nature Honest Concept Magnetics Electronics Co, Ltd. before winding down magnetic media production. Here's their English language website circa 2005 on the Wayback Machine: web.archive.org/web/20050205024410/tapecn.com/main_en.htm
@@CassetteComeback lol... no you dont. But thanks for mellowing the pain a little😉. We still have the other three companies in the running and hope they get their ducks in a row at some point in time.
There's a large batch of these in C-60 form on ebay (America) not cheap though plus to get them shipped here would cost a fortune with the import duties and all that.
Thing is, if it was possible for a small Chinese outfit to do this in 1989 then it's possible now, subject to getting hold of decent pancakes. Thing is though the new crop of Chinese tapes have fairly reasonable mechanical/plastic parts. it's the pancakes that let the side down. And I would imagine that this company will have bought a load of old tape from TDK at the same time as the machinery.
m.made-in-china.com/company-hznature/ Seems the company name changes a lot? There's also video tape... "HS" should ring a bell .. m.yoycart.com/Product/528929154375/ Interesting for statistics.. m.manufacturers-directory.com/c41202690826.html They even get a listing here: www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0770733D:CH And this one .. hznature.globalimporter.net/g1_aboutus.asp .. suggests the apparently defunct tapecn.com And here, "last online 2007" .. www.diytrade.com/china/manufacturer/565181/main/hangzhou_nature_honest_concept_magnetic_electronics_co_ltd.html It seems likely that they were making this stuff well into this century, but maybe they aren't anymore? - the market for this must be a lot smaller than it was...
www.ebay.com.au/itm/TDK-Audio-Cassette-Tape-AE-60-minutes-11-volumes-pack-AE-60X11G-NEW-JAPAN/223682223007?hash=item34147fdb9f:g:eecAAOSwOLldjNuqThe TDK AE is currently available in Japan on Ebay...would they be new or old stock as well???..I think I saw AE written on the tape in your video..www.ebay.com.au/itm/10C-60HFA-audio-tape-NEW-JAPAN/223682175328?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D33bd60ba88d94482b082a3ea72c03890%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D223682223007%26itm%3D223682175328%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 and Sony HF
As soon as I heard China was involved I knew it was old stock or maybe a copy. They try to copy and cheat everything. Have you looked at a China sellers eBay feedback and items lately? They sell a lot f fake whatever. When I was looking for tape player belts all I could find was China sellers with hundreds of negative feedback. I was looking for an honest US seller to purchase from and they where all disguised as sellers from China posting items in sold the USA elsewhere.
