national audio company - cassettes

im looking into buying these cassettes:
http://nationalaudiocompany.com/60-Minute-Cobalt-High-Bias-Cassette-P1659C13.aspx

does anyone have experience with the company? i'm asking because their advertised prices are lower than the pricing discussed in their mails to me.. seems kinda weird

also: magnetic tapes... in international mail (usps), are there any magnetic hazards? i can imagine this not being healthy for the tapes (even if theyre blank)

im not to keen on shipping a bunch of cassettes back over the atlantic if i can avoid that

AntonPD wrote:im looking into buying these cassettes:
http://nationalaudiocompany.com/60-Minute-Cobalt-High-Bias-Cassette-P1659C13.aspx

does anyone have experience with the company? i'm asking because their advertised prices are lower than the pricing discussed in their mails to me.. seems kinda weird

also: magnetic tapes... in international mail (usps), are there any magnetic hazards? i can imagine this not being healthy for the tapes (even if theyre blank)

im not to keen on shipping a bunch of cassettes back over the atlantic if i can avoid that

I think the pricings were different for you because of overseas and custom charges. No problems with shipping tapes even if they are magnetic. But metal detectors will erase a recorded one.

Customs like to charge tax and because it goes through them, shipping can take a little longer, but depends whats in the box. I don't think you'll have an issue though.

You're in the EU aren't you? You'll probably be paying VAT on any imports (usually depends on the 'value' stated on the package's customs slip), however a US company sending a shipment to you from the US would not be quoting VAT in their prices to you. The VAT is charged by your country's customs department.

So any pricing differences should only be currency conversion (if they are quoting you in EUR) and shipping/handling charges.

this thread is making want to pick up a batch of cassettes

yo kon, you serious?

i'm looking at the cobalt ones, 60 minutes. though i might go for the longest, 94 minutes, cause it's quite a bit longer, and just a little more expensive (59 vs 74 cents). only thing is that my tascam manual warns against very long tapes because of their thinner build. but they give 120 minutes as an example, so i guess 94 should still be good (and i reckon NAC only uses one type of cobalt tape)

i read on gearslutz that if you have a four track you can't calibrate yourself (like the tascam 424), cobalt tapes are best (not chrome tapes)

this company seems legit (at least that's the opinion on gearslutz), customer service seems good (they just explained to me that the difference in prices is due to them usually not selling quantities under 100 cassettes (=one tray). prices on the site are for whole trays, less than one tray the price goes up.)

so i'm definitely interested in buying some of their tapes
not interested in paying vat though, or buying 100 tapes at once..
btw, does 50 usd for shipping 50 cassettes overseas sound steep to you? to me it does, maybe because it's more than the cassettes

kon, would you be interested in ordering 100 tapes from them, and selling 50 to me? (or whichever number fits in the nearest size usps/fedex/... box)

I'm dead serious, been wanting to experitment with cassettes for while.

I think we could definitely work somthing out as I dont need 100 of them myself. Where are you located ? I'm in bay area, ca

check your pm

Yup $50 shipping overseas for a pack of tapes does sound steep. I pay 16 to 18 usd for records, they charge by the gram over there and its delivered by DHL. I cop maybe 5 to 7 records at a time.