Most Expensive Cassette Tape Ever Sold on Discogs Is a Demo

Discogs has revealed the most expensive cassette tape ever sold on their popular music collector archive and marketplace.

The record-setting tape is a limited edition, independently released 1992 demo by Deftones which sold for $5,000 in May earlier this year.

The news was announced in honor of Cassette Week 2024 (there’s a celebratory week or day for just about anything). Similar to Record Store Day, exclusive cassette releases and in-store events are the primary promotional drivers of the annual event run by the online store Tapehead City.

READ MORE: The Rock + Metal Albums Discogs Users Ranked in the Top 25 of All Time

About Deftones’ 1992 Demo

The two-sided self-titled 1992 Deftones demo contains the same four songs on each side — “Like Linus,” “Hump,” “Some People” and “Plastic.”

The sketch on the demo’s cover appears to resemble frontman Chino Moreno. Blocky, stacked letters in a Varsity-like font spell out Deftones along the left edge with the disclaimer, “Limited edition tape only fifteen made!” written along the bottom.

The songs are handwritten on the other side of the cassette insert.

Although there are allegedly only 15 copies in existence, a surplus number appear in users’ collections on Discogs. This suggests that bootleg tapes could be in circulation, unless Deftones actually issued more than those 15 aforementioned copies.

The demo tracks have been available to listen to on YouTube for years and you can check it out for yourself further down the page.

Deftones’ 1992 Demo — Listen

Deftones on Tour in 2025

Deftones will embark on their first headlining U.S. tour since 2022 in late February next year, with The Mars Volta and Fleshwater as special guests.

The run extends through April 8 and you can see all the upcoming dates here.