The Furthur Festival and Ratdog's individual appearances aside, it seems as if there is a noticeable dropoff in new contacts between established Dead tape traders. As this trend continues, we fear that finding sources of rarer tapes will eventually disappear.

Folks who are new to the scene, understandably, want to aquire the highest quality boards available. Unfortunately, these tend to be the same, relatively small variety of tapes. In fact, around 98% of the lists each of us receive are virtually identical to each other.

Our group has discussed this situation many times and collectively suggest that newer traders who are seriously devoted to hearing the best Dead music available try the following:

Exchange lists with as many traders as possible and try to notice which tapes appear on every list. When you notice different tapes - trade for those.

Try to pick up a few rarer tapes along the way to use as "trade bait".

Check out a few of the auds and lower quality boards from "good years" or time periods. Some of the best shows out there don't exist in high quality form but you'll still enjoy hearing them.

Pass along other trading tips that have worked for you so we can include them on this page.