Well at some point around 1992 I jumped in. Relix had an article that listed top 10 fav Dead tapes from about as many tape traders. Some of these traders listed their addresses and said they'd help newbies. So, with some padded envelopes & some Maxell tapes I sent a Christmas list to several of these traders and lo and behold I got Dead shows in mail a few weeks later. Unbelievable, this was truly a life changing event. The idea that I could give some unknown guy a tape and he would send it back to me with music AND spot me a blank if I didn't send him enough to get a complete show. I went crazy with this. Most of these experienced traders mailed back a list of what they had and I felt like a kid in a candy store. They had all sorts of bands.They had shows that spanned the eras and genres. I found Bob Marley shows, I found Los Lobos shows, I found Miles Davis shows. I could not believe this was possible and Maxell and USPS made a lot of money off me in the first couple of years I traded blanks for shows. By late 1994 I started to read blurbs about an Allman Brothers (my ultimate band) spin-off called Gov't Mule. At this point I had a decent collection of shows and I was good at making dupes so I was trading shows not just sending out blanks but I couldn't find tapes of them anywhere and their debut album hadn't been released yet. Not since Stevie Ray Vaughan's first record had I been this giddy with anticipation to hear a band.