OMG the tape brands. My friends and I used to read reviews to find out what the best ones were (eventually we settled on TDK as the best bang for the buck, but, then there were the various grades to deal with...).

The tape thing reminds me a lot of the oldschool anime fansub trading (though there was the added layer of fansub groups in source acquisition + translation + adding the subtitles).

I was never in anime, but I had friends who were, and I'd hear about the fansub trading -- I was always really impressed at how organized it was. That takes a lot of work.

and later many people accepted cost-covering (or more, enter wank) money

The more things change...