Jeff,
I dont go the Tapeproject route, and I have 4 decks, and been into these machines for years. Its easiest to just buy what you like from ebay, or craigslist, etc...Also, if you have a nice turntable, you can make your own tapes, and listen to those. Another thing I had some fun doing was, a few other members in Audio Asylum and myself, each made a full 10 inch new metal reel of tape, with various kinds of music we liked, and mailed them to one-another. This way, each guy got to see how his deck sounded playing tapes well made from the other persons deck, and also got to hear different music than you might hear everyday on your own system. Everyone had a real nice machine, or machines, and we all used virgin tapes, and kept them completely analog, using turntables as our source of music. Some Mobile Fidelity LP's, other imported pressings, etc...we recorded at 7.5 ips, and used 1/4 track decks for the exchange. Ray
