I take most of my chances on cassettes, not CD's. I do most of my browsing in the cassette sections, & only go to the CD section when I can't fine what I want, or anything interesting in the cassettes. I have so many recordings, I can't listen to any but my favorites, more than a dozen times or so, so why spend money on high quality & endurance, for 12 plays. I've had to replace a couple of cassettes that were "eaten" by my tape players, & it's frustrating that even now, some CDs still have better liner notes than cassettes. But there's alot of recordings I wouldn't have at all, if I had to buy CDs.

As for the chances I take, I've either heard or read something about a particular artist, song, songwriter or genre. I get a feel from the song titles, production credits, & endorsement, whether it might be something of interest to me. The cover design has very little influence on me, unless it seems to indicate a style of music I wouldn't like.

I also take fewer chances when I know I have a dozen recordings that have been sitting in their shrink wrap at home. Does anyone else seem to have a constant backlog of recordings they've bought but haven't listened to yet?