I don’t buy used DCC tapes except prerecorded ones.
I got a couple of used BASF and Philips ones free when buying a DCC decks. All of them didn’t work properly. Sticky, squeeking and dropouts. And I only managed to refurbished only one of them, Philips.
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Hi, if you buy used dcc tapes there are risk of dropouts if the tape has not been wound to the clear leader.
Dcc tapes tend to oxidize and bubble if they are not wound and bare tape exposed to air.If you plan on making more recordings find tapes that have been wound to start. The dcc museum has made a video that indicates the root cause on dropouts due to dirt on tape surface. You can view the video and the cleaning process to fix that. Hope this helps, Albert.
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I don’t understand because the prerecorded DCC (that, I think, have a felt pad of 1st generation) don’t have, generally, mistake or dropouts, while blank DCC of 1st generation have them.
The reason for that is that the slip stick affect, effects recording more then playback.
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My opinion of used tapes has changed now I am more aware of the issues. I have purchased more recently and the first thing I do is clean the pad and then (if its not rewound which most of them aren’t) look at the tape about a metre each side of the pad. I often find blenishes but they are easily cleaned. Then fast wind a couple of times and 90% of the time this leaves a useable tape. Well worth spending a little time on them before hitting play or record 
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