Columbia was relatively early into duplicating their own tapes starting around 1957 with stereophonic half-track releases that are generally excellent quality. With the advent of quarter track, 2 track production was phased out around 1960 but inventory remained in the tape catalogs for a number of years after.
The Columbia 4 track reel tape duplication was generally quite good and the tapes were sold at fairly affordable prices but that’s a relative statement as LPs would continue to sell at a fraction of the price.
Later on they began to introduce Columbia House tapes that appeared to be geared towards mail-order and sound quality became a bit variable.
Columbia produced a significant volume of slower speed 3 3/4 ips tapes which in retrospect is unfortunate because many great titles can be found with sound quality that many say, is about the same as an LP, sometimes slightly better.