Who can forget Apple iPod? The white, rectangular block of gadget with the iconic click wheel pretty much changed how we consume digital music when Steve Jobs introduced it to the world back in July 17, 2002. Years later, with the emergence of smartphones with the ability to play music, the dominance of dedicated MP3 players were eroded.
Saved for the so-called audiophile-grade digital music players, the near-extinction of iPod (and pretty any kind of MP3 player) kind of make the original iPod a collectible legacy gadget. Well, at least that’s what eBay seller bestgadgets is hoping it would.
Bestgadgets has listed a factory-sealed, unopened box with the first-generation Apple iPod with 5 GB storage on eBay with the hope to sell it for a cool $19,995. Yes. You heard that right. That’s nearly 20 grand for an extremely outdated gadget. Like, who have thought an obsolete gadget could have such a high asking price? I, for one, never thought it will be possible.
As it turns out, bestgadgets’ asking price isn’t unreasonable. Apparently, a factory-sealed first-generation iPod was offloaded for $20K some years ago, while a special edition U2 iPod was reportedly sold for $90K. While there is this craze of collecting old gadgets, especially those that are deemed to have “started it all,” it still doesn’t answer my question: “why?”
The question is not why these people still have these old devices, but more of how these devices that are almost 20 year-old are sealed and unopened? Do you mean people intentionally buy these products and stashed in the closet right away, not be seen until now? Or do these people really had that believe that they will appreciate in value? I have so many questions!
Anywho, the said iPod is still available at the time of this writing and so, if you appreciate an iconic gadget, albeit one that’s absolutely outdated, and you are super rich, you know what to do.
Images: eBay (bestgadgets).
Source: Fortune via Luxury Launches.
