Nostalgia makes things expensive. Which is why 12-packs of Surge sold for absurd amounts online before its successful internet relaunch online over the summer. The newest product going for high amounts despite being outdated technology: iPod classics. People are spending absurd amounts on eBay and Amazon now that Apple has discontinued the product.
The most popular model has been the 160 GB model, which holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 songs. At $250 it was once the ideal model for listeners with huge music collections, even while the less powerful touch models went for higher prices.
Those selling on eBay now aren't necessarily even new products, and are still selling used for $400. According to Billboard, more than 5,000 classics have sold on eBay since Apple announced it would no longer produce the item.
If you happen to own a new iPod classic you can expect to get even more for it: One boxed 160 GB model sold for $899.99 during November. One company on Amazon, Kailone Tech, seemed to have planned for this moment. They're offering new iPods for $492.88...a relative discount.
The moral: Whatever hot tech item comes out next, buy up dozens of it, wait a decade and then sell them for double your money. Of course, every time we turn in our iPhone for the new model, we find that it's worth much less the older it gets.
Apple canceled production of the classic earlier this year due to an inability to get the parts necessary. CEO Tim Cook said that the product would have to be completely redesigned to accommodate the new parts, an effort that just wasn't worth it.
