Back in 2005, a Korean company introduced a tiny cube-shaped MP3 player that had more features than the then-dominant iPod Shuffle. The adorable MobiBLU included a voice recorder and an FM tuner, and was a Walmart exclusive item in the United States that came with free Walmart music store downloads. While those songs self-destructed back in 2008, the devices haven’t gone anywhere. You can find them on Walmart’s shelves, often at full price.
Maybe stores across the country had cases of them stashed behind something else in their warehouses for seven years or so. The Raiders of the Lost Walmart, brave retail archaeologists who explore discount store clearance sections nationwide, frequently find the device during their excavations. The price has varied between $60 and $109.72 to date, but now Alex spotted a record low price in Illinois for a MobiBLU.
Interestingly, that’s the same price that they go for on Amazon, but the highest recent price for an unopened one on eBay was $40. That indicates that there’s a collector market for the device, but that Walmart has theirs priced too high to capture it.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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