Guys 'waste' $1,840 on rare vintage tech and some of the old devices are so cool to see

A couple of guys decided to ‘waste’ almost $2,000 on some rare vintage tech, and ended up with some really neat products.

For those who like their tech with a healthy pinch of nostalgia, online marketplaces have become a great source of vintage and retro devices. 

YouTubers Austin Evans and CarterPCs recently decided to scour the internet for some old tech, and managed to get hold of some rare items. 

In fact, there’s a good chance that you might not have even heard of some of the items they snapped up. 

The rare vintage tech included some old Apple products and a retro Nokia

Retro tech has had a resurgence lately, with old Apple iPhones and iPods selling for a small fortune, and vintage consoles becoming hugely collectible. 

However, Austin and Carter decided to shun the more well-known vintage tech and spent $1,840 on rarer old devices. 

For starters, they bought an Apple QuickTake 100, the first-ever Apple digital camera that was released back in 1994. 

When new, the camera would have set you back $749 (equivalent to around $1,600 today) and was locked to Apple, meaning you could only upload your snaps to a circa-1990s Mac device. 

The duo paid $110 for the Apple QuickTake 100, which they both thought was a bit of a bargain. 

The second item was the Newton eMate 300, which also hailed from Apple, and was released back in 1997. 

The translucent device came with a built-in keyboard, a stylus, and a 6.8-inch backlit screen, although it was officially marketed as a ‘personal digital assistant’, the Newton eMate 300 was basically an early, low-cost laptop, selling for $799 (around $1,700) a pop. 

Although it was almost three decades old, the old eMate still worked, and it left the YouTubers impressed with Austin saying it was ‘ahead of its time’ and both of them thinking they’d got an absolute bargain after paying just $125 for it. 

Next up, the duo moved away from Apple and over to the former best-selling phone manufacturer on the planet with the Nokia 7280, aka the ‘lipstick phone’. 

As its nickname suggests, the Nokia 7280 was a super-slim design released in 2004, and although it’s not the most practical phone to use due to its lack of keyboard, Austin and Carter both thought it was ‘cool as hell’. 

When new, the Nokia would have set you back around $660, but this one was bought for $200. 

They also got a little-known Nintendo headset

For the fourth item, the YouTubers went even further back to 1976 with a pair of Koss Pro/4 AAA headphones. 

The vintage headphones were designed for professional use, and although in their fifth decade, both Austin and Carter found them surprisingly good quality and still very usable. 

These pro headphones would have originally come with a $70 price tag (about $400 today), but were bought used for $55. 

The next item they unboxed was a rare gaming item that you might not have heard of. 

While most of us are familiar with the Game Boy and Switch, back in 1995 Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, which was a sort of very early precursor into VR. 

The Virtual Boy was originally sold for $179.95 (around $380 today) and the resale value has held pretty firm, with the YouTubers buying their used model for $350.

The price point in partly due to the rarity of the Virtual Boy, gamers complained of headaches, eyestrain and dizziness while using the headset, and it ended up being a commercial flop for Ninetendo with just 770,000 sold. 

The final bit of rare vintage tech they bought was a Laser Disc player, which came with discs that sort of resembled huge CDs and were released prior to DVDs. 

Laser Disc players were cutting edge technology at the time, with this particular model costing around $1,500 (about $3,000-$4,000 today), and even now they’re not exactly cheap with this used model selling for $700. 

The old media player didn’t exactly leave Austin or Carter blown away and was probably the one dud amongst the bunch of retro tech.

However, all things considered, we’d have to disagree with the guys on calling this vintage haul a ‘waste’ of money, because there’s some absolute gems.

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