People Are Paying Hundreds For iPod Classic Despite Its Retirement From Apple's Lineup

Apple may have quietly retired the iPod Classic in September, after the release of its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but the beloved music player lives on as a hot-ticket item on holiday wish lists.

The iPod Classic stores and plays up to 160GB of music and videos, but that's not much compared to its younger siblings, the iPod Touch and Apple iPhones. Still, it has it plenty of avid fans, evidenced by secondhand purchases of the device for up to four times its original price in the U.K., according to the Guardian. In the U.S. it's a similar story, with resellers offering the iPod Classic on Amazon and eBay for nearly $500 -- and even higher for unopened boxes.

When the company pulled the iPod from its lineup, Apple CEO Tim Cook cited a lack of parts for the iPod and the costs associated with designing a new model. But even aside from the iPod Classic, Apple’s iPod lineup has been in decline for years as the iPhone supplanted it as the company’s cash cow. The company's earnings call in October reinforced that status, announcing the iPod would be relegated to the “other” category for future earnings reports (despite brisk sales on the secondhand market).

It’s not the first classic music player to see a resurgence in demand. Earlier this year, prices for Sony’s Walkman TPS-L2, first released in 1979, skyrocketed following the release of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” blockbuster.