Sean discovered this forgotten relic of the MP3 player evolution on clearance at his local Walmart. He may have slipped through some sort of flux capacitor-facilitated wormhole that took him into a bygone era. At least that’s what we’re hoping.

He dug up the press release on the Intel Personal Audio Player 3000.

Sean writes:

From the 2001 press release:

“The Intel Personal Audio Player 3000 has 64 MB of built-in Intel® StrataFlash® memory, which provides up to two hours of digital music or more than 10 hours of spoken-word audio.”

64 megabytes, and two hours, that’s like almost 30 whole songs. And fear not, Windows ME users, it’s compatible with your computer! All this can be yours for only $20. (Marked down from a previous clearance price of $50!)

How did it get on the clearance isle? Has it actually been languishing there for 8 years? Was it discovered in some remote nook or cranny during the latest store remodeling? Did someone have it sitting in a closet unopened, and they decided to test the store’s return policy? Did it escape from the Island of Misfit MP3 Players? And how is there not a single employee of that store that realizes how ridiculous it is trying to sell this?

Finally, I can just imagine some poor kid having to fake a ‘thank you’ to their clueless grandmother, who thought she was getting a steal on one of them ‘fancy ipod things’.

This is why you can’t let your grandparents enter the Walmart electronics department unsupervised.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.