Across the country, hidden away on clearance shelves and junk bins, there are piles of inexplicably outdated and overpriced electronics that should have no place on a store shelf. Our readers who scour the nation’s big-box stores in search of these retail antiquities are the Raiders of the Lost Walmart. In their latest field report, we see a modestly old PC, an iPod Touch and iPhone case that charges your device from 2011 or earlier from AA batteries, and the hottest media player Microsoft had to offer in 2009.
Frequent Raiders contributor Knah sent along this eMachines PC from the shelves of Walmart, calling our attention to its specifications. It’s not that bad, but it’s not really a “power house” either. At best, it might be a power gingerbread house.
The last PCs were sold with Windows 7 pre-installed only a year and a half ago, making this newer than it appears, but still arguably underpowered to be sold in a big-box store without some kind of warning label.
Also from Knah, this charging case is a few generations of iThingy old, and mostly of note because its first clearance markdown happened in 2013. The year on the latest one is cut off, but it’s at least plausible that it’s been marked down to only $5 as of February of this year. Maybe Walmart is making an effort to sort of mark things down to almost reasonable prices.
Dave dug up this device from his local Walmart in New Jersey. The Zune HD was a fine media player that got a great review from Engadget back in 2009. While it might work great today, few people would probably pay $75 for it.