I think I payed about $25 for mine. I thought the price was so low simply due to technology getting cheaper. (It had been years since I needed to purchase a new one.)This thing was the most frustrating piece of junk I've had to wrestle with. The electronics must have been shoddy because sometimes I would press one button, and the action of another would happen (for example, I would press Pause, and it would replay the track, or I would press Next, and it would shut off).Also it was unpredictable as to whether it would actually begin to read the CD. I would just hear the motor constantly trying to drive to home... for almost 30 seconds. Maybe I just happened to get a bad one, but, that was my experience.