How did a 70-year-old Philco radio find itself 8,000 miles from home? Seoul is home to some of the most advanced tech in the world, vibrating between the poles of Samsung and LG, blanketed with LTE-Advanced waves. But Seoul's flea markets are where American and Japanese technology goes to die—and maybe, if you're waving the right packet of won notes, to be reborn.
The roiling chaos of Hwanghak-dong Market, crammed behind a high school just east of downtown, spills out into the narrow streets. It's ordered, if loosely so: there are cult 35mm cameras from 50 years ago, enough restaurant supplies to fill a food court, and an amazing cache of mid-century modern furniture. The electronics streets, Majang-ro 3-gil and Majang-ro 9-gil, are right at the entrance as you come off the Cheonggyecheon river path, greeting you with wheelbarrows full of used cell phones and pyramids of 1970s-era boom boxes. Want to buy a few pounds? Nothing here has a fixed price, and few vendors speak English: if you can speak Korean, maybe you can make a deal.
The indoor Seoul Folk Flea Market is far better organized, but holds fewer gadget treasures: you’re not going to find anything there like Hwanghak-dong's Tenochtitlan of VCRs, a house made entirely out of cables and video recorders draped over a few boards. On the official map, electronics are in the "sundry goods" areas.
If you're looking for more current gadgetry, Yongsan is the place to go. I've been there twice, a few years apart. Yongsan is Korea's answer to Japan's Akihabara, although it's all business and no maid cafes. Prices across the 20 interconnected shopping malls are the same as mainstream retail. You won't find any bargains in that great expanse unless you show up on weekends for the Yongsan Flea Market inside blocks 19 and 20 of Najin Mall. That's where you'll find $1 mice, $5 keyboards, and $10, four-year-old PC motherboards. TheSeoulGuide has a video overview of the flea market.
During the week, the best part of Yongsan is undoubtably Video Game Alley, a giant dumping ground of old consoles, cartridges and CDs. I haven't been there recently (I was last there in 2009), but expat blog Derek vs. Lonely Planet has a good rundown of how to find the place, and the kind of vintage games you'll find there.
Hwanghak-dong's electronics street is open seven days a week from 10am-7pm. To get there, take Seoul’s Subway Line 6 to Dongmyo Station, exit 5; take a left when you cross the stream and look to the right after the high school. The Seoul Folk Flea Market is open 10am-7pm daily. To get there, take line 1 to Sinseol-dong station, exit 6, and follow Cheonho-daero until you see directional signs embedded in the sidewalk.
Take a look at the treasures we found at Hwanghak-dong and Seoul Folk Flea Market in the slideshow. I couldn’t identify some of them—can you?
1. Hwanghak-Dong Flea Market
Majang-ro 3-gil is the main electronics street in Hwanghak-dong Flea Market. The booths mix relatively current TVs and DVD players with wheelbarrows and buildings full of weird, ancient tech spilling out into the street.
2. iPhone Back Plate
Dummy phones, working phones, batteries, and phone parts all mix together at this stall in Hwanghak-dong. While I didn’t see a single working iPhone, occasional random iPhone cases and parts cropped up.
3. Walkman Paradise
If you need to play an old cassette or CD, this is clearly your place. Notice that like everywhere else in Hwanghak-dong, no prices are posted.
4. Beat Box Paradise
The beat box lives at Hwanghak-dong market. This particular pile is a lot more organized than some of the other stalls, which are just jumbles of techno-crap rolling into the street.
5. VCR Building
Let's establish initially that this building has an inside, and that there are more VCRs inside. How you would actually purchase and extract anything from it is a complete mystery to me.
6. Philco Radio
There are a ton of these beautiful, ancient radios at the Hwanghak-dong Market. Okay, tech super sleuths: when is this from? I love the "kilo-cycles” and “mega-cycles."
7. Pac Bell Pay Phone
This is not the only entire American pay phone in the Hwanghak-dong Market - there was another one around the corner. How did they even get this to Korea? How much must it have cost to ship? It isn’t even that old; calls cost a quarter.
8. Zeiss Contaflex
Our photo expert, Jim Fisher, now wants to go to Korea and spend all of his money on old cameras. The 1959 Zeiss Contaflex Super shown here goes for $235 on eBay in this kind of clean condition.
9. Dead Typewriter
Maybe this "Petite" needs a new life as a planter or something. Its typewriting days are done.
10. Wurlitzer Jukebox
Around the edges of the electronics and furniture markets, Hwanghak-dong has sellers with shops full of miscellaneous antiques. Notice the Arnold Schwarzenegger pinball machine at left.
11. Pilot Bakelite Radio
This Pilot Major Maestro radio from 1947 has a Bakelite case; the valve-powered radio is pretty well known amongst collectors.
12. Wheelbarrow of Phones
So many phones.
13. Early Internet Phone
The wheelbarrow full of phones had models from the mid-1990s up to the mid-2000s, including a lot of weird Korea-only units. This one is an early flip-down, touch-screen Internet phone.
14. Classic Olympus Pen
This 1961-era Olympus PenEE is the design inspiration for Olympus's current line of Micro Four-Thirds cameras. It's a half-frame 35mm camera, so 48 or 72 shots instead of the traditional 24 or 36 per roll, and the film frame size is roughly the same as a Micro Four Thirds camera. It goes for $75 on eBay.
15. Edison Home Phonograph
The Seoul Folk Flea Market is indoors rather than outdoors, and the stalls are much more organized. The Edison Home Phonograph is about 100 years old; a working one costs about $400 on eBay.
16. Gold Star Radio
A little Korean electronics history: just after the war (here, when you say "the war," it’s obvious which war) there were two radio companies named Lucky and Gold Star. Lucky bought Gold Star and became Lucky Goldstar. Then it changed its name again - to LG.
17. World of Laptops
If you need a laptop, try shopping at this booth in the Seoul Folk Flea Market, but beware: it's safe to say there are no returns allowed.