Reference Desk

Are cassette players still made in 2026?

Bar chart of median asking prices for new cassette decks, portable players and secondhand players on resale. — On 6 September 2026, 159 new cassette players from 20 US retailers were listed at a median of $66.85, while secondhand players asked a median of $19.26.Illustration: LinkToLooks

Yes. On 6 September 2026, 159 new cassette players from 20 US retailers were listed in affiliate product feeds: portable personal players, dual-well decks and professional rack recorders, from $3.99 to $730.99.

What is on sale today

Type	Listings	Cheapest	Median	Dearest
Portable and personal players	61	$13.23	$60.95	$269.99
Decks, dual-well and recorders	76	$13.23	$78.31	$730.99
All new cassette players	159	$3.99	$66.85	$730.99
Secondhand players on resale	45	$6.00	$19.26	$250.00

Method: every US listing whose title names a cassette player, deck, recorder or Walkman was pulled from affiliate product feeds on 6 September 2026, deduplicated to 204 machine listings, and split by whether the seller is a conventional retailer or a peer-to-peer marketplace. Car-audio parts programmes, wall art, fabric, apparel, audiobooks, digital Walkman music players and machine prices under two dollars (feed errors, not offers) matching the same words were excluded. Asking prices, not sold prices.

The number worth noticing is the last row, and it has moved further in the same direction. Secondhand players ask a median of $19.26 against $66.85 for new ones — the used market is now less than a third of the new one, which is not what nostalgia hardware usually does. A working new player with a warranty undercuts the whole sentiment premium.

Library shelves lined with rows of audio cassette tapes in their cases. — Photo: “Cassette Tapes” by IllinoisLibrary, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Why they are still made

Cassette sales recovered. Sales rose in 2016 and kept rising through 2017 and 2018; UK cassette sales in 2021 hit their highest level since 2003.
New music is still issued on tape. Independent and underground artists have used the format continuously, and mainstream releases on cassette have continued into the 2020s.
Tape stock is being manufactured again. National Audio Company in Missouri began producing its own magnetic tape in 2018, the first known all-new tape stock, after years of shortage.
Retail followed. Urban Outfitters was selling new pre-recorded cassettes, blank tapes and players as early as 2015.

Who sells them

Retailer	New player listings
UnbeatableSale.com	20
Macy's	15
Wayfair North America	11
Rough Trade	6
Woot!	5
JCPenney Affiliate	4
Temu	4
antonline	4

The mix is the interesting part: department stores, homeware marketplaces, office suppliers and pro-audio dealers, plus one independent record retailer. Cassette hardware is not confined to a specialist corner of retail, which is a reasonable proxy for the format being ordinary again rather than niche.

None of these listings publishes a manufacturing date, and no seller photographs a transport mechanism or a belt. We cannot tell you which of these players uses a serviceable transport, and no listing in this pull says.

Last verified 6 September 2026 against 204 live US cassette machine listings in the CJ product feed, of which 159 are from conventional retailers and 45 from peer-to-peer sellers. Peer-to-peer asks of $500 or more are excluded as seller placeholders, as are repdigit asks such as $999 and $9,999. Asking prices are what sellers want on this date; they are not sold prices.

New cassette players, asked plainly

Are cassette players still being manufactured?

Yes. On 6 September 2026, 159 new cassette players from 20 US retailers were listed in affiliate product feeds, from $3.99 personal players to a $730.99 professional dictation recorder. This is current retail stock, not old inventory on resale.

What kinds of new cassette players can you buy?

Three kinds. Portable personal players around $60.95, dual-well decks and recorders around $78.31, and multi-format systems that combine a turntable, CD player and cassette well in one unit.

Why are cassette players still made?

Because cassette sales came back. Sales rose across 2016, 2017 and 2018, UK cassette sales in 2021 reached their highest level since 2003, and artists have kept issuing new music on tape into the 2020s. Players follow tapes.

Are new cassettes still manufactured too?

Yes. National Audio Company in Missouri, one of the few remaining US audio cassette manufacturers, began producing its own magnetic tape in 2018 after years of shortage, becoming the first known manufacturer of an all-new tape stock.

Is a new cassette player better than a vintage Walkman?

For reliability, usually. The belts and rubber pinch rollers in a forty-year-old player perish, and a worn transport eats tapes. A vintage unit that has been serviced is a different proposition from one that has not.

Sources

Wikipedia, Cassette tape — the mid-to-late 2010s sales resurgence, Urban Outfitters selling new cassettes and players from 2015, rising sales in 2016 to 2018, UK sales in 2021 at their highest since 2003, continued releases into the 2020s, and National Audio Company producing all-new tape stock from 2018.
CJ Affiliate product feeds, US advertisers, queried 6 September 2026 — every listing count and price figure on this page.