Snapchat's Spectacles land in New York City
Snapchat's suddenly popular Spectacles have made their way to the East Coast.
The messaging company launched a pop-up store in New York City on Monday, conveniently placed near Apple's flagship store on Fifth Avenue.
Spectacles are glasses that connect to a user's smartphone and let them capture video through a camera embedded in the eyewear, similar to Google Glass. They sell for $129 in bright yellow vending machines.
If you're just reading this hoping to get a pair of Spectacles, good luck. The New York lines ran around the block, and by around 10AM a Snapchat representative warned many of the folks in the queue that they were going to run out--though the company was expected to restock the supply on Tuesday.
Part of the reason for Spectacles' popularity is how Snapchat has rolled out these vending machines in random places with little warning. The machines have already appeared twice in California and Oklahoma. You can track the location of the Spectacles using this map.
The Spectacles continue to pop up on eBay, with listings reaching as high as $900 for a pair.
One of the people waiting patiently on line in New York, Jeff Hou, 47, was tipped off about the pop-up store by a friend who works at Snapchat. Asked if anything excites him about the glasses per se, Hou conceded, "absolutely not." His motivation: as a person who works in social media for GroupM, "it's just about being first."
Not everything came off without a hitch. A snag with the credit card reader on the lone pop-up machine in the New York store caused a number of people to have their credit cards denied. One such person, postal worker Daniel Burgos, 31, had to go to a separate line where he was able to contact his card issuer and get approval. "There's going to be hiccups because everybody's doing it manually," he says.
Burgos who took the day off from work walked out with two pair of Spectacles, one for himself and one for his little sister. The experience has been "definitely worth it," he says. "Snapchat rules."
Sold-out Snapchat Spectacles are already selling big on eBay
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23. Follow Ed Baig on Twitter: @edbaig