MTA puts retired MetroCard machines up for auction with $1,500 opening bids

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is conducting its first public auction of retired MetroCard Vending Machines and MetroCard Express Machines, items that once dispensed fare cards for nearly three decades. Bids, which must be at least $1,500 per unit, are accepted through August 19, and the machines will be sold in non-operational condition without any assistance for moving them. The original MVM, introduced in 1999, measures 80 by 42 by 36 inches and weighs about 1,050 pounds; the MEM is smaller at 21 by 14 by 42 inches and about 210 pounds.

All payment-processing hardware has been stripped from the units. Winners will be notified by email, must pay in full immediately, and have ten days to collect the equipment from designated sites in Brooklyn or Queens. Critics have called the sale a cash-grab, while collectors see it as a chance to own a piece of transit history.