The MTA is auctioning off the authority’s remaining 60 MetroCard vending machines, with a minimum best and final offer of $1,500 each.
The auction opened on Wednesday and will run until August 19. The full-sized machines weigh around 1,050 pounds, while the express version is only 210 pounds. A limited quantity of machines is available for pickup in Brooklyn, while the remaining machines must be picked up in Queens.
The MetroCard Vending Machines allowed commuters to buy and reload their MetroCards with cash or credit and debit cards.
The MetroCard Express Machines were available at busier stations; they only accepted credit or debit card payments.
“First installed in 1999, the colorful metal MVM and MEM are familiar to the millions of riders who take the subway each day,” the MTA release stated.
Designed by Antenna Design’s Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, the vending machines featured an intuitive interface, guiding commuters on how to pay for fare cards with extra-large font and primary color-coded hardware.
“You could just use your whole hand to push one of those buttons. It was this kind of sturdiness that I loved about it. No nonsense,” said Paola Antonelli, a senior curator for architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art.
“It made me think of one of those MTA workers that emerged from tunnels wearing their orange vests and their gloves.”
The last public-facing machine is in Greenwich Village’s Mulry Square and currently displays a QR code for riders to scan if they are interested in making a bid.
Joana Flores, the MTA’s media liaison, told Inc. that “funds from the auction goes toward NYC Transit’s (agency overseeing subway and buses) General Operating Budget”.
The vending machines weigh over a thousand pounds, and transportation is the new owners’ responsibility.
Bidders must confirm they’d be able to arrange a pickup within 10 days.
The machines will be sold as-is, and come in “various stages of wear and tear.” Electronic and payment processing components have been removed.
In the viral moment that launched nostalgia for the machines, transit fans and collectors flocked to bid for one of the last tangible relics of New York’s subway history. The sturdy steel vending machines with giant buttons and colorful hardware that spit out MetroCards to commuting New Yorkers for 30 years are now a thing of the past, with the ubiquitous rollout of OMNY. MetroCard machines were pulled out of the transit system between late 2025 and early 2026 as the MTA began to phase in OMNY tap-and-go. The machines have since been replaced by silver OMNY card vending machines.
Richard Usowicz sought to capitalize on the nostalgia factor when he listed his MetroCard for $155, saying “I heard all the news and hubbub about the MetroCard going out of print and anything that is no longer available, it’s a supply and demand thing”.
“Honestly, it has worked,” Usowicz said. “A lot of times in the collectible market, most people are really kind of searching for nostalgia. A large majority of my customers are millennial Gen Z, and we all want to kind of touch upon a t” piece of the past.
For those who may not be able to place a bid, the MTA is also offering a chance to enter a sweepstakes drawing for VIP entrance to this year’s pop-up sale of transit memorabilia, with 15 people to be selected for the chance to attend as well as receive 20% off their purchase.
If you don’t want to bring home the full machine, the MTA is also selling pieces of it, ranging from $50 for the plate that reads “Credit/ATM” to $250 for a roll of single-ride MetroCards.
Bidders must submit their offers by Wednesday, August 19 at 8 p.m.