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Snapchat's Spectacles are now on sale in New York City

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snapchat nyc snap spectacles store

Snapchat's Spectacles are on sale in New York City.

The city was announced Monday as the newest location for one of Snap Inc.'s quirky vending machines — still the only way you can officially buy the sunglass-mounted cameras.

The latest vending machine is located inside a pop-up shop at 5 East 59th Street, near Central Park in Manhattan.

That location is scheduled to remain open until New Year's Eve but will be closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

Spectacles sync with your Snapchat account on your phone, letting you record short videos and send them to the ephemeral messaging app.

My colleague Avery Hartmans got her hands on a pair of Spectacles in November. Her verdict: They're great.

"For Snap's first iteration of the glasses, they're a total success — as long as you're not looking at them as a tech product," she wrote.

"If you think about the Spectacles as a fashion product that happens to be tech-enabled, they're fantastic: They look good, it's easy to record video, and they're fun to use. Owning them puts you in an exclusive club, but not in the same vein as the Silicon Valley techies who flocked around Google Glass."

Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is using quirky "bot" vending machines to sell Spectacles — keeping them exclusive and generating hype while avoiding the dreadful "techie" reputation that beset Google's failed Google Glass headset back in 2013.

Spectacles cost $130 a pop from the vending machine — but people are reselling them online for far, far more. They're available in teal, orange, or black, and you can buy a maximum of two pairs at a time.

If you're planning to buy them in NYC, be aware that some customers are having trouble with their banks flagging the transaction as fraudulent activity, because the macine is "based" in California. Snapchat employees are recommending customers call their banks ahead of time, before attempting to buy them, according to Mashable's Kerry Flynn.

Snapchat Spectacles 14

Still unsure of where to find Spectacles in New York? Here's a map, courtesy of Snap, of where the store is located.

snapchat spectacles map nyc

In a not-so-subtle dig at Apple, the pop-up store is located right across from the company's Fifth Avenue Apple Store.

And here's how it looks inside. The lone vending machine sits at the end of a queue, while videos play on the walls.

snapchat spectacles nyc queue store

Don't expect to stroll right in off the street and pick up a pair, though. As of about 6:30 a.m. ET, dozens of people were already lining up to get a pair.

snapchat spectacles nyc

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