Andrea Wallace bought this walkman in 1992 or 1993 when she was a border at Wanganui Girls' College. She remembers she had to "save hard" for the $100 or so she paid for it. She used it mainly for listening to "mixed tapes" during prep. "Mixed tapes featured prominently- my friends and I would spend weekends creating them- awful sound quality and funny jumps in the music because we'd repair them with sticky tape as they got twisted around the heads of the tape player," she said. After she left school and spent a couple of years at Victoria University, Andrea took the walkman with her through Asia, Australia, Africa and parts of Europe between 1997-1999. "It was a faithful companion during those times. Especially because I possessed all of two tapes- The second act of Phantom of the Opera and a really bad dub of The Cure: Live in Orange. Arh, happy days and no, can't listen to the Cure or the Phantom too much any more," she said. She continued using it while attending the University of Canterbury as the discman she bought had scratched all her compact discs and she was forced to revert to mixed tapes."It also only took one battery and to a broke student that was a real boon." The single battery would last for days, even when she was playing tapes, Andrea remembers. She continued using the walkman until 2009, when she mainly used it to listen to Radio New Zealand National or Classic Hits 90FM as she walked to and from work. When she went into Mason Appliances in New Plymouth to buy an I-Pod as a replacement the young salesman was fascinated by her faithful walkman as he had never seen one that was as old.