Indeed, some models are reselling for extremely expensive prices nowadays, it’s a bit crazy. Especially since digital is just much more convenient, but it can feel nice to have some physical media
Alternatively you could look into a cassette deck if you’re not set on a portable player (one released before the 2000s, I don’t think they make new ones at all anyways), the high or medium end decks tend to have better sound – there’s much less flutter/wow – compared to portable players in the same price range nowadays, since they’re less “cool”. Still have to be pretty lucky to find good deals though
Pretty sure there were reputable news articles right after Oct 7th that said that Israel’s intelligence was basically aware but decided to ignore it/dismiss it. So in this case they willfully ignored it for some reason, I wonder why…