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Customers lined up around the block for the latest smartphones may be missing out on the hottest trend in mobile communications — a resurgence of interest in old-fashioned handsets of just 5 to 20 years ago. It turns out that old Nokia, Ericsson (News - Alert) or Motorola handset lying in a drawer may be worth as much as $1,300 on the retro cell phone market.

"We have two types of profiles: the 25 to 35 year olds attracted by the retro and offbeat side of a telephone that is a little different, and those who are nostalgic for the phone that they used when they were younger," said Maxime Chanson, founder of Lekki, which sells vintage, revamped mobile phones and video game devices.

"Some use it to complement their smartphone, but others are going for the vintage, tired of the technology race between the phone makers,” Chanson said in an interview with the New York Daily News.

It’s a trend with potential consequences for smartphone manufacturers, some of whom have all but abandoned manufacturing “dumb” cell phones that simply offer phone and SMS texting services. Ironically, that’s created a supply and demand issue that is raising prices for vintage phones.

"Some people don't blink at the prices; we have models at more than $1,300. The high prices are due to the difficulty in finding those models, which were limited editions in their time," said Djassem Haddad, owner of the website vintagemobile.fr, in an article for the New York Daily News.

Haddad’s site has sold more than 10,000 handsets over the past two to three years, with demand getting stronger since the beginning of 2013, he said. "The aging population is looking for simpler phones, while other consumers want a second cheap phone," Haddad explained.

In additional to the coolness factor, customers find the long battery life, ruggedness and compact design of retro handsets to be advantageous. Market growth aside, however, it remains unlikely this trend will impact Apple’s (News - Alert) plans for the next iPhone release.