Demand for these old-school phones is so high, some models of old Nokias, Ericssons and Motorolas are fetching up to €1,000 (£810 or $1,360) a piece online.
While they may lack features, these retro phones are simple to use, have batteries that last the week and are practically indestructible compared to their smartphone equivalent.
'Some people don't blink at the prices,' said Djassem Haddad, who started the site vintagemobile.fr in 2009.
'The high prices are due to the difficulty in finding those models, which were limited editions in their time.'
For instance, a Nokia 8800 Arte Gold was recently listed on the site for €1,000 (£810 or $1,360), while a Nokia 8800 could be purchased for €250 (£200 or $337).
Mr Haddad had been hoping to explore what he believed to be a niche market, but since last year, sales have taken off.
In October last year, an unlocked 8GB iPhone 2G was being offered for £1,399 ($2,190), while another 16GB version was available from the U.S for $1,499 (£957).
The trend for retro gadget's celebrity status was cemented in September when Vogue editor-in-chief, Ms Wintour, was pictured glancing at a dated-looking flip phone at the US Open.
The 64-year-old fashion maven was seen peering at a device, which appeared to be a $15 pay-as-you go phone from AT&T.
Vintage handsets are also said to be growing in popularity because they are more secure than smartphones.
For example, they don't connect to the cloud so photos and other details can't be hacked into easily.
The battery life is much longer, up to a month on standby in some cases, and they are more robust, especially if dropped.
New York Times journalist Michael Musto recently said: 'Call me a Luddite, the flip phone makes perfect sense to me.
'After all, my apartment still has a VCR and an array of '90s club costumes and magazine clippings, all of which prove surprisingly useful from time to time. I even have a landline phone.
'If I were suddenly seen taking notes on an iPhone instead of on my usual stained napkin, it would look as wrong as red and green after Christmas.'
Earlier this year, a team of designers created a video that plots the major milestones in the 40-year history of the mobile.
It starts with the original DynaTAC, and ends with last year's Apples iPhone 5S.
The first cellular voice calls were made in 1973 and it took ten years for the first handheld phone, called the DynaTAC 8000x, to go on sale.
Since then the number of phones has risen to more than 6 billion and the video shows how market leaders of the 1980s and 90s, such as Nokia and Motorola, have made way for the likes of Apple and Samsung.
And it's not just smartphones that are being ditched in favour of older gadgets.
Last month, reports said celebrities are also switching digital cameras for Polaroids following Apple's iCloud leak.
Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, and members of the public alike, are embracing retro technologies in order to keep their pictures private - and on paper.
Sales of Polaroid cameras, which were particularly popular in the 1980s, and produce a developed film image, have risen by around three quarters in less than a year.
Kaley Cuoco, who stars in The Big Bang Theory declared: 'Polaroids are the way to go.
'No one can get those.'
Her comments were made following a recent spate of iCloud leaks, which saw private photos of more than 100 celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, leaked online.
The popularity of the retro camera has been attributed to people's love of Instagram, as well as the number of celebrities embracing the devices, including Lana Del Rey.
A Polaroid photo forms the front cover of Taylor Swift's new album, 1989, making the format fashionable again, too.
- Daily Mail
