5 Unexpected Tech Products You Can Buy At Costco

Costco, the warehouse membership club, is quietly one of the largest companies in the world. Its bulk sales model and relatively low prices on certain goods have helped it garner a loyal customer base that shells out yearly for memberships. Part of the appeal is the wide array of goods on offer. It's hard to think of another store where shoppers can leave with a flatscreen TV, an industrial amount of peanuts, and a sectional sofa, but Costco sells cheap tires on top of all that and will sell you a pizza on your way out the door.

That variety has made Costco a destination for tech shoppers eager to find unique deals on products not stocked at other big box retailers. Whether you're looking for pre-built desktop PCs or smartphones and charging accessories, Costco has them. But there are also plenty of tech products that are far more niche, so we've rounded up a few of the most surprising tech offers from Costco. Among the usual gadgets and doohickeys, we found some hidden gems: printers that don't need ink, a speaker that hides behind your favorite memories, and even a brand new kind of camera drone. Because Costco's stock is constantly rotating, these products are confirmed available at the time of this writing, but may no longer be if you're reading this too far in the future. Here are five unexpected tech products you can buy at Costco.

Old digital cameras are a TikTok trend, but if physical prints of smartphone photos are more your speed, Costco currently carries the HP Sprocket Select Portable Photo Printer Bundle. It's a pint-sized photo printer that fits into a bag, purse, or pocket. Retailing for $100 at the warehouse club, it comes with 55 sheets of the specialized paper needed for the Sprocket Select's proprietary, inkless printing technology.

The upshot of the Sprocket Select, aside from its portability, is that inkless design. The printer uses HP's Zink system (a portmanteau of "zero ink"), which employs some very cool technology to heat dye crystals embedded in the paper. The crystals change color at different levels of heat, and those colors are sealed under a top layer. The upshot of this is that you don't need to buy ink cartridges, but you will need to buy the specialized Zink paper.

Printing works by connecting the device via Bluetooth to your smartphone, where you can touch up photos with filters, frames, stickers, and more. The Sprocket Select works with both iOS and Android, and integrates with Google Photos. HP says it takes just over a minute to print a photo, which makes this gadget perfect for sharing physical memories with friends. It's also one of the fun gifts that any iPhone user will appreciate.

Reviews are mostly positive for the Sprocket Select. PCMag awarded it a four out of five, highlighting its relatively solid photo quality and ease of use, but also its inability to print from a PC and its slow print time. CNN enjoyed the peel-off backs on the Sprocket's photos, which turn them into stickers, but was miffed by HP's use of the outdated Micro USB standard on the charging port.

Costco is well known for selling specialized equipment you wouldn't expect to find at the same store where you buy groceries. Even with that reputation in mind, you still might not expect to find a 3D printer like the Creality K2 Combo, which retails for $540 from the bulk retailer at the time of this writing. There are more uses for 3D printing than ever before, whether for home improvement projects, arts and crafts, design work, and more.

The Creality K2 Combo is a multi-color 3D printer with a print speed of 600 millimeters per second and a build volume of up to 10.2 inches. This bundle also includes a filament box that stores spools of filament, and four spools of filament in black, white, blue, and red. That means the only thing you'll need to get started is some 3D models, many of which can be found online for free.

Reviews for the K2 Combo are mostly positive. Tom's Hardware awarded it four out of five stars, citing its high-speed, multicolor printing abilities as major highlights but complaining about the extra waste compared to other printers and short cables that limit installation. There are only two reviews on the Costco website, one a rave review and the other from a disappointed customer whose machine had problems out of the box.

Although it is best known for its popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets, TVs, and other staples of consumer electronics, Samsung makes some very weird products, and one of the most unique ones you can buy right now is available at Costco. That would be the Samsung Music Frame, a picture frame that doubles as a speaker.

In theory, the combination makes perfect sense. Speakers are functional, but rarely make for great interior design. Meanwhile, most people want to display family photos or artwork. Hiding a speaker behind a picture frame gives you the best of both worlds. It works with a variety of streaming services over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or optical connections, and supports Dolby Atmos.

But there are some oddities to be aware of. First, this is not a digital picture frame. Some may prefer the ability to hang real prints, but others will yearn for the ability to swap digital photos on the fly. Second, the sound quality has been reviewed as good but not incredible. If you generally listen to music with wireless earbuds and Bluetooth speakers, expect this to be a big upgrade, but audiophiles accustomed to the best-sounding equipment may find it lacking. TechRadar found the Music Frame's audio imaging to lack detail, for instance. One thing available reviews agree on, though, is that the speaker gets very loud and easily fills rooms with sound. At $330 from Costco as of this writing, you could easily find a better, cheaper speaker along with a decent picture frame, but if you or someone you know is into fun, albeit ridiculous tech, this gadget is certainly a conversation starter. Check out our full guide for everything you want to know about the Samsung Music Frame.

Video gaming is the most immersive multimedia experience most people have access to. One of the cardinal sins a game developer can commit is breaking immersion, which is one reason why so many games these days eschew heads-up displays and on-screen stats in favor of uninterrupted exploration and combat. But although a game can use physical inputs combined with audiovisual elements to draw a player in, it cannot make that player feel the impact of a fall or the kinetic tremors from firing a weapon.

That's where the Woojer Vest 4 haptic vest comes in. It's essentially a bunch of haptic motors that you strap onto your body. The motors are what Woojer calls "oscillating frames," and they're sort of like speakers that reproduce low-frequency noises from 1-250 Hz, meaning the Vest 4 is essentially a subwoofer you wear like a vest. Those familiar with the basics of audio science will know that any frequency below 20 Hz is considered infrasonic, meaning it can be felt in the body but not heard by the human ear. The low-end sounds we consider sub-bass range from 20-60Hz, and everything up until 250 Hz is bass. With that in mind, vibrating those frequencies directly into your chest and back makes a good amount of sense. If you've got a good pair of headphones or speakers, you'll hear some of that range audibly, but the Woojer Vest 4 will allegedly help you feel the rumble of an explosion or the growl of an engine.

Reviews find the Vest 4 to work well in many instances, but Xboxera wasn't blown away by the sound quality, while Insider Gaming was disappointed with the latency over Bluetooth. It remains a unique curiosity for those interested in more immersive sound.

Drones are a more expected part of the tech landscape than they once were, but what makes the Antigravity A1 8K 360 Drone Essential Bundle a surprise to find at Costco is twofold. First, it's an entirely new type of drone (more on that in a moment), and second, it comes with an over-the-top accessory package. In addition to the quadcopter drone itself, the bundle includes two batteries, a charging hub, a landing pad, a vision battery, a replacement camera lens kit, a 256 GB microSDXC card, a hard carrying case for the drone, a sling bag for the entire kit, a specialized stick-style controller, and a VR headset for piloting. Although the bundle costs $1,600, it eliminates the need to purchase additional accessories.

The drone itself is surprising, too: a never-before-seen type that captures a 360-degree sphere of video, letting you look in any direction as you fly and use that footage to edit. As long as the drone has an eyeline to your subject in any direction, you cannot miss a shot. Antigravity was incubated by Insta360, a popular maker of 360-degree cameras.

The Antigravity A1 has received positive reviews. In our review, we mentioned, "When it comes to pure, unadulterated fun, there isn't any drone quite like the Antigravity A1," and highlighted its augmented reality experience and useful AI features. However, the drone's somewhat limited range was a disappointment, falling short of the manufacturer's 6.2-mile rating. WIRED, meanwhile, rated the A1 a seven out of ten, highlighting those same features but balking at the price, the mandatory use of VR goggles, and a lack of support for glasses wearers.