The original iPhone was released in 2007, and surprisingly there are quite a few models out there that have never been opened. Even after 16 years, they are still sealed in plastic. Even YouTuber, MKBHD bought one at auction for around $40,000 and then unboxed it on YouTube. Which basically made that iPhone worthless right away.
Now, another original iPhone has been sold at auction, which makes Marques’ price that he paid look like pennies. This original iPhone was still sealed in its package with all of the original packaging and accessories. And it sold for $158,644. While the total bill came in at $190,372 when you include the buyer’s premium of $31,728. That goes entirely to the auction house.
For the record, that’s $95,000 more than the previous record for an original iPhone, that was sold at auction back in February.
Imagine paying over $190k for a phone with 4GB of storage
A big reason why this one went for so much, is because it is the 4GB model. That’s storage, not RAM. This variant was ditched just two months after the launch in 2007, due to poor sales. And instead kept with the 8GB model. With the iPhone 2G the following year, Apple added a 16GB model.
As you’d expect, the buyers identity has been kept a secret. So we’ll probably never know who bought it.
When the iPhone launched in 2007, it did not even have an App Store. Apple originally wanted everyone to build web apps for the iPhone. Though that quickly changed, and the second iPhone had an App Store, but it was still fairly small until the iPhone 3Gs came out. The original iPhone had a pretty small 3.5-inch display, a 2-megapixel camera without flash, and went on sale for $499. The 8GB model was $100 more for $599.
Apple collectors likely want to have one of these in their collection, but I’m sure many are not paying this much to get one into their collection.
2023-07-18 15:10:26