Factory-Sealed Original iPhone Sells for $55,000 at Auction

[darngooddesign]

What are these worth opened and used? I still have mine and the original box.

A whole lot less.

Yours probably isn't on the first OS.

 

[AppleTO]

The full cost of the phone back then was less then you have to pay now after a subsidy (in a lot of cases). That's sad.

 

[randomthoughts]

Buyer beware. What’s to stop someone from putting something in an original iPhone box, shrink wrapping it, then selling it as an original unopened? Whomever is going to buy it is unlikely to open it. Oof.

 

[SactoGuy18]

But why? And you really can't use it, since AT&T has pretty much turned off both 2G and Edge connectivity anyway.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

The auction winner should jailbreak that thing the second he takes it out of the box.
Also, I wish him luck finding a 2G network still around to use the phone on. (/s)

 

[fatTribble]

I like articles like this. By comparison, it makes my spending seem rational and logical.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

"Hey, I just met you...
and this is crazy!
But here's my number...
so call me, maybe" ​

 

[SigurTom]

Buyer beware. What’s to stop someone from putting something in an original iPhone box, shrink wrapping it, then selling it as an original unopened? Whomever is going to buy it is unlikely to open it. Oof.

Send it through an xray machine

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What are these worth opened and used? I still have mine and the original box.

Depending on condition, probably shift the decimal point 3 or 4 times to the left.

 

[v0lume4]

Hind sight is 20/20, right? We all would have stocked up on those bad boys had we known they’d sell for $60,000 nowadays.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Pretty obvious why this sold — AT&T was offering a $1000 rebate with plan activation!

 

[hugodrax]

Someone found 10 of these sealed from what was a former warehouse/store? Sealed etc… how would these be sold just call the auction house? 10 for 55K each would be a nice return.

 

[Edsel]

I like articles like this. By comparison, it makes my spending seem rational and logical.

...but that means you would buy stuff and never take it out of its original packaging. (Perhaps a good retirement plan?)

 

[bLackjackj]

That looks 100% like it's been resealed! Look at the loose plastic and seam. It doesn't look factory at all,..have a look at the origional release day photos and compare. 🤨

 

[JosephAW]

Notice the box looks like it's swelling

 

[QCassidy352]

I have an iPhone 2007, just not the box. The box itself fetches for high prices on Ebay. I am just happy to have one. It’s even running the very first version of iPhoneOS. Booting up and seeing how far we’ve come in amazing. It does seem to be recognized by my PowerBook G4 running Leopard, but I got it to sync on my old Dell Laptop running XP. I synced songs from 2007. That was such an uncertain year for me. I remember when I started at a vocational institute I walked to the nearby supermarket to pickup some essentials with my new roommate. We saw this young lady in the supermarket with one already jailbroken. I went up to her at check out and asked if that’s the iPhone. She said yeah, and I asked if I could look at it. She said sure! I couldn’t believe I was playing with one in ‘Jamaica’. Her significant other sent to her, there was even a crack on the screen. It would be years before I owned my first iOS device, 3rd gen iPod Touch with iOS 3. Still didn’t have wallpapers yet.

I don’t know what the future holds for the iPhone and maybe Apple has finally cracked the secret with the VR headset to slowly start chipping away at its success. But there is no denying it, the iPhone has changed the course of history.

I have a working one in excellent condition WITH the box and all accessories! Definitely not sealed though.

 

[rednabor]

The $599 cost of that phone in 2007 is about $870 today. It's not clear unless I missed it though. In 2007 phones were heavily subsidized by cellular providers, at least here in the US. Was $599 an unsubsidized price?

The first iPhone wasn’t subsidized by AT&T. The first iPhone to be subsidized was the iPhone 3G.

 

[CEmajr]

I had 3 original iPhones (not with the box) in good working condition as recently as 2018. Ended up selling them on eBay. Perhaps I should've kept them.

 

[rednabor]

A first-generation iPhone still sealed inside its box sold for $54,904 at auction, which is more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device when it was released in 2007.

The original iPhone was put up for sale by RR Auction on behalf of a former Apple employee who purchased it back when it first came out. Back in February, an original, sealed iPhone sold for over $63,000, which actually marked a sales record for a first-generation iPhone.

Other unopened original iPhones sold for $35,000 and $39,000 in 2022, so prices have been trending upward.

RR Auction also sold a an "undiscovered" Apple-1 computer for an unspecified sum, with other Apple devices and memorabilia also fetching high prices. A Macintosh Plus from Del Yocam sold for $26,590, while a Macintosh 128K prototype sold for $16,500 and an Apple Lisa sold for $81,251.

An iPhone 11 signed by Apple CEO Tim Cook sold for nearly $4,000, technical instructions annotated by Steve Jobs went for $12,500, and a Steve Jobs business card sold for $6,188.

Article Link: Factory-Sealed Original iPhone Sells for $55,000 at Auction

I have a 3rd generation iPod 10GB sealed. If anyone has an interest haha

 

[rednabor]

I had 3 original iPhones (not with the box) in good working condition as recently as 2018. Ended up selling them on eBay. Perhaps I should've kept them.

I think that the ones that are expensive are only the sealed ones.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Steve Baller’s reaction to the iPhone had him saying “$500 fully subsidized with a plan”

Steve Baller also said "It doesn't have a keyboard so it wouldn't be a very good email machine."

 

[mjs916]

The $599 cost of that phone in 2007 is about $870 today. It's not clear unless I missed it though. In 2007 phones were heavily subsidized by cellular providers, at least here in the US. Was $599 an unsubsidized price?

Yes the first year was unsubsidized. That’s why Steve Ballmer was recorded laughing at the iPhone. He was like, we have $99 phones running our software.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I had 3 original iPhones (not with the box) in good working condition as recently as 2018. Ended up selling them on eBay. Perhaps I should've kept them.

They are the new Macintosh 128K.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Just a description: This is my iPhone 2007. Look at the Music icon when it was called iPod.

 

[Bawstun]

Buyer beware. What’s to stop someone from putting something in an original iPhone box, shrink wrapping it, then selling it as an original unopened? Whomever is going to buy it is unlikely to open it. Oof.

Run it through an x-ray.