I got my first iPhone on the Verizon launch day. I had been wanting one for such a long time and I knew I had to get it ASAP. Thankfully, I had ignored all of the reps at Verizon saying "Upgrade now, we have Android smartphones which do more then iPhone for free!". I had a dumb phone at the time but had used Android phones in the past and it wasn't for me. I was coming into the Apple eco-system at the time and I was not going to waste my upgrade.
Along with the upgrade, I also got a "New Every Two" discount which essentially made my iPhone $249 before tax (here in CA tax is on the un-subsidised cost, so $60 in tax or so). I went 32GB because I already had a 64GB iPod touch and I knew 16GB would not cut it. Unfortunately, I wanted white and thought that when the VZW phone was announced, white would finally hit production. No such luck so I went with black. Hey, I had already waited years for this phone, I was not gonna wait another 2 months or more.
My dad had already had iPhones for 2 years prior (he got the 3G just before the 3GS came out, got the 3GS full retail, same with his AT&T iPhone 4) and I already had used iPod touches for the past 1 1/2 years so I was no stranger to iOS.
I just remember when I got the phone thinking to myself "Its mine, its finally mine!" I wish I had held onto that phone, but luckily my dad and mom moved back to Verizon from AT&T after their contracts ended. One of those phones was sold, the other is in my collection with its original box. The whole phone was actually just replaced by AppleCare not even a year ago because of a dying battery.
From there I got my white 32GB iPhone 5 (aka the phone from Hell with 14 AppleCare replacements), gold 32GB iPhone 5s (awesome phone, no issues), and white 64GB iPhone 6 Plus (awesome phone!).
