Sealed Original iPhone Sells for Over $63,000 at Auction

[sleven]

Never understood technology nostalgia. Yes, it's ok to remember the old days but in no way would I want to go back to using Windows 98 or owning a copy.

I don't think anyone plans to use it. But I think there is something to be said about owning a piece of defining history. That is what this is about. Was Win98 great for its time? Sure, but did it define history - most would probably say no.

 

[Crowbot]

The pillow inside that phone is potentially very very spicy. Great collectors item but it could burn your house to the ground while you sleep.

I suspect the battery is quite dead by now..

 

[Crowbot]

I wish new iPhones would come in a plastic wrap sealed. I hate the paper tabs. It looks tacky in my opinion.

Think of the literal tons of plastic wrap this saves from going into landfills.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Note to self: Work on time travel. Person time travel is not as important as finding a way to bring forward certain objects from the past. If only it were easy, but the 'timelash' would be epic and destroy the planet. Wow...

 

[salz4life]

I never held the original... I just wonder what it would feel like after being used to the 13 Pro Max I have. LOL

 

[HowEver]

What an absolute waste of money. Glad to see people would still rather buy useless old crap than, I dunno, make a charity donation or something.

Should you be using your free time better, also?

The world is full of fascinating stories btw.

 

[Bcn]

I still have the first iPhone, actually only used it a few weeks, but lost the original box.
I wonder how to sell it and how much I would get!?

 

[ian87w]

Looking at that box, I forgot YouTube was a day one in the box app. Seems crazy now.

And it was not even a 3rd party app, it was a first party stock app by Apple.

 

[Zimmy68]

And it was not even a 3rd party app, it was a first party stock app by Apple.

And was ad free, if I recall.

 

[MisterMossy]

Can you x-ray it?

That's what I did.

You can use the serial number checking service on Apple’s own website to see if the phone was ever activated, but I haven't seen anyone else use scanning to definitively prove whats inside the box (without opening it).

In my opinion the one that just sold from this article may have been resealed, the plastic wrap looks very loose.

 

[ilikewhey]

Why do I get the feeling there is a brick inside that box.. and the buyer will never know 😂😂

i'm more concerned for the battery, like how bad has it swollen 😂

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I just want to open this original iPhone to use the classic iOS weather app.

 

[anthogag]

I would've stopped bidding at $50. 🤳

 

[_Spinn_]

Cool piece of history.

 

[winxmac]

Never understood technology nostalgia. Yes, it's ok to remember the old days but in no way would I want to go back to using Windows 98 or owning a copy.

I would rather use Windows 2000 and Windows XP than Windows 10 and 11... Regarding iPhone, I would prefer to use iOS 6 on iPhone 4s and newer than iOS 16 on newer iPhones...

 

[vegetassj4]

It's 70% bezel 😗

 

[litvcom]

People are just dumb. Buy something for that much to never open it.

I think the customer can afford it.

 

[sleeptodream]

Yikes. So I have one of these, the exact same one with 1.0 firmware, sealed. Not sure what to do with it now that it seems the prices are skyrocketing on them, it’s really hard to hold on to it when I could theoretically pay off all of my student loans with it

 

[Crowbot]

i'm more concerned for the battery, like how bad has it swollen 😂

I don't know. It only had the initial factory charge and was never cycled. I'm sure it's dead by now. And I don't think Li batteries swell when they're not charged. But at $63K I'd definitely take it to be x-rayed.

 

[ghanwani]

That’s insane! The original iPhone stays priceless in my opinion. It’s iconic and it changed the world.

Bitcoin changed the world too. If you bought $1 of bitcoin in 2010, it’s worth about $200,000 today. If you bought $600 (original iPhone cost), you’d have over $100,000,000 today.

 

[tuckerjj]

Sooo, looks like I’ll be buying two  Reality Pros then…

 

[H2SO4]

The Rolex secondary market is going to be really upset by this.

Is that Apples to Apples though, how much would a boxed first edition Rolex be?

 

[MacsRgr8]

I never held the original... I just wonder what it would feel like after being used to the 13 Pro Max I have. LOL

I still have mine... I keep all of my iPhones....It's running iPhone OS 1.1.2 (the first one which supported WPA 2 IIRC).
It is jailbroken as that was necessary to be able to use it over here in Holland.

Once in a while I charge it and turn it on... the first thing I think when it's active: not that much has changed with my iPhone 14 Pro. It's bigger, faster, better, etc. 16 years of evolution. The original iPhone was a revolution.

 

[ccsicecoke]

Values that much only because of beautiful UI with Skeuomorphism.

One can bet the price for a sealed original phone with iOS7~iOS14 will not even get 5 figures.

 

[laptech]

That's what I did.

You can use the serial number checking service on Apple’s own website to see if the phone was ever activated, but I haven't seen anyone else use scanning to definitively prove whats inside the box (without opening it).

In my opinion the one that just sold from this article may have been resealed, the plastic wrap looks very loose.

Your attachment is I'm assuming the UK/Europe version because the carrier is O2 but the interesting/confusing thing is why there is an extra icon showing on the phones lcd and why is the calculator icon different. I would have thought the image on the box would match virtually one to one with that of other countries except that the network carrier's name would be different in each case.