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Unopened Original iPhone Sells for $35,000 at Auction
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Someone, somewhere is keeping every iPhone still sealed up and waiting to release it for a huge payday in the future. Lol. Funny, but I'm sure someone is.
As someone that enjoys collecting....this is pointless. $35k and you've likely gotten a phone that has a swollen battery. You can't display it except the box. You can't do anything with it. What is the point?
I almost bet it’s a fake, or resealed. Would be curious to see an X-ray scan of the box or something.
I think it's mandatory to do that on these things.
The auction house must realize they can't sell an unwrapped item without giving some kind of proof that it's actually legit. Otherwise the world would be full of unopened stuff that is worth a zillion dollars...
I would expect the auction house would X-ray the box so that they can prove that there is an original iPhone inside, and provide a copy of that X-ray to the buyer so that they know what's in there.
I still have my box somewhere, as well as the phone. The original iPhone was revolutionary and will continue to be one of the most collectible apple devices in the future.
I bought an iPhone 2G off Ebay a couple months ago for about $100 and downgraded it to iPhone OS 1.0. At one point I thought I had bricked it. But after playing with it for a few days, the novelty wore off. But its nice to have the first one and see how far we have come. It still accesses Google just fine. Apple should bring back cover flow. For some reason, I couldn't get it to sync with my PowerBook G4, but it works just fine with an old Dell laptop running Windows XP:
Yea I’m interested about the battery too. I have a sealed first version watch for the same reason. I assume the watch is worth about $10 right now lol.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Bruhhhhh! Had I known I would have made an instant offer for $40,000. Dang it!
I would think that any reputable auction house would take reasonable steps to verify the item.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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The smell alone is worth alot of money. Approved by the late Steve Jobs! One of a kind!
The original iPhone was truly ahead of its time: it had a 3.5mm headphone jack and required a dongle to use ordinary headphones, the best of both worlds.
That's true, I spaced that. I wonder about the cellophane still to prove whether the box is in fact unopened. The box may indeed contain the iPhnoe untouched but some people are super particular about package seals in their collections.
I remember launch day like it was yesterday. I was in line at my local Apple store. Probably was around the 30th - 50th person in my state to get an iPhone. Staff were giving out free coffee & donuts to those of us in line. It was definitely an exciting time that I won't ever forget.
There's a Kurt Vonnegut novel about an artist who used a special formulation of paint for all his works, and after a few years the paint degraded and turned to dust. I can imagine the world's collection of original iPhones doing that same as the LiIon batteries self immolate...
(As entertaining as that notion is, I'm not sure if there's much risk of it actually happening. If the battery has self discharged, there's probably not enough energy stored to cause a conflagration. Anybody know for sure? As someone with more than one old iPod in basement storage, this thought has crossed my mind a few times...)
This was my first thought. The idea of buying an original iPhone just to have has crossed my mind. I obviously wouldn't spend this kind of money on it and don't care about it being new in the box. But the battery issue has always been a barrier to me actually doing it. I've seen what happens to batteries in my old MacBook's, etc. and it's not pretty.
Incredible what people will pay for a box that they can effectively never open (without destroying it's value).
I am surprised it went for so much. I think there are a lot of them around.
50 years. The Apple Watch didn't make Apple the largest company on the planet, the iPhone did.
Crazy price. Every time I see the original iPhone I can't help but to think back at all the hate the Blackberry and flip phone crowd threw at the iPhone to find reasons why it would never last. I specifically remember people saying fingerprints on the screen would make it impossible to use. Someone even had a web app where you could put smudges on a mockup of the phone. Pure comedy looking back.
Mostly because there was nothing else at the time that could compare.
That’s $34,995 more than I would pay for it. A novelty for a rich person for sure. I had one and I liked it but don’t see the appeal in owning this.
Besides, those enterprising people out there will simply counterfeit the box, make it weigh correctly, and shrink wrap it. Add in a fake bill of order and people will get fleeced.
*Edit-fixed autocorrect
Besides, those enterprising people out there will simply counterfeit the box, make it weigh correctly, and shrink wrap it. Add in a fake bill of order and people will get fleeced.
*Edit-fixed autocorrect