First-generation, unopened iPhone from 2007 gets $39,000 at auction - Business Insider

• A first-generation iPhone from 2007, inactive unopened successful its archetypal box, has fetched much than $39,000 astatine auction.
• That's much than 65 times its archetypal terms of $599, oregon astir $860 successful today's dollars.
• The telephone has a 3.5-inch screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and the Safari web browser.

If you had bought the first-generation iPhone erstwhile it debuted successful 2007, it would've outgo you $599. Fifteen years later, idiosyncratic is paying astir $40,000 for the aforesaid thing.

An archetypal iPhone conscionable sold for $39,339.60 astatine auction. It was unused and unopened, inactive successful its archetypal sealed box.

"Collectors and investors would beryllium hard pressed to find a superior example," the item description read. "Relevance and rarity comprise a winning look for this reddish blistery collectible." 

The tech relic was listed connected LCG Auctions connected September 30, and the auction concluded Sunday. It was estimated to fetch $30,000 oregon more connected the auction block. Its terms astatine merchantability is much than 65 times its archetypal terms erstwhile the telephone archetypal came out.

Bidding started astatine $2,500. Hours earlier the auction ended, the apical bid hovered astir $10,000, but bidding ramped up arsenic the auction neared its close.

Unveiling it 15 years ago, precocious Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs called it "an iPod, a phone, and an net communicator" each successful one. The first-generation iPhone came with a 3.5-inch screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and the Safari web browser; it was initially disposable with lone 4 GB oregon 8 GB of storage, but aboriginal had a 16 GB option.

Apple's best-selling merchandise has travel a agelong mode since then. The newest iPhone today, the iPhone 14, has a 6.1-inch screen, a 12-megapixel camera, and up to 512 GB of storage. It retails for $799.

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