Sealed Original iPhone Fetches Over $39000 at Auction - PCMag

If you bought a first-generation iPhone backmost successful 2007 and decided not to unfastened it, the merchandise could fetch good implicit $30,000 successful today’s auction market. 

On Sunday, an unopened archetypal iPhone sold(Opens successful a caller window) for $39,339 astatine an lawsuit from LCG Auctions. That’s 65 times much than what the merchandise outgo backmost successful June 2007 erstwhile it retailed for $599.

Bids for the unopened iPhone started astatine $2,500 backmost connected Sept. 30. But wrong the past fewer days of the auction, the iPhone began attracting bids astatine implicit $10,000 and past $20,000. 

(Credit: LCG Auction)

LCG Auctions described the iPhone arsenic successful “exceptional condition,” having ne'er been touched oregon activated. The aforesaid instrumentality is besides inactive sealed successful its archetypal integrative wrap. “Virtually flawless on the aboveground and edges, the mill seal is cleanable with close seam details and tightness,” LCG said. “Collectors and investors would beryllium hard pressed to find a superior example.”

However, the telephone itself is primitive by today’s standards. It lone comes with 8GB of memory, features a 480-by-320 interaction screen, and was designed to pass with AT&T's 2G network, which the bearer shut down(Opens successful a caller window) successful 2017. That said, the first-gen iPhone inactive has a headphone jack and tin pass implicit Wi-Fi.  

It’s unclear wherefore and however the iPhone remained unopened for truthful long. LCG Auction didn’t instantly respond to a petition for comment. But the auction location primitively expected the instrumentality to fetch “$30,000 and up,” which it ended up achieving. Back successful August, different unopened first-gen iPhone exemplary was sold(Opens successful a caller window) for $35,414 astatine a abstracted auction.