Factory-sealed original iPhone sells for US$63,356.40 at auction

A recent sale by LCG Auctions has left the former owner of an unused and unopened first-generation Apple iPhone tens of thousands of dollars better off. The 2007 original iPhone was actually still completely sealed, having not been required for use by its previous owner, Karen Green. In fact, Green even appeared on an episode of Doctor & The Diva in 2019 where a value of US$5,000 was placed on the rare item. However, it appears she decided to wait a bit longer before selling the smartphone and was encouraged by seeing a similar listing sell for US$39,339.60 in 2022 (another auction site had earlier received a winning bid of US$35,414 for a different sealed original iPhone).

With tens of thousands of dollars being bid for such an uncommon piece of famous tech, unsurprisingly there were a couple of instances of bidding battles for the factory-sealed 2007 Apple iPhone. The list price started (on February 2) at what now seems the paltry amount of US$2,500 and by February 4 the bidding had reached US$10,000. As the end date grew closer, the amounts rose fiercely, with US$20,000 surpassed on February 18, and the US$30,000, US$40,000, and US$50,000 lines crossed on the next day. As mentioned above, the winning bid for the immaculate iPhone 1 was US$63,356.40, which was posted by a private bidder.

Perhaps what helped this particular iPhone reach such heady heights was that it was the 8 GB variant, which was initially launched for US$599 while the 4 GB model was priced at US$499. In addition to that, the 2007 first-generation iPhone came with a Samsung ARM-based SoC that could manage a clock rate of 412 MHz and a generous 128 MB of storage space. The main camera equipment on the rear was made up of a sole 2 MP sensor and the display offered a 320x480 resolution and was a 3.5-inch LCD panel. The first iPhone was a success for Apple in terms of sales, with over 6.1 million units shipped, although this pales into comparison with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus from 2014, which are two of the best-selling smartphones ever with 222.4 million combined sales.

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