How much would you pay for a piece of high-tech history? For one collector, the answer was just over $39,000.
That’s how much the bidder paid this weekend for a factory-sealed model of the first edition iPhone — their winning bid was $39,339.60.
The 8GB smartphone was sold by LCG Auctions on Sunday. The device originally sold for $599 in 2007 — or $852 in 2022 after inflation — and saw its price rise rapidly from its opening bid of $2,500 to well into the five digits.
“We expected bids on this item to be fervent and it did not disappoint as a handful of eager and sophisticated collectors pushed the price from just over $10,000 on Sunday afternoon to this record Sunday evening amount,” LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero . said in a statement.
“Congratulations to the winners, our entrants and all bidders for making this one of the most active auctions in our history.”
Steve Jobs first unveiled the original iPhone in 2007, and Apple quickly sold millions of copies.
The phone sold over the weekend was advertised as being in “exceptional condition,” with “impeccable” labels under the plastic seal and no aftermarket stickers on the box.
In addition to the 8 GB of storage space, the phone also has a 2 megapixel camera.
For context, the base model of the recently released iPhone 14 has 128 GB of storage and has a 12-megapixel main camera with an ultra-wide angle lens.
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