Original sealed in plastic iPhone commands $35K at auction

AppleInsider

A recent Apple hardware sale didn't just generate big money for an original Apple I board. At the same auction, a new and sealed first-generation iPhone also sold for over $35,000.

Image Credit: RR Auction

The items were part of RR Auction's "Apple, Jobs, and Computer Hardware" auction.

That same auction featured a rare Apple-1 prototype reportedly owned by Steve Jobs, which sold for $677,196.

Also included in the auction was an unopened first-generation iPod, which sold for $25,000, according to ZDnet.

Apple gear often sells for steep prices at auction. A vintage Apple check for $9.18 signed by Jobs sold for $55,000 in June.

In January, an autographed note signed by Jobs sold for $124,998. In the same auction was Steve Jobs' hand-annotated Pixar business card, which sold for $13,289.

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zeus423

I think the value will drop when the battery eventually bulges or leaks. It can’t last forever. 

22july2013

Maybe the "Apple I Registry" website for Apple's original 1976 motherboard needs to be expanded to include "Unopened Apple iPhone 1", which are already selling at 50 times the original purchase price. (Actually, you couldn't purchase the original iPhone without a 2-year contract, so maybe it's truthfully only 25 times the original unsubsidized value.) Some original Apple I motherboards are selling for 1000 times their original price.

jdw

Thankfully, the GRID-1 can be had for much cheaper and is always viewable from your wall!  No battery to worry about exploding either.

The iPhone 2G is fast becoming the Apple I in terms of outrageous pricing!

charlesn

"And in related news, the same auction house actually paid an attendee $20,000 to simply take a still sealed, original brown Zune off their hands." 

bluefire1

I still have the very first iPhone (2007) and its original box. Used it for a year, bought the second iPhone that came out but always kept the original. 

edited August 2022

fred1

JP234 said:

I was working for Apple when both came out. I bought Apple stock when the phone appeared. Wish I'd bought one of the phones (and kept it wrapped) too. Well, the stock turned out to be the much better buy.

At least you have the stock!

All I have is an iPod Nano. Still working though. 

Any offers?

petri

I get the motherboard, it’s a real and genuinely rare piece of history you can actually look at that and possibly even use.

Paying a premium for a sealed box makes no sense to me at all.  Until you open it, it’s just a cardboard box which might not even contain anything.  After you open it, you’ve lost almost all the value, and you’re just left holding one of the millions of other old iPhones there are out there… the worst version of it at that.

oberpongo

Putting those $500 into Apple stock at launch date would have fetched $22k by now plus dividends. Considering that on paid around $10 per month premium on the mandatory 2year contract plus Tax increasing purchase price to $790. which invested in Apple also got you $35k by now.