A first-generation iPhone that was still in its factory-sealed box was sold at auction on Sunday for a whopping $63,356.40.
The 8 GB iPhone was expected to sell for at least $50,000 but ended up making much more money.
After 27 people submitted online bids via LCG auctions, the Apple artifact was sold for more than 100 times what it had originally cost, which was $599 in 2007. Beginning on February 2, the bid was $2,500.
The initial smartphone model had a cutting-edge touchscreen, a web browser, and a 2-megapixel camera. When the phone first went on sale on June 29, 2007, customers could select between the model with 4 GB of storage for $499 or the model with 8 GB of storage for $599.
The iPhone was first introduced by Steve Jobs at the MacWorld trade exhibition in San Francisco. It was named “invention of the year” by Time Magazine and rapidly rose to the top of Apple’s best-selling products.
Karen Green, the happy seller of the $63K iPhone, claimed she received the device as a present from friends in 2007 when she started a new job.
In contrast, Green already had a new phone and refused to switch wireless providers in order to activate the iPhone, according to her.
It remained sealed on her shelf for 12 years before she had it valued in 2019 on the daytime television program “The Doctor & The Diva.”
“I didn’t want to get rid of my phone, and I figured, ‘It’s an iPhone, so it will never go out of date,’” she said during the show’s “Treasure Hunt” segment.
At the time, the show’s on-staff appraiser put a $5,000 value on it.
But, Green noticed in October that a brand-new, unopened iPhone went for $39,339 in a previous LCG auction.
After keeping the phone for all those years, she told Insider, she finally decided it was time to sell it in order to fund her brand-new venture: a cosmetic tattoo studio in New Jersey.
“If I could hold off on the phone for like another 10 years, I probably would,” Green told the outlet. “The only reason why I am selling that phone is because I need to support this business.”
A private buyer who has not been identified purchased the phone.
