When the original iPhone hit the market in the US in the summer of 2007, the 8 GB model cost exactly $599 with a two-year cell phone contract. Today, almost 15 years later, exactly such a device went under the hammer at an American auction house for a whopping $35,414 (including buyer’s commission).
Surprise iPhone for $35,414
The reason for the enormous price might be that Auction item still sealed and unopened was. The owner had bought it and then not touched it for the said 15 years. Even the price estimates for the device, which the special auctioneer RR had previously made, were gigantic: it was estimated that it would fetch at least $15,000 – which has now more than doubled.
The auction, which was advertised as a “New-in-box example of the original iPhone”, had a certain element of surprise: since the outer packaging was logically not allowed to be opened in advance, the customer bought the iPhone in a bag – and had to hope that the storage ran correctly over the years and the hardware had not aged massively.
What you got in iPhone packaging in 2007
The status of 2007 is clearly visible on the packaging: the last row of icons on the model’s home screen, which was printed on the front, is still empty, because there was no app store at the time, nor was there an iTunes store app for the purchase of music. Apple submitted the latter with the first major software update in autumn 2007. Otherwise, it is a model intended for AT&T (Apple’s US mobile communications partner at the time, formerly Cingular).
In addition to the iPhone 2007, the package also includes a stereo headset with microphone, a dock with a dock-to-USB 2.0 cable and a power adapter. At that time, the iPhone transmitted in WLAN networks (802.11b/g) and via EDGE. UMTS was not supported, it only came with the iPhone 3G. Bluetooth 2.0 support was also on board. Incidentally, the first iPhone is not really rare: Apple is said to have sold a total of 6.1 million units. But very few of them stayed sealed.
