Unopened, First-Gen iPhone Could Go for $50,000 at Auction
A first generation iPhone in its original box is going up for auction and an estimate says that the tech could go for as much as $50,000.
The phone belongs to Karen Green who received the phone as a gift from her friends after starting a new job. Appearing on daytime talkshow Doctor & The Diva in 2019, Green said that she never opened the iPhone because she had just gotten a new phone at the time and thought the iPhone would never go out of date. An appraiser on the show said the phone could be worth $5,000—when it originally cost $599 in 2007. But the phone is potentially worth $50,000 and is now being auctioned off by LCG Auctions, which has seen its fair share of vintage iPhones in the past.
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“We got calls from everybody, but 99% of them didn’t have the same thing,” said LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero to Business Insider. “But Karen had a really unique piece with a great story behind it. It was shocking because we had gotten so many duds.”
The iPhone is an 8 gigabyte first-generation iPhone with the camera, and bidding will start at $2,500. According to Business Insider, Green hung on to the phone after her appearance on Doctor & The Diva until she heard about another unopened, first-generation iPhone being sold for close to $40,000 in October of 2022. Green would’ve held out for longer if she wasn’t trying to get a new business off the ground.
“If I could hold off on the phone for like another 10 years, I probably would,” Green said to Business Insider. “The only reason why I am selling that phone is because I need to support this business.”
We’ve come a long way from the O.G. iPhone, Green’s auction helps us remember the humble beginnings of the smart phone era. Green’s iPhone is scheduled to go to auction today at 2 p.m. EST with a starting bid of $2,500.
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