An original iPhone sold at auction recently fetched an eye-watering $133,000 when it went under the hammer, but couldn’t crack the record set by an identical device sold earlier this year.
Hosted by LCG auctions, the original 2007 4GB iPhone was listed alongside several other rare Apple items, including a factory-sealed original iPod, a few more iPhones, and a 20-year service award given to an Apple employee.
While selling a $499 iPhone for $133,435.20 at auction isn’t terrible business by any stretch, the seller will probably be wishing they’d listed it earlier this year. That’s because an almost identical iPhone fetched a record $190,000 at auction, ironically through the same auction house.
The model in question, the 4GB version from 2007, is exceedingly rare because it was discontinued less than three months after it was released because most customers chose the 8GB version. By contrast, a sealed 8GB version currently on sale over at RR Auction is *only* estimated to fetch $10,000+ when the hammer comes down on November 8. A similar device only fetched $7,260 in LCG’s auction, despite (or perhaps because of) its “with iTunes” box variant that includes a 13th icon on the iPhone packaging’s Home Screen.
As such, it’s something of a “Holy Grail” amongst collectors and extremely desirable
A bit of a letdown
However, the device fell well short of the estimated $175,000 - $225,000 price, despite the listing which notes the model was “identical to the recording breaking model sold in July.” What’s more, it even included the Apple store receipt and bag and was described as the “finest we have handled” when it comes to iPhones.
Perhaps selling two in quick succession gave away the fact these phones aren’t quite as rare as we might have thought. The fact the original iPhone cost $500 at launch shows how far we’ve come to Apple’s current best iPhone, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which boasts a massive $1,199 price tag. If auctioned memorabilia isn’t your cup of tea or you want something more current, then the best Black Friday iPhone deals could get you a new one free when you buy with a Boost Infinite plan. You can spend the rest of your money on a house.
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