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Original sealed in plastic iPhone commands $35K at auction

Image Credit: RR Auction

Last updated

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.

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.

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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.

9 Comments

zeus423 20 Years · 280 comments

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

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes
22july2013 12 Years · 3794 comments

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.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
jdw 19 Years · 1472 comments

Thankfully, the GRID-1 can be had for much cheaper and is always viewable from your wall!

:smile:
 No battery to worry about exploding either.

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

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
charlesn 12 Years · 1385 comments

"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." 

6 Likes · 0 Dislikes
bluefire1 11 Years · 1316 comments

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. 

1 Like · 0 Dislikes