Andrew Orr
The "Steve Jobs and the Apple Computer Revolution" auction has concluded, and the sealed original iPhone sold for $54,904.
The auction, which ran from February 17 to March 16, featured items signed by Apple co-founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Other historic products included an Apple Lisa 1 owned by former Apple executive Del Yocam and an original factory-sealed iPhone.
The results have been published by RR Auction, together with the estimated and actual selling prices. For example, some headlining items were a working Apple-1 computer autographed by Steve Wozniak and an original factory-sealed iPhone from 2007.
The Apple-1 sold for an undisclosed amount, but RR Auction estimated it was worth over $500,000. Last night's bidding didn't meet the seller's expectations, but the auction house reached out to all interested parties and achieved a sale today.
The cost of the first iPhone, meanwhile, was $54,904. Another iPhone, an iPhone 11 model with a Tim Cook autograph, went for $3,976.
One of the other computers up for action was an Apple Lisa 1 owned by Yocam, who ran the Apple II group and later became Apple's first chief operating officer (COO) in the 1980s. It had an estimated worth of over $65,000 and sold for $81,251.
Another item in the auction was a handwritten note from Steve Jobs with technical instructions and schematics. It may be for a digital counting mechanism related to an Apple-1 computer.
"Coincidentally, Jobs would later modify an Apple-1 computer (currently owned by J.B. Pritzker) to act as a display at an auto shop that would reveal the customer number of the most recently serviced vehicle," RR Auction notes.
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5 Comments
There's one born every....cycle.
If the iPhone is in a sealed box then what about the battery. Over time all li-ion batteries degrade then swell, especially if they are discharged like that will be. It has been in there for sixteen years, surely that would have swelled and damaged the iPhone by now. It would be at risk of spontaneous combustion, too?