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Original unopened iPod to sell for record-breaking $29,000

An unopened iPod

Last updated

A first-generation iPod that's been around the auction block is up for sale once again — fetching the highest price yet at $29,000.

The original iPod launched in 2001 for $399. The unit up for auction was originally purchased and offered as a gift, then left unopened for over a decade on a shelf.

A $20,000 eBay bid in 2014 saw it change hands, followed by a $25,000 RR auction sale in 2018. Since then, it's been through eBay sales multiple times and after then being in a private collection, next landed at Rally, a museum/trading hub located in Manhattan.

Items owned by Rally are put on an open market where people can buy "shares" of the product. If a collector buys out the product shares to own the product in full, the shareholders make the difference.

In a more regular auction in October 2022, a factory-sealed and never opened original iPhone went under the hammer for just over $39,000.



3 Comments

morky 200 comments · 18 Years

I remember the packaging was great on the original iPod I gifted in 2001. Apparently that unboxing cost me $28,601.

M68000 887 comments · 7 Years

Can you imagine if somebody has a G4 cube in a sealed new box?  Could it go for $100,000 ?  Lol.   It would actually be cool if Apple brought back that design - except this time make the stand holding the computer out of high purity clear glass.

bestkeptsecret 4289 comments · 13 Years

morky said:
I remember the packaging was great on the original iPod I gifted in 2001. Apparently that unboxing cost me $28,601.

My first ever Apple product was the 3rd Generation iPod - 40GB. The Origami style packaging was like nothing else I had seen before. 
It included a dock, a sleeve with a belt clip and a wired remote! It had such a premium feel to it. 

I don't regret opening it!