When we reviewed the first iPhone in 2007, one of our main complaints was that the phone was tied to AT&T. At the time, carrier lockdown discouraged Karen Green, a Verizon customer, from opening the iPhone she had received as a gift. What was once a limiting inconvenience has resulted in Green making big bucks as this unopened iPhone was recently auctioned for $63,356.40, up 10,477 percent from the $599 it was worth. about 16 years ago.
The specs of the first iPhone are laughable by today’s standards and include 8GB of Samsung flash storage, a 2MP camera (decent for a camera phone at the time), and a 3.5-inch LCD screen.
As Business Insider reported on Monday, Green sold the phone through LCG auctions to fund her business after seeing how much other unopened first-generation iPhones had recently sold for. In August, one was auctioned off for $35,414, and in October, another unopened 2007 iPhone sold for $39,339.60. Green’s phone auction, which closed on Sunday, far outsold those sales.
Apparently, Green wasn’t the only one trying to resell the original iPhone after the October LCG Auction sale.
“We got calls from everyone, but 99 percent of them didn’t have the same one,”said LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero, according to Business Insider.
The 2007 iPhone was the most expensive item at the 2023 LCG Winter Premier Auction, followed by a 1978 Canadian Boba Fett figure that sold for $22,206.