“Ten years ago, people were lining up to buy the very first generation of Apple’s new product, the iPhone,” Buster Coen reports for TheStreet. “Initially priced at $599 for an 8GB model, the device was more expensive than most other phones on the market, but the novel touchscreen, capacity for music and inclusion of the Safari web browser made the hefty fee worth it for many.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Hefty.” We paid $969 for each of our iPhone 7 Plus 256GB Jet Black units. Note also than on September 6, 2007, Apple cut the price to $399 at the start of the holiday shopping season. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained, “Well, that’s what happens in technology.”
“Now, a decade later, the price has actually climbed even higher for a 1st generation iPhone because of its collectible value — as long it’s new and unopened,” Coen reports. “Currently, the product that was first released to the public on June 29, 2007 is selling for $4,000 on eBay unopened and in its original packaging. Other sellers on eBay are offering brand new 1st-gen iPhones for around the same price.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: $4,000 seems low for an unopened original iPhone.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “BD” for the heads up.]
Unopened, huh? Shrink wrap isn’t that hard to acquire and apply…so is there really a Version 1 iPhone in the box? I’d reserve the right to X-ray the package upon receipt.
I got my first gen iPhone, but I did use it 🙂
I still have a Gen 1 iPhone. Fired it up and it still works.
I still have my working 16GB iPhone 2G. I don’t use it much but it’s just so pretty.
I have an app that downloaded a text version of the whole of Wikipedia, so it can still be useful, even offline.
I did think about buying 2 original iPhones, and keeping one unopened.
Having said that, if you spent $599 on Apple shares, instead of on an unopened iPhone 10yrs ago, those shares would be worth $5000, which is more than that mint iPhone.
An original Macintosh box sold for $536.00.
Uh, then why did mine cost $2K? And that was with the faculty discount!
An original box. Just the box with packing materials. Intro price was 2499. Salespeople could buy one for $1000.
The 8GB model priced in 2007 for $600. would equate to $720. in 2017 for that $4,000. phone. That’s a $3,280.% profit for that one phone but only if it did not cost you anything to store it, if your mama kept it for you, for example, and did not throw it away beause she was tired of keeping your stuff.
Everything being equal, this amt. of profit would be proportionally less to the number of those phones on the market now.
More like 600%. 3,280% profit would have a selling price of about 1,713,600.
In related news, the motherboard for the first Android phone ever made was sold for a record breaking price yesterday on the exclusive and upscale auctioneering site called eBay.
Bidding was fierce, with 17 participants engaging in a harsh, no prisoners taken, bidding war.
The lucky winner who was able to walk away with the rare, one of a kind item, came in with a bold bid of $1.43 USD in the final minutes of the frenzied auction. The remaining 16 bidders just couldn’t compete with the big spender who was ultimately successful in scoring the prized historical item. “This item will go down in history as a significant technical acheivement and is the inspiration for all modern phones made today”, claimed the winner, John Smith, while being interviewed in front of his domicile, a cardboard box.
Source:
https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/comment/2883536/#Comment_2883536
We have two Gen 1 8gb iPhones, bought on the first day they were available, from the Apple Cube in NYC. Charged them up today and connected to wifi. They still work!
Wow are they tiny. And low res. We have the original boxes of course. We used the phones but they are undamaged. Amazing to think that they could be worth something now or in the future.
What’s really worth something is the AAPL we bought back then. THANK YOU STEVE JOBS
$4000, fully subsidized? And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard!