A first generation iPhone fetches $63,000 at auction

By Jennifer Korn, CNN

A first-generation 2007 iPhone sold for more than $63,000 in an online auction Sunday, more than 100 times its original cost. Dubbed a “first-edition” device by auctioneer LCG Auctions, the box had never been opened.

The original iPhone cost $599 and offered early Apple adopters a 3.5-inch screen with a 2-megapixel camera, plus 4 GB and 8 GB storage options, internet capabilities and iTunes. It had no app store, ran on a 2G network and was exclusive to AT&T’s network.

Bidding on this phone began online earlier this month at $2,500. All told, there were 27 bids on it, according to LCG’s website. Mark Montero, founder of LCG Auctions, told CNN that 10 buyers vied for the iPhone and the winner was “an individual from the US.”

Cosmetic tattoo artist Karen Green was gifted the 8 GB version and never broke the seal, according to her appearance on daytime television program “The Doctor & The Diva” in 2019. An appraiser on the show valued the phone at $5,000 at that time.

Another unopened first-generation iPhone like Green’s sold for over $39,000 in a listing also by LCG Auctions that closed in October.

The iPhone changed the way billions of people around the world communicate, make payments, do their jobs, take photos and even how they wake up in the morning. It killed dozens of industries (camcorders, MP3 players, flip phones) and gave life to many more.

Speaking at Apple’s annual Macworld expo in 2007, then-Apple boss Steve Jobs opened his presentation with: “We’re going to make some history together today.” Jobs called the new smartphone a “revolutionary mobile phone” that will feature an iPod, phone and what he called an “Internet communicator.”

“It’s bad out there today,” said Jobs of mobile Web browsers. “It’s a real revolution to bring real Web browsing to a phone.”

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