Unopened first-gen iPhone fetches over P10 million at auction
An unopened first-generation iPhone has been sold for a whopping $190,373 (over P10 million)—around 380 times its original price.
According to ABC News, the bidding was completed last weekend by LCG Auctions, which said that the 4GB iPhone unit (originally priced at $499 or P27,000) was “20 times rarer” than its 8GB model (originally priced at $599 or P33,000). The former’s sale was halted two months after its launch as users wanted higher internal memory.
"Despite the extensive worldwide media exposure our previous sales received and the hundreds of contacts we've had with consumers who thought they had a factory-sealed original iPhone, this is the only 4GB factory-sealed version to surface," LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero shared.
"Based upon our recent record-setting sales and the fact that the 4GB model is probably 20-times rarer than the 8GB version, we are not surprised it established a new record price but surpassing the $190,000 mark was quite surprising," he added.
“A new bar was set Sunday night,” Montero said, describing it as a “fantastic record-breaking sale.”
In February this year, an unopened first-generation iPhone from 2007 fetched over $63,000 (P3.4 million) also at LCG Auctions. Another one was sold for over $40,000 (P2.2 million) a month later by Wright Auctions, a different auctioneer.
Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, introduced the iPhone to the world on Jan. 9, 2007, during the MacWorld conference in San Francisco.