First generation iPhone fetches record-breaking amount at auction. Here's how much it sold for
Steve Jobs with the iPhone
A first-generation iPhone was auctioned off for a record-breaking price of $63,356 (approx Rs 52,00,000). This was the highest sale ever recorded for the first generation iPhone that released in 2007. The sale happened on Sunday evening for a still factory sealed phone and sold for $52,797 at the US auction house called LCG Auctions.
A 20 per cent buyer's premium fee was charged, bringing the total sale to over $60,000. The iPhone had a 3.5-inch screen and a single two-megapixel camera. It had cost $599 at the time. The phone was expected to rake in more than $50,000, a whopping 80 times its original price.
Karen Green, a cosmetic tattoo artist, the owner of the phone, had received the phone as a gift years back for a new job. But since it wasn't compatible with the existing network, she wrapped it and kept it away. She had three phone lines with Verizon, and iPhones at that time could only use AT&T.
Also Read |First generation iPhone likely to be auctioned off for a whopping $50,000
In October, she came to know of a first generation iPhone from 2007 that had sold for $39,339.60. She then contacted LCG Auctions, the auction house that handled the sale.
“We got calls from everybody but 99 per cent of them didn’t have the same thing,” LCG Auctions founder, Mark Montero, told Business Insider. “But Karen had a really unique piece with a great story behind it.”
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In 2019, she saw an unopened, first generation iPhone being listed on eBay for $10,000. She immediately asked her son to bring the phone to check if it was in fact an unopened, first generation iPhone. She appeared on the daytime TV show "Doctor & the Diva" with the phone where she learnt that the estimated value of her iPhone was set at $5000. She decided to hold selling it off.
But last year, she came across the auction where it was sold for nearly $40,000.
Green says since she needs the money for her business that she started some time back, she decided to sell it off this time.
"If I could hold off on the phone for like another 10 years, I probably would," Green told Business Insider. "The only reason why I am selling that phone is because I need to support this business," she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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