First generation iPhone likely to be auctioned off for a whopping $50,000
Steve Jobs with the iPhone
With the launch of every new model of the Apple iPhone, the price of the device also keeps going up. But despite rising prices, its popularity refuses to ebb. The craze is so high that an unopened first generation iPhone is set to rake in more than $50,000 at an auction, a whopping 80 times its original price.
Business Insider reported that Karen Green, 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.
The cosmetic tattoo artist, in October, 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.”
He added, “It was shocking because we had gotten so many duds.”
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The auction house put a price estimate of “$50,000 and up” on the phone, the bidding for which started Thursday and will end on February 19.
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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