An original, still-boxed iPhone sold at auction in February for what was then a record $63,000. But on Sunday another one sold for way, way more.
Rare iPhones have been going under the hammer for some large sums in recent months, and the latest auction to feature one of the first Apple handsets has just smashed the record for such a device.
Still sealed inside its original packaging, the handset was estimated to go for between $50,000 and $100,000, but the final bid came in at an eye-watering $158,644. That’s about $95,000 more than the previous record bid for a first-generation iPhone, which sold at auction in February.
So, why so much interest in this particular iPhone?
Well, according to Los Angeles-based LCG Auctions, which organized the sale, the lot is particularly rare as it’s a 4GB model (that’s storage, not RAM!), a variant that Apple ditched just two months after launch in 2007 due to poor sales, leaving customers with the much more popular 8GB option.
