The value of an old phone can even exceed the market price of gold.
Collectors pay large sums of money for unopened packages, if the contents of the package are interesting enough. Colourbox/Mega
Old technology can be a sought-after item on the collector’s market. At least that seems to have been the case with the American by Karen Green under. He bought the first generation iPhone in 2007 at the urging of his friends. The United States public radio reported about it NPR.
The technology company Apple released the first generation iPhone in the United States in 2007. In Europe, the phone in question was sold in Great Britain, France and Germany.
After buying the phone, the package remained unopened on the shelf. At the time, Green had a new phone with no smart features.
– I didn’t want to get rid of my previous new phone. I thought that the iPhone will not become obsolete, Green stated The Doctor & Diva on the television show in 2019.
The phone had 8 gigabytes of memory. The price of the device was $599 in the US market in its year of release.
A collector’s treasure
Years after the purchase, Green speculated that collectors might be interested in the phone. In the television program, the price of the device was estimated at 5000 dollars.
The phone went like hot stones in the LCG auction. The starting price of the phone was 2,500 dollars and there were a total of 27 price increases. The device was used by ten different people.
The device was finally sold for $63,356.40 (€58,878.65), which is more than 100 times the original price. First generation iPhones in unopened packages have been auctioned before 33,000 and 36,500 in euro.
The value of Karen’s iPhone exceeded the value of gold more than seven times. The first generation iPhone weighed 135 grams. The same amount of gold is worth approx 7,900 euro.
The successor to the first generation was the iPhone 3G, which had better connection features than its predecessor. This went on sale in Finland on July 11, 2008.
– There aren’t any worse ones (first generation iPhones) here in Finland. Hardly even in the world, regional director of the Helsingin pant Riku Järviö tells by email.
According to the Helsinki deposit, they last sold first-generation iPhones 10–15 years ago.