iPhone: a new copy of the original model sold for €35,000 at auction

A very special copy of the original iPhone has been sold at auction. It was sold for 35,000 euros. Its particularity: the smartphone has never been used. It is still in its sealed box. It remains to be seen if the electronics inside are still functional and, above all, if when starting, the smartphone can be used. Because iOS has changed a lot since 2007, when it was first marketed.

There are often beautiful nuggets that appear on auction sites. There are of course some curiosities, such as the USB type-C compatible iPhone X, created by an engineering student. There are also some video game rarities. A Sonic on Megadrive sold more than 400,000 euros. A Super Mario Bros on NES sold 560,000 euros. Etc.

The first SMS in history will be sold at auction, it is estimated at more than 100,000 euros!

Almost a year ago, we reported in our columns that an Apple-1, the first computer from the Cupertino company, had been sold on a site for more than 500,000 dollars. It is one of the few (only around twenty) to have been cared for enough to still be functional today. A real antique today, since the computer celebrated its 45th birthday in 2021. And here is another unusual story about another Apple product, perhaps even more emblematic: the first iPhone.

A new original iPhone sold for 35,000 euros at auction

An incredibly well-preserved example was sold on the RR Auction. Indeed, the smartphone is still in a completely sealed box, with the plastic packaging around. Suffice to say that the phone, here in a black version with 8 GB of storage, and all its accessories are new. The auction ended last week and the iPhone was sold for $35,414, or around 35000 euro.

The purchaser of this smartphone can therefore boast of having one of the last new copies of the original iPhone. It is logically functional, but if there is nothing to prove it before having powered it up (with a good charging session, because the battery must be completely empty). And there is also no evidence that the smartphone could be used daily today.

A copy that will have a hard time working today

Indeed, when it was launched in June 2007, the original iPhone only had no iTunes Store to buy music (this will only come a few months later with iPhone OS 1.1), or App Store, since the latter was integrated into the smartphone ecosystem with iPhone OS 2.0, in 2008. Clearly, do not imagine installing TikTok on this phone. In addition, the updates have been removed from Apple’s servers and iTunes no longer exists… In short, this iPhone would today have more place in a museum as it has contributed to changing the world of telephony.