RR Auction has auctioned off first-generation iPhones in the past, but compared to Apple 1 computers and other items from Steve Jobs, the devices are “very rare,” said Livingston. — RR Auction
It might not have the memory, or the camera, of today’s handy-dandy devices, but a Boston-based auction house is seeing people willing to pay top dollar for a first-generation iPhone.
Top dollar, as in nearly US$45,000.
A first-generation iPhone that RR Auction put on the block in late July has collected just 17 bids, but the latest one offered a whopping US$44,799. People wanting to jump in on the frenzy have until Thursday, when the auction will close.
RR Auction has auctioned off first-generation iPhones in the past, but compared to Apple 1 computers and other items from Steve Jobs, the devices are “very rare,” said Bobby Livingston, the auction house’s executive vice president.
“Nobody thought the iPhone was going to become as iconic as it would, so you wouldn’t save it,” Livingston told the Herald on Tuesday. “These were meant to be used so when you get one of these first-generations that are still sealed, it’s very appealing to a collector who loves technology.”
The eight-gigabyte iPhone up for grabs has never been opened before, with it still inside a box which has an image showing the device with “twelve preloaded icons on its screen, indicating that it is from the earliest production,” according to RR Auction.
A former Apple employee who worked for more than a decade at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., put the device up for auction.
Another never-opened-before first-generation iPhone sold for more than US$63,000 in an online auction in February through Louisiana-based LCG Auctions. That figure represented more than 100 times its original cost.
“These iPhones are kind of a new segment of collectibles,” Livingston said, “and it just shows you never know what’s going to come and be the next fad at auction. This is obviously it. There’s top dollars being paid for them.” – Boston Herald/Tribune News Service
