Have you got any unopened first-generation iPhones lying around? Because you might be sitting on an absolute fortune. Cast your mind back to the days when owning an iPhone was rare - it seems like an incredibly long time ago, doesn't it? When Steve Jobs first took to the stage and unveiled a touchscreen phone that also acts as a camera and music player, people were absolutely stunned - and now that is seen as the bare minimum. It turns out that the iPhones that amazed us back in the mid to late noughties are now something of a collector's item, as one has sold at auction for a staggering amount. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263221506" src="https://img.vt.co/2023/07/GettyImages-93456791.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" />[[imagecaption|| First generation iPhones are collecting a staggering amount at auction. Credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty]] As reported by <a href="https://people.com/rare-first-generation-iphone-sells-at-auction-190k-7562631" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PEOPLE</a>, a first-generation iPhone 4GB sold for a staggering $190,000 - which was way above the estimated price. The phone was described as the "holy grail amongst iPhone collectors" by <a href="https://auction.lcgauctions.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=1102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LCG Auctions</a>, though the estimate was between $50,000 - $100,000, meaning that it sold for $90,000 more than the highest it was expected to reach. Still in its original wrapping, the phone was described as an "extraordinary collectible" and "exceedingly rare". For context - when the iPhone 4GB first hit the market in 2007, you could pick it up for $499... feeling pretty silly that you didn't keep one in mint condition until now, aren't you? But hindsight is always 20/20. The first bid on the listing came in at $10,000, and it only took 28 bids to take it to the whopping final price tag. "Its extreme scarcity is directly related to its limited production," LCG wrote on the listing. "The phone's provenance is pristine as the consignor was part of the original engineering team at Apple when the iPhone first launched. Collectors and investors would be hard-pressed to find a superior example." When the iPhone 4GB was first released, an 8GB counterpart was also on offer and this proved much more popular with customers, and even went as far as to slow the sales of the phone with lesser memory, making it much rarer nowadays. That doesn't mean that the 8GB version still in the original wrapping is cheap - because that will still fetch over $50,000 at auction. As per the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/20/first-gen-2007-iphone-sells-for-more-than-63000/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>, earlier this year a first-generation iPhone 8GB fetched just over $63,000 - a pretty big increase from its original retail price of $599. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263221507" src="https://img.vt.co/2023/07/GettyImages-72955624.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="679" />[[imagecaption|| Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007. Credit: David Paul Morris/Getty]] The phone was owned by Karen Green who was given it as a gift back in 2007 but kept it in storage as she didn't want to change her current device. The phones are expected to only increase in value as the years roll on - so it's time to dig through your old drawers with your fingers crossed! Sadly, modern iPhones won't appreciate in value the same way, simply because there are millions of them. <h6>Featured image credit: David Paul Morris/Getty</h6>

Rare first generation iPhone sells for an enormous $190,000 at auction

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