The starting bid for a 15-year-old iPhone on the LCG Auctions site was listed as $2,500, but the now-ancient (in tech years) device ended up going for a whole lot more. Gizmodo reports that the unopened 2007 iPhone, a first-gen 8GB model from the year Apple debuted its smartphone, was sold on Sunday for just shy of $40,000—$39,339.60, to be exact. That particular version sold for $599 when it came out (around $860 adjusted for inflation).
CNBC notes the winning bid is more than 50 times the device's original price. The auction site had listed the phone as being in "exceptional condition," as the box had never been cracked open. "Virtually flawless along the surface and edges, the factory seal is clean with correct seam details and tightness," the description takes great pains to detail. "Collectors and investors would be hard pressed to find a superior example."
Gizmodo notes that today's iPhone are leaps and bounds ahead of the original—storage now ranges from 32GB to 1TB, there's GPS tracking, and you can add apps to the device—but the appeal of this Apple relic was irresistible. "We expected the bidding for this item to be fervent and it did not disappoint as a handful of avid and sophisticated collectors drove the price from just over $10,000 on Sunday afternoon to this record-setting amount by Sunday night," LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero said in a statement, per CNBC. It's not clear who scooped up the phone, but Montero offers congrats to "the winners." (More iPhone stories.)
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