First-generation iPhone sells at auction for around 380 times its original price

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs holding an Apple iPhone at the MacWorld Conference in January 2007 in San Francisco (Paul Sakuma/AP)

A first-generation iPhone has sold at auction for $190,373 (€169,369), roughly 380 times its original price of $49 (€44) when the groundbreaking device went on sale in 2007.

LCG Auctions, which hosted the sale, said the 4GB iPhone model was 20 times rarer than the 8GB model released at the same time for $599 (€534).

That is largely because the 4GB model was discontinued two months after launch given customer preference for the larger memory size.

We are thrilled to be a part of this fantastic record-breaking sale

“A new bar was set Sunday night,” said Mark Montero, the founder of LCG Auctions.

“We are thrilled to be a part of this fantastic record-breaking sale.”

It is the third original iPhone to sell for record prices at auction in the past year.

An 8GB model sold for $63,356 (€56,366) in February and another 8GB model fetched $39,340 (€35,000) in October 2022.

All were factory sealed in their original packaging.

The iPhone is one of the world’s most successful electronic products and helped make Apple the first publicly held company with a three trillion dollar market value.

The company, based in Cupertino, California, reached that milestone 16 years after the first iPhones were sold.