Photo: Corbis Historical
An original iPhone still sealed in its original packaging just sold for more than $63,000 in an online auction. The phone belonged to Karen Green, who received it as a gift when she got a management job at PetSmart.
According to Business Insider, Green didn't want to change phones because she already had three phone lines with Verizon, and in 2007, the iPhone was exclusive to customers with AT&T. So instead of switching to AT&T and paying an early termination fee or getting a new account with the phone company, Green put the unopened box and a shelf and didn't think much about it.
When Green recently saw that another first-generation iPhone was listed on eBay for $10,000, she decided to look into selling the phone. She reached out to LCG Auctions and was told that it was worth about $5,000, much higher than the $599 the phone sold for when it launched.
When the original iPhone went on sale earlier in the month, the initial bid was $2,500. Mark Montero, the founder of LCG Auctions, told CNN that ten people placed a total of 27 bids on the phone. When the auction closed on Sunday (February 19), "an individual from the U.S." won the phone with a bid of $63,356.40, more than 100x what the phone originally sold for.