The craze of unopened original iPhones is reaching unsuspected limits. These devices are reaching exorbitant prices at different auctions, reaching more than $60,000.
Taking that price into account, 40,000 still didn't seem so much to MKBHD, who bought an original iPhone and recorded how he opens it on video.
Marques Brownlee is one of the biggest tech YouTubers in the world and he's decided to make a pretty crazy investment by buying an original iPhone in its original, unopened box.
It is a rare iPhone with a sticker that fetched just over $40,000 at a recent auction. Now we know who paid the money.
One of the concerns with these types of sealed and unopened iPhones is that they are cheating you.
There are many YouTubers who have been deceived into buying an original iPhone that was sealed and supposedly unused. However, Marques Brownlee's looks like a real sealed and unused iPhone.
First of all, all the stickers and packaging were carefully placed, just like Apple does. Secondly, the iPhone took several hours to charge, the battery had never been used.
But, in addition, the iPhone has the original version of iOS, then known as iPhone OS 1.0. There are not many iPhones left with that version since iPhone OS 2.0 was introduced to the App Store and the vast majority of original iPhones available are in a more current version.
The auction of this original sealed iPhone (model A1203) was held at the Wright auction house on March 30 and reached a maximum offer of $40,320. The device came to Wright through Donald Gajadhar of Fox-White Art & Antique Appraisals.
Before offering it up for auction, the specialists from Fox-White Art & Antique Appraisals evaluated the packaging of the box in which they noticed a small tear. To ascertain the condition of the contents inside the box, they obtained X-ray images which showed that the original device and accessories were present and had not been tampered with.
It is a collector's device, and therefore its value is what someone is willing to pay. However, by opening it, Marques Brownlee has detracted from it's value quite a bit, for the sake of showing his followers the device.
