Four unopened Original Generation iPhone units, each still in their original sealed box, will be auctioned off this month. LCG Auctions began accepting bids for the four phones individually on June 30, and bidding will end at 5:00 pm EDT on July 16. Each of the four original iPhone models is different, meaning they will all end up with different ratings. Since bidding opened just yesterday and current bidding is low, the four 2007 iPhone units are expected to total bids in the $115,000 to $210,000 range.
The most valuable iPhone of the four is the model with 4GB of storage, meaning it was released in 2007 for $499. There have been two deals on this phone with the highest bid currently at $11,000 . The second OG iPhone still in its original sealed packaging is the 2007 model with 8GB of storage priced at $599 when it was first released. This unit has only received one bid currently for $5,000.
Original Edition iPhone 4GB Expected to Get Winning Bid of $50,000 to $100,000
The 2007 8GB iPhone has an interesting past. It was donated by Apple to Phil Martino, who directed the late Steve Jobs at his iPhone presentation at Macworld in 2007. In appreciation, Martino was gifted the iPhone which is now being auctioned off.
This unopened OG 4GB iPhone could be bid up to $100,000 in an auction ending this month
The original third-generation iPhone being auctioned off while still in its original sealed box has 16GB of storage, meaning it was manufactured in 2008 before the iPhone 3G was released. We know this because, in early February 2008, Apple released the 16GB iPhone for $499. There is an offer on this phone for $2,500. Finally, there’s another 8GB OG iPhone in its original sealed box on offer. This unit is from Europe and is locked to O2 carrier (not that anyone is going to open the box and use the phone). There have been no offers for this unit to date.
The auction house estimates the winning bid for the 4GB model will be between $50,000 and $100,000. For the 2007 8GB model, the estimate is for a winning bid of $45,000 to $60,000. The 2008 16GB drive is estimated to garner a winning bid of $20,000 to $30,000, while the European OG 8GB iPhone is expected to generate a winning bid of $10,000 to $20,000. You may recall that earlier this year an unopened 8GB iPhone still in its shrink wrap sold at auction for $63,356.40.
How to tell if your original 8GB iPhone is a 2007 or 2008 model
Here’s an interesting tidbit you might want to know. You can tell the original version of the iPhone 8GB OG from the 2008 version by counting the number of icons on the home screen. The 2007 8GB iPhone had 12 icons while the 2008 variant came with a thirteenth icon for iTunes.
As cool and cutting-edge as the original iPhone was, it didn’t offer 3G connectivity and instead relied on EDGE from AT&T in the US, which fell somewhere between 2G and 3G. Users in the US have experienced a huge drop in YouTube video quality over EDGE and Wi-Fi. And if you were using the browser, you might miss a phone call when one came through. The OG iPhone also didn’t offer video recording and didn’t have stereo Bluetooth.
Support for 3G connectivity arrived with the iPhone 3G and the ability to record video debuted on the iPhone 3GS. The OG iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS were exclusive to AT&T in the United States until February 2011, when Verizon added the iPhone 4 to its lineup. T-Mobile customers first had the opportunity to purchase an iPhone in April 2013, when the iPhone 5 was offered to T-Mobile customers alongside older iPhone 4s and iPhone 4s.
