A first-generation iPhone sold for $190K at an auction this week. Here's why.

A first-generation iPhone sold for over $190,000 on Sunday after receiving a rush of bids for the item in the last hours of its availability.

The iPhone is factory-sealed, has 4GB of memory, and was originally released in 2007. Back then, the phone was sold for $499. In 2023, the phone would cost around $700.

LCG Auctions, the host of the sale, told USA TODAY that original iPhones have jumped in price and demand in recent years.

"They've been kind of a high-end collectible for a while now, but about a year ago, they started really kind of setting record prices," said Mark Montero, the founder of LCG Auctions.

Montero said the $190K sale is the third unopened, original iPhone to sell for major amounts this past year. A first release 8GB model sold for $39,340 in October 2022 and a second 8GB model sold for $63,356 in February.

The bidding period for this iPhone was from June 30 to July 16. Montero said going into the final day of bidding, bids were around $60,000.

"That morning, we'd just broken the previous record of $63,000 by like a little bit and it went from that to $190,000 which we certainly did not expect. That was almost double the high estimate," he shared.

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How did the sale happen?

Montero said the newest auction came after the $63,000 sale in February, which gained the company national attention.

"We got a call from California, somebody that used to work for Apple and was on the engineering team at the time in 2007, and she had one and it happened to be a 4GB model which we had not sold," he said.

The call excited the auction company because up until then, they had only ever seen and sold the 8GB version of the original iPhone.

"There were collectors on the sideline kind of looking for something different and unique, and now here's something unique in that it was a 4GB," Montero said.

The company originally opened bids at $10,000 and expected the item to sell between $50,000 and $100,000. The iPhone received 28 bids in total, with the second highest being $158,644.

"The seller's thrilled," Montero said.

Why did the item sell for so much?

Part of the reason the iPhone was worth so much money was its memory size, Montero said.

"It's important to note that the 4[GB] was discontinued two months in as the 8[GB] continued to sell, and that's why we think there's such a price difference because the 4 is so much rarer than the 8 but both are first releases," he said.

Montero said he's seen a trend in recent years where collectors are moving toward purchasing "iconic" pieces or memorabilia from their past, such as toys.

The auction company recently sold a Transformers: Megatron toy set for over $57,000 that follows this trend. Overall, these recognizable items are becoming desirable for collectors as they look back on childhood.

"Collectors are navigating toward super rare items that were never meant to be collectibles in the first place when they came out," Montero said.

The toys were meant to be played with and iPhones were meant to be used, he said, so no one thought of them as collectibles when they were originally released, which is what makes them collectible today.

Since the original iPhone is so recognizable and was groundbreaking when it came out, it would make sense that many people would use it immediately, making unopened versions rarer.

"You would use it because it was $500 when it came out. Who would buy a $500 phone and not use it back then?" Montero said.

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Why are some items collectables?

Collectability really depends on the condition of the item. To Montero, the most important factor is for the collectible to be factory sealed.

"That's the most important thing. We've gotten so many calls since the sale with people calling in saying 'well, I still have my iPhone, but it's an open iPhone, like it's used. It's not brand new in the box and sealed'," he shared.

The value difference between a sealed and unsealed item is monumental. In the case of the original iPhones, an opened original phone is worth about $100.

"That's kind of a standard with the high-end collectibles that they need to be brand new, factory sealed and unopened condition," Montero said.

Looking toward the future, Montero expects to continue to see sealed, pop culture items being sold for big profits.

"Whether it be an iPhone, or an original Transformer, GI Joe or Star Wars figure, they're all really getting big prices and the thing that they have in common is that they're recognized by the age group of probably 35 to 65 for the most part, and they're all factory sealed, unopened, mint condition items."