Four unopened original-gen iPhones could fetch over $200K in auction

Four unopened original generation iPhone units, each one still nesting in their original sealed box, are being auctioned off this month. LCG Auctions started accepting bids for the four handsets individually on June 30th and the bidding will end at 5 PM EDT on July 16th. Each of the four original iPhone models is different which means that they will all end up with different valuations. Since bidding opened up just yesterday and current bids are low, it is expected that the four 2007 iPhone units will total bids in a range of $115,000 to $210,000.

The most valuable iPhone among the four is the model with 4GB of storage which means it was released in 2007 for $499. There have been two bids on this phone with the high bid currently at $11,000. The second OG iPhone still in its original sealed box is the 2007 model with 8GB of storage which was priced at $599 when first released. This unit has received just one bid presently for $5,000.

The 8GB iPhone from 2007 has an interesting past. It was given by Apple to Phil Martino who directed the late Steve Jobs during his iPhone unveiling during Macworld in 2007. As a token of appreciation, Martino was gifted the iPhone that is now being auctioned off.

The third original generation iPhone being auctioned while still in the original sealed box has 16GB of storage which means that it was produced 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 one bid on this phone for $2,500. Lastly, there is another 8GB OG iPhone in its original sealed box up for bids. This unit is from Europe and is locked to carrier O2 (not that anyone is going to open the box and use the phone). So far, there have been no bids on this unit.

The auction house estimates that the winning bid for the 4GB model will be in the range of $50,000 to $100,000. For the 2007 8GB model, the estimate is for a winning bid in the range of $45,000 to $60,000. The 16GB unit from 2008 is estimated to fetch a winning bid in the range of $20,000 to $30,000 while the European 8GB OG iPhone is expected to generate a winning bid in the range of $10,000 to $20,000. You might recall that earlier this year an unopened 8GB iPhone still in its shrink-wrapped box was auctioned off for $63,356.40.

Here is an interesting tidbit that you might want to know. You can tell the original 8GB OG iPhone release 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 13th icon for iTunes.

As cool and cutting-edge as the original iPhone was, it did not offer 3G connectivity and instead relied on AT&T's EDGE in the U.S. which was somewhere in between 2G and 3G. Users in the states saw a huge drop off in the quality of YouTube videos on EDGE and on Wi-Fi. And if you were using the browser, you could miss a phone call when one came in. The OG iPhone also did not offer video recording and did not feature stereo Bluetooth.

Support for 3G connectivity came with the iPhone 3G and the ability to record video debuted on the iPhone 3GS. The OG iPhone, the iPhone 3G, and the iPhone 3GS were exclusive to AT&T in the U.S. until February 2011 when Verizon added the iPhone 4 to its lineup. T-Mobile customers first had the opportunity to buy an iPhone in April 2013 when the iPhone 5 was offered to T-Mobile customers alongside the older iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s.