An unopened, first-generation iPhone from 2007 just sold for a record-breaking $190,000 at auction — more than 317 times its original price

• An unopened, original Apple iPhone from 2007 fetched nearly $200,000 at auction.
• The 4 GB first-generation iPhone sold for $190,372, blowing past sales estimates of $50,000 to $100,000.

A first-generation iPhone in pristine condition has set a new record on the auction block after selling for nearly $200,000.

The 4 GB factory-sealed device sold for $190,372.80 on Sunday night. The sale price is more than 317 times the phone's original 2007 retail price of $599. The phone hit the auction block at the end of June, and was only expected to fetch between $50,000 and $100,000.

The sale shattered the record set in February, when an unopened, first-generation 8 GB iPhone sold at auction for $63,356.40. In October 2022, an 8 GB original iPhone, also still factory-sealed, had sold for $39,339.60.

The original iPhone sold at auction Sunday belonged to a member of the original engineering team at Apple when the iPhone first launched.

"Despite the extensive worldwide media exposure our previous sales received and the hundreds of contacts we've had with consumers who thought they had a factory-sealed original iPhone, this is the only 4GB factory-sealed version to surface," said LCG Auctions founder Mark Montero in a press release Monday. "Based upon our recent record-setting sales and the fact that the 4GB model is probably 20-times rarer than the 8GB version, we are not surprised it established a new record price but surpassing the $190,000 mark was quite surprising."

When late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, the device came with either 4 GB or 8 GB of storage, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a 2-megapixel camera, and a web browser. Consumers favored the 8 GB model, and Apple discontinued the 4 GB phone soon after, so those are rarer.

The 4 GB version was later replaced by a 16 GB iPhone, and Apple has continued ramping up its storage options to get us to the 1TB maximum — the equivalent of 1,000 gigabytes — we see available on the latest iPhones. The most expensive iPhone that Apple sells today, the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1 TB of storage, starts at $1,599.