Rare 4GB Original iPhone Sells for Record $190,000 at Auction

At least for $190,372.80, it comes with a power adapter in the box

4GB in 2023 for $190k, no thanks

This is really dumb. No matter how long it’s sealed its battery is gonna destroy it. The battery likely won’t hold any charge at this point anyway. Then you can’t even activate it and the 2G service is essentially gone (though I got an edge indicator in Albuquerque last week). So it’s literally the most pointless thing you can buy.

But it is not to be opened anyway. It is a collectors item with the intention to maybe sell it as a retirement plan in 40 years

This is really dumb. No matter how long it’s sealed its battery is gonna destroy it. The battery likely won’t hold any charge at this point anyway. Then you can’t even activate it and the 2G service is essentially gone (though I got an edge indicator in Albuquerque last week). So it’s literally the most pointless thing you can buy.

A fool and his/her money are easily parted.

Marques Brownlee bought one of the unopened 2G iPhones a few months ago and opened it. He charged it and it held a charge.

That said, what a waste of money. I don't get the point of collecting for the sake of collecting.

I made a post a few months ago where I pulled out my 13 year old iPhone 4 that had hundreds of charge cycles and it charged up just fine even after being dead and untouched for over a decade. I also pulled out my ~18 year Sanyo flip phone that was dead and untouched for ~15 years and it also charged up just fine as well. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sealed-original-iphone-sells-for-over-63-000-at-auction.2381403/page-5?post=31982743#post-31982743

Batteries can be surprisingly resilient as long as they are stored under the right conditions. There are examples of first generation Toyota Prius that are over 20 years old with still functioning original NiMh batteries. Granted these are very rare and usually low mileage vehicles. Tons of examples of other Toyota Hybrids with both NiMH and LiIon batteries that are over 10 years old with 100s of thousands of miles on original batteries. Same can be said with Tesla’s first gen examples of Model S which are now pushing past 10 for early models.

Ultimately the people spending these stupid amounts of money are buying them as artistic and historical examples. They could care less about the condition of the battery. With the money they spent if they ever do open the box they could easily afford to spend the money to have the battery replaced even if it had to be custom made.