03 February 2023 , 03:12
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An unopened first-generation iPhone from 2007 has gone under auction and is expected to fetch more than $50,000 (£40,000).
Karen Green was given the phone as a gift by friends after getting a new job but she never broke the seal and opened it up as she already had a mobile and would have had to pay a fee to change networks, it is reported.
The phone was on sale in 2007 for $599 and the first iPhone offered a 3.5-inch screen with a 2 megapixel camera and 8GB of storage.
She made an a television appearance in 2019 where the phone was valued at the time at $5,000 but since then its price has risen considerably.
It was last October when another unopened first-generation iPhone went for more than $39,000 at an auction that Karen thought it might be the time to sell even though she realises that the price will continue to grow for it.
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The iPhone is expected to fetch more than $50,000 (Getty Images)But having just opened up her own cosmetic tattoo studio in New Jersey she wants the money now.
"If I could hold off on the phone for like another 10 years, I probably would," she told Business Insider. "The only reason why I am selling that phone is because I need to support this business."
She approached LCG auctions who also did the sale for last October’s first generation phone.
“We got calls from everybody but 99% of them didn’t have the same thing,” LCG Auctions founder, Mark Montero reportedly said. “But Karen had a really unique piece with a great story behind it.”
He added: “It was shocking because we had gotten so many duds.”
The phone was put on auction on Thursday and will end on February 19 with an expected price of $50,000 upwards.
Steve Jobs, at Apple’s annual Macworld expo in 2007, said: “We’re going to make some history together today.”
The late former Apple boss said the new smartphone was a “revolutionary mobile phone” that will feature an iPod, phone and what he described as an “Internet communicator.”