People have strange ideas of worth

[pecunium]

What would you pay for a first generation iPhone?

Because I saw someone offering one (still in the packaging), for $500, another $100 will get it unlocked.

Seems to me (what with the oddities I recall of unlocked iPhones becoming bricked), that's a pretty high price (new, they were $499, and that got rebated. Right now the 3g is (so it seems to me) $160 up front.

Is there some hugely collectible nature to them? Some hidden value for the phone in the box? Because I am just not seeing how it can be worth $600.

Comments

[bunnybutt.livejournal.com]

I can speculate as to why someone might think they'd *get* $500 for a first gen:

1) new in box, it may become a collector's item;
2) the new 3G's ability to be unlocked is questionable;
3) there have been a LOT of problems with connectivity with the 3G iphone, including dropped calls an inability to sustain a connection with the 3G network (resulting in a lot of time on the EDGE network). While Apple has recently released a software update that corrects some of these problems, there is speculation that it is a hardware problem; and
4) availability of the 3G has been pretty limited, especially in northern california.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

"New in box" is certainly the way to sell to collectors.

But are there any?

[raaven.livejournal.com]

There are collectors of Apple anything.