By admin2 65 Comment

I Spent $40,000 to Unbox a Sealed Original iPhone!

Tech Videos

This original sealed iPhone cost $40,000. I regret (almost) nothing

Sponsored by my wallet:

Original iPhone vs modern iPhone:

Also fun fact while this was being edited we did in fact get confirmation from Apple that this mysterious "Lucky You" sticker was definitely used by some Apple retail stores back in 2007, sometimes around gift purchases. The cherry on top that confirms it's all real

MKBHD Merch:

Tech I'm using right now:

Playlist of MKBHD Intro music:

~

admin2

65 Comments

Kris Ross

I worked the original iPhone launch and this was a sticker commonly used back then during the holiday season. We wore red shirts as well. I remember being bored and putting those stickers on co-workers or our lanyards. I also remember someone putting one on the break room toilet seat which pissed management off.

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    Michael D

    @Marques Brownlee 😂

    Reply
    Moises Sequera

    Mystery solved then.

    Reply
    algorithms

    I can only motivate you more by writing this comment. Thanks

    Reply
    Music India Relax

    @Marques Brownlee I’m your big fan big brother and please don’t ignore

    Reply
    Luke Frahn

    Lucky poo!

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NOMADDICT

Hi Marques !! Those “lucky you” stickers were introduced in apple stores during Christmas season 2007. If you wanted to gift the iphone to someone, you got one of those stickers and put em on the phone. A lot of people with no intention to gift the phones got them too. That’s why the lucky you sticker is all over the box, upside down sometimes, on the back, multiple stickers on the box sometimes, because it was put on at the store, not at the factory.

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    Sufian Khan

    So what

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    Suraj Kumar

    You are correct that Apple added Lucky You stickers to some of the iPhone boxes during the Christmas season in 2007. These stickers were included as a part of a holiday promotion and were placed on the packaging of some iPhones sold during that time. The stickers had various lucky symbols, such as horseshoes, clovers, and ladybugs, and were intended to bring good luck to the new iPhone owners.

    Reply
    24 Tech

    @Sangey Chhonjin 100 who knows

    Reply
    Abdullah

    @Tim if I’m paying 40k it better not be touched by anyone other than Apple

    Reply
    Cuñ G

    I call cap

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Craig Roccanova

I worked at Apple in 2007 at a retail store in Newport Beach, CA. The Lucky You stickers were put on every item that we sold during the 2007 Holiday Season. We literally slapped them on everything we sold from Black Friday through Christmas.The red sticker matching our holiday red t-shirts! Also, the phones were to be activated by the customers AT HOME on their own! When we launched the iPhone 3G a year later, WE had to activate all of the phones in the store and it was a HUGE headache. I remember our store only sold 8 phones in our first night because of activation issues. We were also using Windows Mobile handheld devices then… XD

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    girlsdrinkfeck

    @ealnejinskiy whoosh … thats what i man, they had the gaybow

    Reply
    girlsdrinkfeck

    @Osama Clash 2007 iphone was trash TBH m most phones back then could have custom backgrounds , mp3 ringtones , record video , do copy paste , this trash couldnt

    Reply
    Sebastian S.

    @girlsdrinkfeck oh really? Did you have one then? I did, and it blew everything else away. Nothing else even made sense anymore once the iPhone was out.

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    girlsdrinkfeck

    @Sebastian S. it blew everything away in what manner ? it had dumb phone functionality at 500x the cost

    Reply
    up1tommy

    @M3TALH3AD you fried 😅

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Cobus

I remember buying an iPhone 3GS and shipping it all the way back to South Africa, jailbreaking it so I could activate it with a foreign sim card, accidentally updating the OS, and then having to wait *months* before the next jailbreak version came out and I could use the phone. Wild times. Thanks for biting the bullet, Marques! Fun video 🤘🏼

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    Account

    @Cobus ok

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    Marinko Marinko

    Same here with original iPhone.

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    SM S A I F E E

    It’s a marketing ploy, “Lucky you”

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    Katalyxt

    I have mine with a broken baseband hahaha. Let me know if there’s a fix possible.

    Reply
    Enrico

    ​@Cheyb Ludickinsane really

    Reply
ココノツ

Was lucky enough to be one of those 6 mil dudes who owned this. Still remember how excited I was opening it up.
I actually used that 30-pin dock a lot – plugging that into my $30 speakers lol – man just looking at it brings so many memories back

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Itai Yecheskeli

I had the first iPhone and I remember being really sad that almost every generation after that you’d get less in the box. Having the dock was such a bonus.

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    Claude

    yeah we can argue all year about apple being greedy but it’s a fact almost all iphone buyers have dozens of charges, cable, earbuds and docks at home. so infinitely bettter for the planet today.
    i just have one each, because i usually just take the iphone out and put everything else in the trash – factory new. the only times i actually took cable/charger out of the box was when the plugs changed. like from 30pin to lightning and from usb-a to usb-c. oh and back in the day when headphone cables barely survived a year.

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    Mysterious Stranger

    Ya and people kept letting it slide and know we get almost nothing with our phones. Phones used to come with so much.

    Reply
    Duran Burnett

    @Andrea if you buy a brand new mac now you get all the cables, what are you talking about?

    Reply
    Theshiznitman

    Less in the box but more in the phone hardware

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Aiphen

I worked at Apple retail when the iPhone launched. I believe the “Lucky you” sticker had something to do with the holidays. During the holidays Apple stores would set up an express checkout at the front of the store, and would sell commonly gifted things like iPods and some accessories. These lucky you stickers were a kind of proof of purchase that would get slapped onto the purchased item so the customer could keep browsing through the store with the item in hand.

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    Takeo

    @The Aroused Eunuch yeah great quirk…/s and very much against the fact that Apple wants to be sustainable. Just a useless gimmick and trash.

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    The Aroused Eunuch

    @Takeo I find it interesting, personally. It’s nothing life changing, but it’s a small touch. This was ages before Apple did the whole “we’re removing stuff you need to save money, but labeling it as the environmentally friendly way of doing stuff” thing.

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    Takeo

    @The Aroused Eunuch that’s not really all, they also make products from recycled materials and the charger is really unnecessary. I have 15 chargers. 😓

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    Craig Jacko

    Can confirm this as someone who also worked in apple retail. They did this for years for the express pay stations as proof of purchase.

    Reply
hojomo

Hoping there’s a Part Two that shows it off in working condition. My first iPhone was a 3 so didn’t get the pleasure of acquainting with the device you now have. 😊

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Creado por Rod

The unboxing experience and look was legendary in those days. Sad that they are gone

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    BOSEN NGANTOR

    it came with microfiber cloth and dock as well lol, it’s wild, so sad that we pay premium now for much less unboxing experience

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Иван Чернов

The “Lucky you” sticker was put on products after payment in _some_ Apple Stores during holidays, when stores were overcrowded and it was easier to steal stuff – so the security guys could very quickly see if you actually did pay for the product you have in your bag.

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    Frommer Jacob

    ​@indiekiduk that’s definitely a fake one, sorry mate

    Reply
    Иван Чернов

    @Herman Borrego in US – yes, however I.e. in Europe there were blue and green stickers

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    Arafat Rahman Shihab

    But, it’s under the plastic seal.

    Reply
    Josh Burcham

    Yep. I remember these during my time with Apple Retail. Started just after the Original iPhone was released.

    Reply
Philips Future

Nothing feels more therapeutic like watching MKBHD’s videos after work 💯

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    Mp-One Android

    or at work

    Reply
    Philips Future

    @Mp-One Android 💯 even better

    Reply
Akshay Dawar

It’s insane to spend $40,000 on an old collectible phone. But boy, you know, there’s no better joy than to spend your money on toys that you’ve always wanted. This was incredible to watch man, thank you!

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    PsyEnz

    No it’s just insane

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    Joja

    How the f do people find this “incredible to watch”!? Maybe if it was like 100 years ago, sure, would be kinda cool to see, like a time capsule. That’s why time capsules are often sealed for a good 100 years because it takes that long for something to be interesting again. Otherwise, 40k on a sealed piece of crap device from only 15 years ago? Who actually gives a crap!? This was actually pointless. Would have been smarter for him to actually build a real time capsule with his logo engraved on it, filled it will a bunch of technology and buried it.

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    Jordan

    @Joja Tim Cook pissed in someones cornflakes this morning

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    Sha Clo

    He’s gonna make much more from this Video than he spent on that iPhone

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    Ambient Obsession

    Exactly.

    Reply
Boldschool

Man the audio game on your videos are on another level nowadays. You got a superb team. I loved the last few seconds

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Brandon Sargent

Back when my mom got her first iPhone it had that same “Lucky You” sticker on it – I remember helping her set it up and teach her how to use it whenever I had never even touched a smartphone before 😂

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kelrapunzel

the original sim card size actually was like a credit card. worked with the first mobile phones back in the 90s. I remember we had motorola’s phone here. With the newer models you had to take the smaller, this iphone’s sim card size cards later on 😀

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    ElyasCanFixIt

    Yeah I still have a MINI to original SIM card adapter lol

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    Rodrigo J. Da Silva

    Yeah that was another thing that Apple implemented into phones and that it is now common. The size of the SIM cards. There was no such thing as micro or mini SIM cards before the iPhone.

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    Robert Ward

    You beat me to it, my early mobiles all had the credit card sized sim cards.

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    RaduG

    @Rodrigo J. Da Silva You are wrong, the mini SIM has been used since the late 90’s. Maybe you mean the micro SIM which was used on iPhone 4, and it was the first or one of the first phones to use that SIM card format.

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    Cary

    Remember when people would cut their SIM cards down to a smaller size to fit a newer smart phone? 😂

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Gerald Donovan

Fantastic video – took me all the way back to 2007 when I got mine. I was actually living in the UK at the time, and managed to purchase one off eBay on Friday July 6th, just one week after its US launch (it cost £549.99 plus delivery). The problem then of course was that they were all locked to AT&T. I had to wait until Monday September 3rd to order a software unlock, which bizarrely came out of Australia. That cost me 60 Australian dollars. It wasn’t for another week or so before the people behind the software unlock actually got it working properly, and finally was able to put my UK SIM into an unlocked iPhone and start using it on Wednesday September 12th.

It was fun going back through all the emails!

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Nathan Rogers

Great video Marques, I remember the sheer excitement I got when I got to do the very same unboxing for Christmas 2007. This video gave me major nostalgia vibes and a wonderful trip back to simpler times in my life. It’s funny how a small brick of metal can give you such nice memories.

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Danny Kilgore

You are the #1 representing all the geeks around the world , such a nice video approached with dry humor !!! You are the best Marques

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johso87

Love this content =D

“The original size SIM card back in the day” was actually full credit card sized, tho the chip was not bigger.
Yes, phones used to have space for an entire credit card inside of it. See for example Motorola MicroTac 8400 =)

I believe it’s still the norm for cards to arrive in the credit card size and then you have to click out the right size card for your phone.
But back before the 2000s this entire thing would be your SIM card.

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Adam Micallef

Marques, your discovery is incredible, congrats! I’m so enthusiastic about technology, so it’s great to see you getting your hands on the original sealed iPhone. It is really encouraging to see your enthusiasm for safeguarding tech history and sharing it with the rest of the world. Keep on doing such an amazing job!

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