Collection of "antique" iPhone worth billions, some devices were paid 60 million but still not sold

(Dan Tri) - From the first iPhone 2G given to him when he was a student, Mr. Tan has spent nearly 20 years preserving old generations of iPhones, creating a collection with an ownership cost of more than one billion VND.

From the first iPhone 2G

Nearly 20 years after the first iPhone 2G appeared, when new generations of smartphones are continuously introduced with large screens, increasingly modern cameras and a series of artificial intelligence features, Mr. Nguyen Trong Tan (born 1990, Ho Chi Minh City) still reserves a separate corner to preserve phones that belong to the past.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Tan with his "antique" iPhone collection that has been preserved for nearly 20 years (Photo: provided by the character).

In the 9X man's collection are names associated with each stage of Apple's development such as iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4, 4S, iPhone 5, 5s or the first generation iPhone SE.

Many still have the box and accessories included. There are even devices that still retain their unactivated or sealed status after many years.

Few people know that Mr. Tan's hobby started quite by accident.

While preparing for the university exam, he first saw an iPhone 2G brought to Vietnam by an acquaintance from abroad. At that time, Mr. Tan still used a Nokia phone like most users.

"At that time, I was very curious. I didn't know what this phone was called and had such a large and sensitive touch screen. Playing games or entertainment on it brought a very different feeling. At that time, I borrowed it and played it all the time as if I didn't want to leave it."

When the iPhone 3G was about to launch, this acquaintance gave Mr. Tan an iPhone 2G.

That also became his first iPhone.

The iPhone 2G was the device that started Mr. Tan's love for the iPhone since his student days (Photo: provided by the character).

From this device, the student began tinkering with software, games, applications and participating in technology forums to learn how to repair and replace basic hardware himself, sometimes sitting for many nights just to read and understand shared articles about the software.

Then, when the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS appeared, he proactively bought a new device from the first days to experience it.

Tan taught himself how to repair, buy and sell phones and asked relatives abroad to bring new devices to Vietnam. However, this mainly helps him have more expenses to continue pursuing his technology interests, instead of defining this as a business.

A special habit began to form from the iPhone 4 generation.

"I usually buy two of each phone model, one is for normal use and still updates the software as usual, the other I keep in the box, I keep the accessories such as charger, cable, original headphones that came with the device. Including a few years of buying and selling the device, I also keep a few hundred sets of accessories like that."

Just like that, over the years, phones and accessories became more and more numerous.

Mr. Tan's collection includes many generations of early iPhones along with accompanying boxes and accessories. Some early iPhone models are currently very difficult to find with complete boxes and accessories (Photo: provided by the character).

Just like that, year after year, there are more and more phones and accessories. "Every time I move house, I will put the device and accessories in a cardboard box, fold them carefully and bring them with me, many times like that," Mr. Tan recounted.

At first, the owner himself did not think that these items would be called "collectibles" by many people out there.

Until now, he does not dare to admit that he is a collector, he simply likes to experience Apple products and old devices that are stored so that he can occasionally take them out to look at them, or play some music and listen to them.

Only many years later, when searching for old iPhone models online and interacting with communities with similar interests, did Tan realize that the items he had kept for a long time had special value to a group of players.

According to Mr. Tan, in the world of vintage iPhones, the value of a phone does not simply lie in whether the device still turns on and can be used or not.

The original condition of the device, box, accessories, market origin, serial number or even software version can all become factors of interest to collectors.

That is also the reason why two iPhones of the same generation but the price can be very different.

The iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 with intact seals have been kept by Mr. Tan for many years, and are currently very difficult to find on the market (Photo: provided by the character).

In his collection, Tan is especially interested in generations from the iPhone 2G to products with the style of the iPhone 5 series. He believes that the iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 are lines that are increasingly difficult to find in beautiful, original condition.

Particularly for the first generations of iPhone such as iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, at that time iPhone had not yet become a popular trend and was not officially distributed in Vietnam, he still kept many devices originating from many markets such as the US, France, UK, Australia.

iPhone 2G 4GB version is one of the most difficult to find models in Mr. Tan's collection (Photo: provided by character).

Among them, one of the devices that cost him the most effort was an iPhone 2G that was still sealed and not yet activated.

To get this device, Tan once asked a younger brother in the group to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang just to meet the owner of the device.

In addition to paying for the phone, he also bears the costs of airfare, accommodation and travel.

"Finding someone who owns the device you need is difficult. You can't just buy it if you have money, because you also have to know who owns it and whether they want to give it up or not," he shared.

To own a satisfactory antique iPhone, Mr. Tan sometimes has to spend a lot of time searching, contacting and asking people from far away to buy it for him (Photo: provided by the character).

Tan said that when meeting the right people who have kept the machine for a long time, creating trust is also very important. There are owners who agree to leave the device behind because they know the buyer really understands the device and will continue to take care of it.

He himself has almost never bought a machine with the intention of reselling it for profit.

Another memory came from a surprise phone call from a person who collects USD and gold coins.

This person once bought many types of phones but then stored them for a long time. When he learned that he was looking for an antique machine, he proactively contacted him.

That evening, Mr. Tan went to the seller's house and sat for about 4 hours, from evening until nearly midnight, to look at each device, distinguish which machines were original and choose which models he wanted to keep.

"I remember having to buy about thirty machines, just to get the four to five machines I really needed. Because they didn't sell them retail, if you wanted them you had to take them all. And I did that, I had to ask someone else to sell those unsuitable machines later," he recounted.

What he is most concerned about is still the lower generation iPhones that are among the devices that have been stored for many years.

Old phones cost more than a billion dong

Collecting vintage iPhones doesn't just stop at looking to buy phones.

According to Mr. Tan, to preserve a device for a long time, players also have to find boxes, cables, headphones, components and many accessories of the correct device model.

Meanwhile, accessories for devices launched more than a decade ago are almost no longer commonly sold.

In addition to iPhone, Mr. Tan also collects hundreds of accessories such as cases, leather cases, cables and headphones for older generations of devices (Photo: provided by character).

He used to have to search on eBay and Amazon, place orders at relatives' addresses abroad, then wait for someone to return to Vietnam to bring them with them. There are cases or leather cases worth up to millions of dong. He is also keeping 200-300 cases and leather cases for all the devices he has.

"There are times when the cost of components, accessories and repair costs is more expensive than the cost of buying the machine," he said.

A special case in the collection is the iPhone 2G finished with a gold-plated shell.

According to Mr. Tan, the total cost to complete this device is more than 30 million VND, including the machine price.

In order for the plated shell to fit tightly like the original machine, he had to prepare 5-6 sets of shells and frames, test each key in advance, polish it, and then proceed with plating.

It is estimated that the total cost Mr. Tan spent on the machine, accessories, components and the restoration process reached more than one billion VND (Photo: provided by the character).

After this stage, the details continue to be retested many times. It takes a worker about 2-3 days just to complete the assembly of a machine.

Mr. Tan and his friends once tried to add up the money for this hobby. At a time when the collection was smaller than it is now, the original machines with boxes and spare parts alone had a purchase value of more than 700 million VND.

When adding machines with special serials, customized machines, gold-plated machines, and the cost of components, repair and travel costs, he estimates the total amount spent at about 1.3-1.4 billion VND.

To complete a gold-plated iPhone, Mr. Tan had to choose many cases, test components and spend many days assembling (Photo: provided by character).

However, these numbers do not mean the collection can easily be sold at the same price.

There was an iPhone 2G with a seal that someone paid up to 60 million VND for, but Mr. Tan refused.

Meanwhile, the sealed iPhone 3G that he especially loves was bought from Amazon for about 24 million VND many years ago. According to him, this is one of the versions that few people keep and is increasingly difficult to find in intact condition.

"Value only exists for those who really like it"

The interesting thing is that despite spending a large amount of money on old phones, Mr. Tan does not view the collection as an investment.

He believes that the vintage iPhone market is very special.

A collector can pay tens of millions of dong for a device, but if brought to a regular phone store, that value is almost meaningless.

"These items are only valuable to a certain group of people. Someone paid me 60 million VND for a phone, but if I took it out to the store to collect it, people might not even understand why the phone was so valuable," he said.

Therefore, what he received after nearly 20 years was not a story of profit or loss, but the joy of finding a machine he liked or meeting people with the same passion.

Although there were people who paid high prices for some devices, Mr. Tan said that most of the devices were kept for sentimental value rather than business purposes (Photo: provided by character).

Someone used to text Mr. Tan from year to year just to ask for a machine in the collection. In some cases, he really loves the device, he can agree to "reshare it", even at the price he used to buy it or a reasonable price on the market, instead of trying to make a profit.

The group of small friends who played "old" iPhones with him in Ho Chi Minh City sometimes collected some unused devices, sold them for about 10-15 million VND and then used this money for charity activities.

"If the machines are left in one place, they will do almost nothing for anyone," he shared.

Every year, Mr. Tan's group of friends collects a number of old phones to sell, using the proceeds for charity activities (Photo: provided by the character).

He also no longer intends to fully collect new generations of iPhones like before.

According to Mr. Tan, current products are still available in large quantities and are relatively easy to find. He himself still buys new technology devices to experience, but the feeling of curiosity and surprise that the first generations created is difficult to repeat.

Some years, the amount of money he spent on new technology products was up to 700-800 million VND. However, he believes that buying modern products is mainly for experience, while collecting is still for devices associated with the early stages of the iPhone.

The unsealed iPhones are preserved by Mr. Tan as intact landmarks of a technological era (Photo: provided by the character).

And the 9X man still has an unfulfilled wish.

"My wish is that in the future, when I have time and conditions, I will go to Apple Park, places that over the years have been associated with introducing many generations of iPhones that I am keeping and using. Surely when I go there, I will bring the first iPhone 2G," he shared.

For Mr. Tan, that journey is probably not simply about bringing a nearly 20-year-old phone back to a place associated with Apple's history.

It is also a way to close a circle that extends from the student who was surprised by the first touch phone, to the man who spent nearly two decades preserving the milestones of one of the world's most famous technology product lines.