First-gen iPod sets record at auction: what's the price for nostalgia?

The very first iPod was revealed in 2001 by Steve Jobs, and it sparked a revolution in the market. Before the iPod, most portable music players were big, hard to use, and, to be honest, not very good-looking. However, the iPod came with its iconic scroll wheel and slick design, changing all of that. It became popular to listen to music and look cool while doing it.

Back then, the first-gen iPod was a bit pricey at $399, but that pales in comparison to its current auction price. According to Apple Insider, an unopened first-gen iPod is now on the market for an unprecedented $29,000. Evidently, the iPod was given as a gift and then simply left untouched on a shelf for over ten years, resulting in a remarkable price increase of +5413.8%.

The $29,000 iPod is currently being auctioned at Rally, a place in Manhattan that's both a museum and a trading center. Rally owns various items that it puts up for sale in a unique way. People can buy "shares" of the item, like owning a part of it. If a collector decides to buy all the shares of the item, they become the full owner, and the people who had shares before make a profit from the difference in the price.

The iPod made a significant impact and popularized portable music players. In a way, the iPod became culturally important, a trendy item, and a must-have tool for music lovers everywhere.

And while Apple didn't exactly invent something entirely new (there were music players before in the 90s), it excelled at what it's truly good at - taking an existing idea, improving it, and making it easy for everyone to use. This might probably be one of the reasons why Apple products keep such a high value even after decades.

Recently, an unopened 4GB 2007 iPhone set a new world record by attracting a winning bid of over $158,000. So, if you still have unboxed and sealed Apple devices, make sure to keep them that way. As it turns out, Apple products are worth preserving.