If you happen to have a never-opened Apple iPod lying around somewhere, now would be a good time to find it. As reported by Barron’s, a sealed first-generation iPod was sold for $29,000 on the collectibles investing platform Rally in late July.
The iPod was originally made available as an LLC created by Rally in December 2021 — two decades after it was gifted to a then-teenager by his parents for Christmas. Listed as a singular asset on Rally’s platform, it was divided up into 5,000 shares that were sold to 360 investors at $5 per share. Now, it belongs to a private collector who bought up all the shares for $29,000.
As the story goes, the original owner of the iPod was not interested in using an MP3 player when he received the gift and stashed the unopened box on a shelf in his closet. He didn’t rediscover it until he went to clean his childhood home following his father’s passing. “He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with it,” said Rally co-founder Rob Petrozzo. “So he put it on a shelf and then, inevitably time passes.”
In May 2022, Apple finally discontinued the iPod long after it had become a nostalgia item made obsolete by smartphones, including the iPhone. For some people, however, the beloved MP3 player is more than just a memory. Other than collectors, the iPod still holds value to a dedicated community of fans who bond on Reddit over restoring and modernizing older models. Hopefully, they won’t be priced out of acquiring old iPods to tinker with.
