Sealed first generation iPod bought as a Christmas gift in 2001 sells for $29,000

It's the summer of nostalgia, and Apple products from the early 2000s are selling at record-breaking prices.

Days after a factory-sealed first-generation iPhone sold for $190,000 at an auction and a pair of "ultra-rare" Apple sneakers went on sale for $50,000, a first-generation Apple iPod from 2001 sold for $29,000 in a private sale.

The sale took place at Rally, a collectibles investing platform with 500,000 users and a museum in New York City. The buyer is a collector of sports and technology memorabilia and wishes to remain private, Rally said.

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iPod started out as a Christmas present

The 5GB white-silver iPod was originally purchased as a Christmas present in December 2001 by Fred and Betty Goodwin for their son Joseph at a mall in Plano, Texas, at an Apple Store that had opened just before the iPod release. Back then, the iPod was sold for $399. In 2023, that would be about $690.

Rally founder Rob Petrozzo told USA TODAY Joseph placed it unopened on a closet shelf, where it sat for almost two decades, along with its receipt, a black neoprene sleeve and a blue Apple bag that existed for only a short run.

Rally acquired the iPod for $23,000 in 2021 and put it up for display at its museum in New York, honoring the owner's wishes, who hoped his collectible would go into a collection or an institution like a museum. At the same time, 5,000 shares of the product were offered to investors at a total value of $25,000. At the time of the sale, 360 people had shares in the iPod, Rally said.

Though the iPod is not Rally's most expensive sale − that record was set by a Super Mario Bros. video game from 1985 that sold for $2 million, the most expensive video game ever sold − Petrozzo said the iPod sale was one of the most important for the company because of how quickly it sold.

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What makes an item a collectible?

"I think there are a lot of factors − rarity, the provenance, and the history and the story that go along with an asset," Petrozzo said.

Early Apple products are seeing a surge in demand, and Petrozzo said it comes down to millennials' increased purchasing power and the aura of Steve Jobs.

"I think everybody, especially in (places) like New York and California − tech hubs − held on to, like, one of those Apple devices, whether it was an early iPhone or an iPod. It just felt really special," Petrozzo said.

"Buyers now will come into the market who (may be) millennials who have a little bit of money. They want to sort of own those pieces that matter to them, and they find these sealed examples of these really unique tech products, and they turn into, like, the new baseball card and the new collectible that people really want to get their hands on."

Petrozzo also credits Jobs' persona.

"You have this legendary figure, Steve Jobs, who is larger than life and is so mysterious. People look at him as a technology genius who really pushed the narrative and culture," Petrozzo said. He added that a brand like Apple, "which has been relevant for so long, from the late '70s to now," is also something that collectors and people look at as a name that will be relevant for generations to come.

"So, it's not just from the past. I think that some people get caught up every now and then on just the rarity and scarcity value and the things that make something kind of unique. They think that's the only reason that something's collectible," Petrozzo said.

Other Apple products available on the platform include a copy of the first Mac World Magazine signed by Steve Jobs and previously sold for $100,000, a leather jacket Jobs wore when he famously gave the middle finger to the IBM sign in New York, an original Apple 1 computer, and a couple of other original computers that were signed by Jobs.

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How does Rally work? Explaining the 'stock market for collectibles'

Unlike auctions and other sales, Rally follows a unique model of selling and buying. Instead of acquiring collectibles and memorabilia and selling them, Rally turns an item into an "asset" and then splits it into equity shares. It then allows investors to purchase those shares, similar to how a stock market operates.

"Rally as a platform is kind of like a stock market for collectibles," said Petrozzo, explaining that it picks up artifacts, ones that have gone up in price and value and have big collector communities, and turns them into stock. So each asset, whether it's an iPod, a classic car or a vintage watch, trades similarly to a stock on the platform.

"People buy and sell IPOs similar to the way a company might IPO on any stock exchange, and then they can trade those shares on our secondary market once the IPO is done," said Petrozzo.

Breaking down the process behind the iPod sale, Petrozzo said: "We got this iPod in 2021 and turned it into a stock-like company, properly registered with the SEC. It then becomes a $25,000 IPO and hundreds of people invested in it."

A private buyer then approached Rally and expressed his interest in the asset similar to what a "hostile takeover of a company" would look like. The buyer made an offer that was presented to all 360 investors, who then voted on whether the asset should be sold. The majority voted yes, after which it was approved by Rally's board and the sale went through.

"All our assets are on display at our museum, and if a collector wants to come in and buy an asset, they make an offer to all the investors, and if it's approved, the individual buyer gets the collectible," Petrozzo said. "So even though this is traded on our platform for about a year, is the first buyout offer that's come in that's been presented to all the investors where they get a chance to get paid out all at once."

Rally's roster of collectibles includes a 60-million-year-old Triceratops skull fossil, a 1955 Porsche Speedster, million-dollar baseball cards, rare Birkin bags, Andy Warhol paintings and more.

Rally's most valuable asset − and the one that has the most investors − is a broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence. It's owned by about 4,000 individual investors and is trading right now at about $6 million.

Said Petrozzo, "There's something for everybody."