It's hard to imagine a time in our lives before the iPhone, so it's baffling to think the iPhone-less world was only as recent as 2007. Announced by the late Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, the first generation of iPhone went on sale later that year and became Apple's most successful product ever launched.
As soon as Jobs revealed the iPhone, tech fans knew it was going to be something great. There were queues around the block as people clambered to get their hands on Apple's groundbreaking product, but with prices starting from $499 for the 4 GB model and rising to $599 for the 8 GB model, they weren't exactly cheap.
18-year-old Marc Rebillet famously sold his spot in line for the first iPhone, making $800 from a brash woman who gleefully bought his spot. The moment was caught by Dallas' Fox 4, with the unnamed woman boasting that she was going to buy $100,000 worth of iPhones and then sell them (for a presumably massive profit) on eBay.
Advert
After spending 12 hours waiting in line, Rebillet was pleased with his place at No.1 but, deciding he could make a tidy profit, sold the spot for $800.
The woman didn't realize that AT&T had imposed a 'one per customer' rule, and with Rebillet being part of a party of three in the queue but only two wanting an iPhone, he quickly nabbed one.
Saying that there are some things money can't buy, Rebillet was pleased with his 'free' phone, but what could he have earned if he'd invested that $800 in Apple stocks all those years ago?
Looking at today's conversion, Rebillet's 2007 investment of $800 would now be worth $41,460.
Advert
That's a tasty sum, but when the news was shared on Reddit, others pointed out how he could've sold his first generation iPhone for a cool $190,000 if he'd kept it in the box.
Advert
Last year, we reported how investing in Apple stocks 20 years ago would've led to you making a not-so-small fortune, and unlike Tesla stocks, they've gone up by 32.97% in the past year alone.
Even though Rebillet could've made a lot more than his original $800 win by investing in Apple, he's reportedly made even more from his social media and income from being a musician.
It's a lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda, but sadly, this isn't Back to the Future. We don't have a DeLorean to go back in time to buy up a whole store of iPhones to sit on them as a retirement fund, but if we did, we'd go back and get in line alongside Rebillet before going to as many stores as we could.