iPhone With USB-C Port Is Attracting $100,000 Bids On eBay

The robotics student who modified an iPhone X with a USB-C port last month has put the device up for auction on eBay — and it’s already attracting some insane bids.

The first offer for the iPhone started at $3,500 on Tuesday. However, the bids quickly skyrocketed past $50,000 within the next 28 hours. The highest bid has since doubled to $100,100 as of Thursday afternoon.

The modified iPhone X comes from Ken Pillonel, who’s studying for a Master's degree in Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Last month, he uploaded a video of his custom device, which ditches the Lighting port for a USB-C slot, making the iPhone compatible with standard USB-C cables and chargers.

“I just want an iPhone with USB Type-C on it. Why? Because everything I own has USB Type-C so it would be pretty neat to convert an iPhone too. Have one charger and one cable to charge everything,” Pillonel wrote in a blog post back in May.

On Monday, he uploaded a more in-depth 13-minute video, explaining the steps he took to retrofit the iPhone X with a USB-C port. The whole effort involved a lot of research, finding ways to crack open components, and sourcing parts from China in order to create his own USB-C connector capable of fitting inside the iPhone.

In addition, he used a drill to enlarge the iPhone's Lighting port into a USB-C slot. The resulting creation is an iPhone that can both charge and transfer data over USB-C. But rather than keep the custom iPhone, Pillonel has decided to auction the device off with the goal of using the funds to buy specialized equipment to build other projects.

The auction doesn’t end for another week. So expect the final bid to be even higher. However, Pillonel's eBay listing cautions that while the device will work, it’s also a prototype that shouldn’t be used as a daily phone.

If you'd like to mod your own iPhone with a USB-C port, Pillonel has open-sourced the techniques he used by posting them on Github.

:story: PCMag