When Apple released the iPhone 4 in 2010, they also released a new dock. Being $30 bucks a pop, my wife and I never bothered springing for them when we got our iPhones. Since I’m now using an iPhone 5, I’ve retired my iPhone 4 from daily service. I now just use to for iOS development regression testing. Since I like all my iOS devices to sit in docks once they’ve been added to the shelf, I suddenly found myself in need of an iPhone 4 dock.

Apple still sells the iPhone 4 dock since the iPhone 4S fits in the same dock, but I’m not one to pay full retail unless I have to. I hopped on eBay to see how cheap I could get one. A lot of resellers sell “open box” units on the cheap.

I picked up two docks. After all, it’s only a matter of time before my wife gets an iPhone 5. At that point she’ll probably surrender her iPhone 4 to my collection.

Since I was picking up two docks, I made sure to grab both versions. Physically, the iPhone 4 and 4S docks are the same. However, the packaging changed between both revisions.

2010 iPhone 4 on left (MC596ZM/A), 2011 iPhone 4S on right (MC596ZM/B)




Retail: $29.99 eBay: $5.66



Retail: $29.99 eBay: $6.49









I picked up an iPhone Bluetooth Headset for my wife back in 2008. It came with a specialized charging cable that allowed you to plug the bluetooth headset in the same connector as the iPhone. I seemed to recall they’re also being a dual dock for the iPhone, but I’ve never seen one for sale. After some quick Googling, it turns out that the $99 Bluetooth headset that I purchased for my wife in 2008 is actually the second revision. The first revision that shipped in 2007 was $129 and came with a dock.

I hopped on eBay and tracked one down. Apparently these are pretty rare. There were only three docks listed. Two were $50 bucks, and one was $15. As you can guess, I opted for the $15 one.





I wanted to pop the headset into the port for the photo, but my wife can’t seem to track down the headset. She hasn’t used it in a good year and she has no idea where she put it. I searched the usually places that she stashes stuff, but no luck. It’s probably in the bottom of a handbag somewhere.



I figured since I was in “dock buying mode” I’d pick up some for my iPads. My iPad 1 is already up on the shelf. It’s only a matter of time before my iPad 2 goes up too. I’ll probably get an iPad 5 when it comes out, so my iPad 3 will go to my wife and the iPad 2 that she’s using now will go up.

2010 iPad 1 dock (MC360ZM/A)









Retail $29.99 eBay $1.99 & $6.00

$8 bucks for 2 docks! Can you believe it? I actually ordered one for the iPad 2, but the guy sent the wrong one. So now I have 2 docks for the iPad 1. It was only $2 bucks, so I’m not going to bother sending it back. I’ll just order another one.



I also grabbed a few little iPod goodies while I was at it. This unopened, mint-in-the-box 4th gen iPod Belt Clip was only $7.95. I couldn’t resist.



Finally, some old school iPod 1 and 3 remotes. $11 and $6.60. Not bad. I’ve seen people sell these for $20-$30 bucks. They’re pretty hard to find nowadays; especially the gen 1. I’m sure Apple sold them separately, but they never came with the entry-level iPods. You had the buy the expensive high-end one to get a remote.





Why two different remotes? The headphone connectors are different between the gen 1 and the gen 3 iPods. Gen 1 on the left, gen 3 on the right.



The gen 3 fits like a glove….



…but the gen 1 doesn’t click in all the way. The headphone jack was damaged when I purchased this iPod. I replaced the jack, but it’s off center just enough to prohibit the connector from going in all the way. I really need to just buy a new iPod.



The docks are usually $29.99, the remotes were probably $29.99 (if they were sold separately), and the belt clip was probably $19.99. That adds up to a good $230 bucks. I scored all this stuff for only $60. I think I made out pretty good! See, that’s $170 bucks I can spend on other vintage goodies!