Other My iPhone collection: how to deal with batteries

[childu]

Hello everyone,

I have a collection of various iPhone starting from the first model, today I found out that a non-functional iPhone 4’s battery swelled, and the the back glass is displaced. This iPhone was damaged by liquids a ling time ago and it’s the first time that such a thing happens to me.
Tomorrow I will bring it to the repair center to remove the battery and I will keep it without it.

This lead me to a reflection about my whole collection:
1) sealed iPhones: I have three sealed iPhones, I have noticed that one box (another iPhone 4) is not flush as it should be (see photo attached).
2) open iPhones

How to deal with batteries? Can they catch fire? Do they all eventually swell? Does it make sense to have all of them removed?
Should I open the sealed iPhone if the box is swollen (or even if not)?

Thanks!

 

[Kottu]

I have a brand new iPhone SE(1st) in a unopened box. I hope the battery won’t swell. But never know.

 

[JPack]

Swollen batteries are always potential fire hazards. You can't really store a Li-ion battery as a museum piece. There's not much value for a boxed and swollen iPhone 4 anyway.

 

[now i see it]

Nobody wants an iPhone 4 anyway, so it doesn’t have any value for a collector.
If you want to keep old phones for your personal collection, charge them to about 60% every 6 months or so.

 

[childu]

Not true that a sealed iPhone 4 doesn’t have a good value for collectors.

Anyway I have many more iPhones so I should decide if to keep the batteries inside or remove them all🤷‍🤔
Is there a difference between a battery that has been used and one that is new in the box?

 

[Kottu]

Nobody wants an iPhone 4 anyway, so it doesn’t have any value for a collector.
If you want to keep old phones for your personal collection, charge them to about 60% every 6 months or so.

iPhone 4 was the most beautiful phone Apple ever made. Forget the “Antenna gate” but the design was spot on. No wonder why Apple took inspiration from it when they made iPhone 12 and later.
So, a sealed iPhone 4 can be very valuable.

 

[JPack]

iPhone 4 was the most beautiful phone Apple ever made. Forget the “Antenna gate” but the design was spot on. No wonder why Apple took inspiration from it when they made iPhone 12 and later.
So, a sealed iPhone 4 can be very valuable.

Apple sold about 50 million iPhone 4 globally which means many people have one. That's very different from an original iPhone or iPod.