A collection of old mobile phones displayed inside an Erbil shop, including keypad and early touchscreen models kept by shop owner Mabast Ayub as part of his vintage phone collection. Photo by 964media.
Erbil shopkeeper preserves cell phone history with rare collection of early devices
ERBIL — Inside a small shop tucked into one of Erbil’s busiest markets, rows of retro cell phones sit neatly beneath glass, a curated archive of devices that once defined modern life. From the durable Nokia 3310 to early iPhones and BlackBerrys, shop owner Mabast Ayub has been collecting classic mobile phones since 2012.
“I opened my shop in 2012, and since then, I’ve loved collecting old mobile phones,” Ayub told 964media. “Some are mine, some were brought by friends or relatives, and others I bought just because I didn’t want them to disappear.”
Ayub’s personal archive has grown to include more than 100 devices, ranging from bulky keypads to early touchscreens. Though many still function, he said most customers today purchase them for nostalgia, not utility. “Most of them still work, but people buy them for their design or to remember the old days,” he said.
His display spans nearly two decades of mobile innovation: early 2000s models with large buttons and week-long battery life, mid-2000s sliders and flip phones, and the slimmer smartphones that marked the shift to capacitive touchscreens.
Ayub noted that the Nokia 3310 was one of the first devices widely available in the Kurdistan Region. “Every phone back then had something special. Some had loud speakers, others strong batteries or stylish designs,” he said.
