Everyone knows that the newest iPhone 3GS is only available in 16GB and 32GB versions, while last year’s iPhone 3G is available in a $99 8GB model. So why does this label show an 8GB iPhone 3GS?

According to AppleInsider, a Hamburg, Germany customer who purchased a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G instead found that the label on the box read “iPhone 3GS v2.2, 8GB” — which currently doesn’t exist. The model number (A1241) and part number (MB440DN/A) match the existing iPhone 3G, but the packaging references an 8GB iPhone 3GS. The label first turned up on a forum post discovered by Electronista.

Of course, at this time the lowest-capacity iPhone 3GS is the 16GB model for $199 in the U.S. (with two-year AT&T contract), which makes the label a curiosity, but it also wouldn’t be a total surprise. The original 2007 model iPhone was bumped from 8GB to 16GB in early 2008, prior to the arrival of the iPhone 3G that summer. It’s also presumed at some point the 3GS will completely phase out last year’s 3G model.

Back in August, rumors spread about an 8GB iPhone 3G when an internal memo from Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless started to spread. That rumor was then squashed as simply a formatting error on the carrier’s computer systems.

It remains to be seen if the mislabeled iPhone 3G is a harbinger of things to come or simply a similar mistake. Apple is planning a special media event on January 26, 2010 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where new products are expected, so we may not have long to wait…