Woz-Built Apple-1 Prototype To Fetch £80,000 At Christie’s Auction

An early Apple 1 computer, hand-built by Steve Wozniak in 1976, is expected to sell for a bargain £80,000 ($126k) in an auction at Christie’s in London in October.

Steve Wozniak or “Woz” built all the early prototypes of the Apple-1, with input from Steve Jobs, who managed the sales and marketing of the product of the first product from Apple Computer. Only 50 of these machines still exist, and the price at the leading auction house could go higher – another early Apple-1 sold for more than £130,000 in 2010, with its original packaging (a must for collectors) and a letter from Woz thrown in.

Apple-1 cost $666.66

The model coming under the hammer at Christie’s is is serial number 22, and comes from the estate of former Apple employee Joe Copson.

Only 200 of the machines were made, and they were sold for $666.66 each, between July 1976 and October 1977. It is estimated that only 50 survive, so this is a rare auction.

The Apple-1’s marketplace presence was short lived. In April 1977, nine months after the computer’s release, Apple introduced the Apple II which, befitting its position as a next-generation machine, came in an actual plastic case and featured a keyboard.

Factoring in 34 years’ worth of inflation, the Apple-1’s original  price translates to £1,639.46 today. That would just about buy you three top-of-the-line iPads.

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