Apple’s Original Computer Sells For $500,000

A vintage desktop computer from Apple has sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at John Moran Auctioneers outside Los Angeles, California.

The Apple-1 computer was hand built by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976, and is housed in a rare Hawaiian koa wood-case.

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple-1, and Apple actually only produced 200 units and sold them in kit form for roughly $666.66 at the time. In 2010 there were thought to be fewer than 50 of the devices still in existence. Now there are thought to be only 20 working Apple-1 computers left.

Apple-1

In November 2010, an Apple-1 went on sale at Christie’s, and it came with a 6502 microprocessor, as well as 8k RAM, cassette board connector, keyboard interface, heat sink and three capacitors.

That machine also came in its original shipping box, with an undated typed letter signed by Steve Jobs.

But this Apple-1 computer has been labelled, as the “Chaffey College” Apple-1 personal computer by the auction website.

This is because the owner had purchased the machine from the original owner, an electronics professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, in 1977.

The current owner (until the auction that is) was a student of the Chaffey College professor.

It comprises the original Apple-1 “NTI” motherboard [marked: Apple Computer 1 / Palo Alto , CA Copyright 1976] with original blue Sprague 39D capacitors, original power regulators, rare original “Circle D” ceramic .01 capacitors, and an Apple Cassette Adapter (ACI) in an original ByteShop Apple-1 koa wood case with Datanetics Keyboard Rev D.

Auction sale

“This Apple-1 has recently undergone an extensive authentication, restoration, and evaluation process by one of the foremost experts in the field, who inspected all components and generated a full condition report for the Apple-1,” said the auction website.

In the end, the auction website said the Apple-1 sold for $500,000.

In 2014 a working Apple-1 computer sold for $905,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York.