An extremely rare fully functional Apple-1 computer will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction during its Remarkable Rarities live auction event in September.
The Apple-1 being auctioned is one of only 60-70 remaining of the original 200 that were designed and built by Jobs and Wozniak and sold for $666.66 at The Byte Shop in Mt. View, CA – one of the first personal computer shops in the world.
The consigner paid $300 to the original owner, a co-worker who bought it at The Byte Shop, said Livingston. He began learning BASIC and writing small programs and even after outgrowing the system, held on to it, realizing it could one day be a piece of computing history. In 1982, he attempted to sell his Apple-1 to Wozniak for $10,000 – an offer that, fortunately for him, went unanswered.
The record auction price for an Apple-1 is $815,000, established in 2016.
The later production Shop-style of this Apple-1 is indicated by discrete component dates which match other known Apple-1 boards of similar vintage, assembled and sold by Apple in the fall of 1976 and early 1977. On the left side, the board is marked: Apple Computer 1, Palo Alto, Ca. Copyright 1976.
This Apple-1 computer was restored to its original, operational state in June 2018 by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen. A comprehensive, technical condition report prepared by Cohen is available to qualified bidders; he evaluates the current condition of the unit as 8.5/10.
The most remarkable aspect of this Apple-1 computer is that it is documented to be fully operational: the system was operated without fault for approximately eight hours in a comprehensive test. Unlike many of the known Apple-1 boards, this unit has not had any modifications to the physical board, and the prototype area is clean and unused.
“The Apple-1 was the first in the evolution of products from Apple that would forever change the world we live in,” said Bobby Livingston, executive VP, RR Auction. “This is the machine that launched Apple Computer, a company that would define an industry and was recently able to achieve a $1 trillion valuation milestone.”
Among items included: original Apple-1 board, original Apple Cassette Interface (ACI), original Apple-1 Operation Manual, two original Apple Cassette Interface manuals, a period surplus ASCII keyboard, a period Sanyo 4205 video monitor, a new period-style power supply with original Apple-1 power cable and connector, and period correct cassette interface cables.
The Remarkable Rarities live auction event from RR Auction will take place on Monday, September 25, 2018 at 1PM at WeWorks, 200 Portland St., Boston. Pre-live bidding for the Auction opens Thursday, September 13 and ends Monday, September 24 at 12:00 pm EST. Live bidding begins Tuesday, September 25 at 1:00 pm EST.
