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Rare Operating Apple 1 Rakes In $374,500 At Sotheby's Auction
coondoggie writes "It's not one-of-a-kind, but it's pretty darn close. Sotheby's this week auctioned off a rare, working Apple 1 computer for $374,500 to an unnamed bidder. The price was more than double the expected price listed on the Sotheby's web site. Sotheby's notes about the Apple 1 say it is one of six thought-to-be-operational boxes and one of about 50 known to exist."
Sounds like a pretty run of the mill Apple mark up...
Still cheaper than an iPhone
No SSD? No retina screen? No ethernet or firewire port?! Worst Mac ever.
(yes, I know it's not a Mac)
Imagine a.. wait, I can't. there's only 6 of them.
I'd definitely want AppleCare for this one, those Apple 1 computers are notoriously fragile.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I wonder if they still have it, and if it still works.
If they do, that'd make one heluva good PTA fundraiser.
Very scarce and unique item, that thing should be pretty hard to copy as all the chips on the board are impossible to manufacture nowdays. Who does MOS at that big scale today ? Or the other rare electronic components inside..
Such an artifact might be worth millions in a few decades, should be a good anti-inflation bet.
I find it amazing that the three 2,400uF electrolytic capacitors are still working after 36 years! These capacitors slowly degrade over time--I wonder what their capacitance is today?
...a retail price of $666.66, a number that garnered complaints among conservative Christians
A new Apple I, $666.66. Upsetting conservative Christians, priceless.
There are a few replicas available for those of us who can't afford a real Apple 1. The least expensive is Briel Computers' "Replica 1" which is not a cosmetic replica but more of a "work-alike" computer. Applefritter.com's Tom Owad wrote a book based on that kit. On the other extreme is Mike Willegal's "Mimeo 1" which is an extremely accurate reproduction. I know the people behind these kits/sites and they're all very hobby-centric.
I have a TRS-80 in my attic. Haven't powered it on for a few years, but it worked last time I tried it. It was made in 1977. To be fair, there was no reality distortion field model released with this particular brand.
Was apple evil back then? Or did that only happen later?
A rare Granny Smith bearing the Apple logo was sold to a turtleneck wearing gentleman in exchange for his life savings.
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
...if you take that puppy to a 'Genius Bar'. Most of those geniuses wouldn't even know what it was, and that the Woz actually built it with his bare hands.
Silence is a state of mime.
I'm curious if the buyer was a technology enthousiast, Apple lover or simply someone making a future investment? With all the craze for Jobs, it feels like such an item would probably rise in value in the future.
Not that hard it seems...
http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?cat=17
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
'Apple Markup'? Oh. Okay. I see. You think this auction has nothing to do with you. You load your custom linux kernel say... I don't know... some run of the mill Debian flavor, for instance because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about which OS's Apple is putting out. But what you don't know is that that Apple is not just linux-based, it's not redhat. It's not mandrake. It's actually OS-X. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in the 2000's, Steve Jobs did a collection of innovations to the tech industry. And then I think it was the iPod... wasn't it that revolutionized the music industry? I think we need an iPod here. And then iPod quickly showed up in the collections of eight different major retailers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Think Geek site where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance sale. However, that iPod represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the technology industry when, in fact, you're using the technology that was *selected* for you by the people at Apple despite their current 'Apple Markup's.
About 10 years ago I saw an Apple 1 sell for a little over $9,000 on eBay including the original wooden case and I thought that was marginally justifiable. This auction result is just ridiculous, it's simply too high.
It is only selling due to nostalgia.
I honestly doubt it will be worth much in 100 years.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
Nostalgia won't exist in 100 years?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
If you kill this Apple 1, will all the other Apple devices around the world revert to a move open and less evil state?
I know a guy still on his first Xbox 360!
Nostalgia won't exist in 100 years?
The Nostalgia market generally peaks when guys who had that item as a teenager go through their mid-life crisis. Do you think that a lot of people born in 2000 have some emotional attachment to 8 track tapes?
Depends on whether Apple's still a force to be reckoned with. If Apple's dominating the electronics-implanted-directly-into-your-eyeball trade the way it dominates phones a working Apple I assembled by none other the Woz's sister is gonna be pretty damn valuable.
Heck even if it isn't a force to be reckoned with if Apple is recognized as a pivotal and important company it's products will be valuable as antiques. Stradivarius violins ain't cheap.
At that point, it'll be a curiosity from a long since dead company that few people would have been alive to see.
It will probably dominating in the same way that AT&T does today. It will be dominant, but hated.
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