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Apple-1 Sells For $671,400, Breaks Previous Auction Record

Posted by Soulskill on from the built-to-last dept.

hypnosec writes "What is believed to be one of the six working Apple-1 computers has fetched a whopping $671,400 for its current owner at an auction in Germany. The Apple-1 was built by Steve Wozniak back in 1976 in the garage of Steve Jobs' parents. The model sold at auction is either from the first lot of 50 systems ordered by Paul Terrell, owner of the Byte Shop chain of stores, or part of the next lot of 150 systems the duo built to sell to friends and vendors. The retail price for the Apple-1 at the time was $666.66."

7 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. TYPICAL APPLE USER !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    A sucker !!

  2. Hell, I'd buy it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd buy it, if only for a chance to start harassing The Woz for tech support.

  3. Metaphores. by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Funny

    $666.66... The Biblical Apple was from the tree of knowledge. The Apple's salesman was snake, and the users were deceived. Steve Jobs aspired to be devilishly clever in marketing. In Faustian style, his life was cut short ahead of its time... Oh what stories that would be told, if only this silicon could talk.

    1. Re:Metaphores. by NoMaster · · Score: 5, Informative

      Except that the 'apple' in that bit of biblical symbolism is a later European Christian addition. The forbidden fruit of the Bible was most likely a fig, grape, apricot or pomegranate.

      Though I do recall an early computer sold in Aus (through DSE?) called the Apricot, which IIRC was a rebadged MPF-II (an early Apple nearly-compatible clone...)

      --
      What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
  4. Re:History? by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "a fascination with the early history of the computer age"

    1976 was already the middle of the computer age.

    Really? I feel the computer age hasn't even taken off yet, and speaking of a middle for something that is open ended is just silly. In fact, even though the age of the gene-manipulation/bio-tech might be starting now, let us not forget that it is progress in our computation capabilities that makes all this possible. There is still lots more to be done in computational mathematics/biology/engineeering/science.

  5. Re: iPhone 1 by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, it sort of is - it's one of the first consumer computers, so it's different in that respect to an iPhone. Regardless of how far down the line we go, the iPhone will never be the product that launched a company and played a large role in the wider acceptance of home computing in general (note again, for slashdot mods: not saying it was *the* thing, or the *only* thing, or the *most important* thing etc).

    It's like the auction of the first telephone - these things have cultural significance beyond that of a product from somewhere in the middle, regardless of whether the company is still going or not. I'm sure that didn't hurt, but it's hardly the only thing driving that auction price.

  6. Re:Inflation by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope. $666.66 in 1976 dollars is worth about $2,724.41 today.

    http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/