Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000

Dave Knott writes One of the few remaining examples of Apple Inc's first pre-assembled computer, the Apple 1, sold for $905,000 at an auction in New York on Wednesday. The final price outstrips expectations, as auction house Bonhams had said it expected to sell the machine, which was working as of September, for between $300,000 and $500,000. The buyer was The Henry Ford organization, which plans to display the computer in its museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Only 63 surviving authentic Apple 1's were listed in an Apple 1 Registry as of January out of the 200 that were built. The auctioned computer is thought to be one of the first batch of 50 Apple-1 machines assembled by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steve Job's family garage in Los Altos, California in the summer of 1976. It is also believed to be one of only 15 that still have functioning motherboards. That's a bit more beastly than the original price.

Comments

Retro computers as DIY kits?

[davidwr]

There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.

Re:Retro computers as DIY kits?

[necro81]

Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home

Thankfully, a lot of the early computers used commodity parts that are still manufactured, such as the 7400 series of discrete logic gates (e.g. 7400 = quad NAND gate, 7404 = hex inverter, etc.). The Apple I's 8-bit microprocessor, the MOS 6502, is still commercially available, too.

Re:Retro computers as DIY kits?

[spaceyhackerlady]

There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.

Yup.

There are often limits on authenticity, either due to parts availability (e.g. TTL ICs), or for convenience (modern monitors, keyboards).

...laura

Re:Retro computers as DIY kits?

[MacTO]

There are kits, and it would be nice if the museum picked up a few to create an interactive exhibit. Just imagine being able to walk into an exhibit hall where the original is maintained in working order, but also being able to use one of the kits to get a taste of computing back in the day.

Re:Retro computers as DIY kits?

[fgodfrey]

Err... Western Design Center sells them. Mouser claims to have a few hundred 65c02's in stock in a variety of form factors (PLC-44, QFP-44, and DIP-40) as well as 65816's. The 65816 is compatible enough that if you clocked it at 1MHz, you'd almost certainly end up with a 100% compatible design (though if I remember back to my Apple IIgs days correctly, there are a few minor incompatibilities, even when running the 65816 in 8 bit mode).

No surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?

Re:No surprise

[gnasher719]

Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?

If you can keep it hidden away for 38 years and then sell it for 150,000 percent profit, then obviously it is _not_ overpriced.

Re:No surprise

[ArcadeMan]

Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.

Re:No surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Please stop posting factual and logical comments, it takes away from the usual anti-Apple circlejerk.

Re:No surprise

[Half-pint HAL]

Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.

Ah well, the buyer of this Apple is going to be mightily disappointed when he tries to download the latest OS and office suite onto his Apple, isn't he?

Steve who?

[PhilHibbs]

Who is Steve Job?

Re:Steve who?

[ArcadeMan]

He was the guy who worked with Steve Wozniak.

Re:Steve who?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean Steve Woznia.

Re:Steve who?

[Dr. Evil]

Steve Job was friends with Steve Wozniac, they're two normal guys who get a lot of strange mail. They live next to Mike Roe, the founder of Mikeroesoft.

Wrong Price!

[hedgemage]

What a bunch of frickin' casuals! If they truly knew their history, the price would have been $905,666.66.

Re:Hindsight

[ArcadeMan]

If there was 137 more working Apple 1, they wouldn't be worth that much.

Ripped off

[Sir Realist]

He coulda got a brand new iMac for no more than half that.

Zapple

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> $666.66

Keep in mind a loaded station wagon, of Family Truckster fame, was around $3500.

Still, it's a 90-fold increase over the original price.

My prototypes...

[MindPrison]

...aren't as fancy as that pre-assembled fully populated print board with no extra wires as patches...

I'm a prototype developer too, and I can't help thinking that - that very computer setup...is just a setup to make some money, because it would look plausible to the laymen that knows nothing of hardware development. Take a computer from the 80s, split it apart, nail it to a wooden brick, and voila...you have your first "sony".

Ya wanna know how real prototyping happens? I know...because I grew up with those guys:

1) it's never a finished printboard like that.
2) It's usually a bunch of vero-boards (breadboards) with tons of logic circuits like the TTL74xxx series.
3) And it would be several prints, for the different sections, a) memory, b) memory management, c) character roms and system memory, d) video memory and video signal generation, e) sound generation board, f) I/O management, for input/output keyboard, disk, cassette, PTT etc.

and I could go on and on....but I am betting you guys have NO clue (so mod me troll, you 14 year olds), I don't care.