Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000

Posted by timothy on from the hey-motherboard-problems-are-an-apple-tradition dept.

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.

6 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Retro computers as DIY kits? by davidwr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? by necro81 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  2. No surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?

    1. Re:No surprise by gnasher719 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:No surprise by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  3. Re:Steve who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean Steve Woznia.