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Working Apple 1 Computer Sells for Record $905,000 at Auction

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Apr 12, 2001
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A rare working Apple 1 computer has sold for a record $905,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York, reports Reuters. Estimates suggested the motherboard might fetch between $300,000 and $500,000, but it ended up selling for far more.

auctionapple1motherboard.jpg
The motherboard is believed to be one of approximately 50 Apple 1 computers that were originally constructed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs' garage for sale in The Byte Shop. The motherboard is numbered "01-0070."

​
Few Apple 1 computers survive today, and the one sold at the New York auction has fetched the highest price seen yet. The buyer of the computer remains unknown. Each Apple 1 originally sold for $666.66, and approximately 200 total units were produced.

Last year, two working Apple 1 computers complete with their original cardboard box were sold by German auction house Breker. One of the machines sold for $330,000, while a second fully functional Apple 1 computer sold for $671,400 as it included a letter from Steve Jobs intended for its original owner.

Update: Reuters has updated its article to note that the winning bidder was the Henry Ford Museum.

Article Link: Working Apple 1 Computer Sells for Record $905,000 at Auction
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/22/apple-1-computer-905000/
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scott911

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2009
758
456
none of those chips are soldered in - it's no wonder that it costs nearly a million.
 
Cheruman

Cheruman

macrumors member
Apr 30, 2007
77
198
That's all well and good, but how many Safari tabs can you open without them reloading?
 
OldSchoolMacGuy

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
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Can't even run OS 7 and Kid Pix? Pfffffft, pass.

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Peace said:
Nice investment had you purchased one when Jobs sold them.
Click to expand...

Apple stock was a better investment. Those of us that bought back when it was less than $5 a share made many times the return of buying and selling that Apple 1. :D
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
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lincolntran said:
How much for a first model of a windows pc? (Assuming a working one still exist) lol
Click to expand...

This is not the equivalent of an original IBM PC. Not even close. The original IBM PC is much more equivalent (in timeframe/production numbers/etc, not in computing power,) to an Apple IIe.

*VERY* few Apple 1s were made (less than 10,000 for certain; this is from the very first 'production' run of less than 500.) The original IBM PC was made by the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands in the very first production run. (And made in a factory, not in a garage.)

Nothing from IBM's computing history would come close to an Apple 1 in rarity or status.

There are plenty of original IBM PCs (model 5150) in service today. Mostly by collectors, but some in actual daily use as computers. I know a small company that still uses one to run their payroll. Because it does exactly what it needs to do, they don't see any reason to stop using it.

The HP-01 calculator watch might be a close equivalent - a "first of its kind" product with low production numbers. Although much more common than an Apple 1, they do sell for a few thousand dollars when they pop up.

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theloon said:
ffs. Not much else to say

#DISGUSTINGOPULENCE
Click to expand...

You spent money on a device you used to type that - when there are starving children around the world that your money could have fed.

What a disgusting display of conspicuous consumption.

People are free to spend their money on whatever they want. Many of the ultra-rich give a higher percentage of their income and wealth to charities than many of the middle class.
 
Michael Goff

Michael Goff

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Jul 5, 2012
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Anonymous Freak said:
This is not the equivalent of an original IBM PC. Not even close. The original IBM PC is much more equivalent (in timeframe/production numbers/etc, not in computing power,) to an Apple IIe.

*VERY* few Apple 1s were made (less than 10,000 for certain; this is from the very first 'production' run of less than 500.) The original IBM PC was made by the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands in the very first production run. (And made in a factory, not in a garage.)

Nothing from IBM's computing history would come close to an Apple 1 in rarity or status.

There are plenty of original IBM PCs (model 5150) in service today. Mostly by collectors, but some in actual daily use as computers. I know a small company that still uses one to run their payroll. Because it does exactly what it needs to do, they don't see any reason to stop using it.

The HP-01 calculator watch might be a close equivalent - a "first of its kind" product with low production numbers. Although much more common than an Apple 1, they do sell for a few thousand dollars when they pop up.

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You spent money on a device you used to type that - when there are starving children around the world that your money could have fed.

What a disgusting display of conspicuous consumption.

People are free to spend their money on whatever they want. Many of the ultra-rich give a higher percentage of their income and wealth to charities than many of the middle class.
Click to expand...

People with money give more. In other news, the sky has clouds and the sun is bright. More at 11.
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
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Michael Goff said:
People with money give more. In other news, the sky has clouds and the sun is bright. More at 11.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm not poor, but I'm certainly not rich (my household makes almost precisely the household average income for where I live.) I consider myself a "fiscal moderate, social liberal." I believe that government can and should be a force for good, and that paying taxes are an important part of that; therefore I believe that taxes should be progressive (the rich paying a higher percentage of their income in taxes than the poor.) So I am by no means a "the rich should do whatever they want" sort.

Yet at the same time, with personal money, the rich *SHOULD* be able to use that money to purchase things they want. I have a friend who is an artist, and while she isn't able to make a living at it, when she sells the occasional painting to a (generally rich) person for $10,000, it makes a serious bump in her quality of living for the year. Should the rich person have sent that money to the poor? I don't care. If the rich person wants to spend $1,000,000 on a yacht, or a vintage car, or a third vacation house, or a vintage Apple 1, who am I to say that is in appropriate?

Now, if they want to spend it to buy up a local park and turn it in to a parking lot; or to try to get a law passed that would hurt education funding, THEN I'll have a problem with it...

(Sorry for the political rant. If mods feel like deleting all of the political comments, I won't complain.)
 
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