Rare First Batch Apple-1 to Fetch Over $250,000 at Auction

[MacRumors]

Yet another rare Apple-1 computer is up for auction, and this one already has a bid of over $250,000. The Apple-1 was the first Apple product created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when Apple Computer was founded, and there are few left in existence.

Apple-1 models that come up for auction often fetch high prices because of their rarity, and this particular Apple-1 up for sale is number 7 on the registry with a Steve Jobs handwritten serial number. It is a first batch machine, and according to the auction website, it is the only first batch Apple-1 that has gone up for auction in many years and it is the first Apple-1 that has an authenticated serial number handwritten by Jobs.

Daniel Kottke, who was one of the first employees to work at Apple, has verified that it is in working order. It comes with a power supply and other period-appropriate components that include a Sanyo VM-4509 monitor and a Datanetics keyboard. It is also being sold with a modern cassette interface, power supply, connecting cords, and a reproduction of the original operation manual signed by Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.

The auction site is also selling a 1993 Apple MacTV, which was Apple's first effort at creating a TV-computer hybrid, and a Steve Jobs name badge, Versace shirt, and leather wallet.

The Apple-1 auction is set to end on Saturday, May 21, so there are still two weeks for additional collectors to enter bids.

Article Link: Rare First Batch Apple-1 to Fetch Over $250,000 at Auction

 

[MonkeyDavid]

The original Apple-1 sold for $666.66, so if you bought it when it came out and sold it for $250,000, so that's 375 times the initial investment.
Of course, if you waited until 1980 and bought $666.66 of Apple stock at the IPO, you would have been able to buy 30 shares, which after all the splits would now be 6,720 shares, worth over $1 million today.

 

[Doctor Q]

I'd bid on it but I already have a shelf full of my other rare Apple-1s. So I'll skip this one and let some other collector get it this time.

 

[theluggage]

So that's how much you have to pay to get socketed RAM and a detachable power cable....

 

[Kabeyun]

Wait, are the signatures reproductions, or just the manual? I need to figure out what I’m going to bid.

 

[TheOldChevy]

It looks like 1 bid means no bid but initial price on this site. Many other material are widely overpriced on their site with no second bidder, so maybe this Apple I is overpriced too. Anyhow that's such a nice machine, I'd love to touch it and write an "Hello world!".

 

[mannyvel]

I remember loading Lemonade on an Apple ][ off of a cassette. Crazy.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I like to play with a Wang

 

[ericg301]

how snappy is safari?

 

[siddavis]

Forget the Apple, just give me the Sanyo

 

[nwcs]

Does ifixit give it a 10/10 for repairability or 1/10 due to parts availability?

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Wait, are the signatures reproductions, or just the manual? I need to figure out what I’m going to bid.

I read the description on the website and I interpret it to be a reproduction manual with real signatures from Woz and Ronald Wayne.

 

[HiVolt]

No offense to any collectors, but that's just dumb to pay that much.

 

[jasnw]

Every time I see one of these old green circuit boards I get a twinge of nostalgia. I wasn't an Apple user back then, but did a lot of DIY CP/M and early DOS systems. I still miss going into my neighborhood computer store to look at the new goodies, and receiving the latest Byte magazine to see who's building what. I wish I'd hung on to at least one of those old systems, but I was overruled by She Who Must Be Obeyed.

 

[mannyvel]

I remember reading Byte and Jerry Pournelle's column. I remember thinking if he had a Mac he wouldn't have anything to write about.

 

[ArrayDecay]

I'd rather have a M2 Mac Mini.

 

[ArrayDecay]

I remember reading Byte and Jerry Pournelle's column. I remember thinking if he had a Mac he wouldn't have anything to write about.

I remember John C. Dvorak's 1984 San Fran Chronicle column where he declared "the computer mouse is stupid and nobody will want to use one."

 

[theluggage]

No offense to any collectors, but that's just dumb to pay that much.

Looking at some of the other items on the auction site, that is less than 200 used baseball ticket stubs… Sounds like a bargain, and you’d be keeping all that nasty non-lead-free solder out of landfill…

 

[Graphikos]

No offense to any collectors, but that's just dumb to pay that much.

Really? I would think many collector items, including this, are likely to appreciate in value. In contrast, a $250k luxury sports car would be a worse investment and a dumb purchase.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Apple are doomed. The prices of their stuff these days. Omg.

 

[ryanasimov]

I remember reading Byte and Jerry Pournelle's column. I remember thinking if he had a Mac he wouldn't have anything to write about.

Oh, you brought back some memories! I think he called his home "Chaos Manor", and he would write long, multi-page columns about trouble-shooting various hardware/application conflicts (which were constant during those days). He'd chronicle multiple reboots, pulling cards, switching ports, and on and on. Some times he would solve the issue, sometimes not. Crazy to think back when you couldn't do a web search to see if other people had similar problems and share ideas. And readers would write to Byte to thank Jerry! Think of the time lag, which is just unacceptable today.

 

[cupcakes2000]

No offense to any collectors, but that's just dumb to pay that much.

Diego Maradona ‘hand of God’ shirt sold for record £7.1m at auction

Blue Argentina No 10 jersey kept by England player Steve Hodge beats mark set by 1892 Olympic manifesto

www.theguardian.com

Maradona’s tee shirt wants a word with you.

 

[4jasontv]

Really? I would think many collector items, including this, are likely to appreciate in value. In contrast, a $250k luxury sports car would be a worse investment and a dumb purchase.

How about $100,000 for a 1996 H1 Hummer? Cause they also have that.

How about $3500 to get a personalized shoutout by Logan Paul as he opens a pack of pokemon cards?

 

[npmacuser5]

I like to play with a Wang

View attachment 2001686

There you have it!

 

[filchermcurr]

I remember John C. Dvorak's 1984 San Fran Chronicle column where he declared "the computer mouse is stupid and nobody will want to use one."

He also griped about the IBM keyboard layout that has been standard for the past 600 years now:

https://imgur.com/fXwWa8i

Good times. Though I always got the impression that Dvorak was kind of a troll in general, always having a grumpy contrarian opinion about everything. Or maybe he's just spectacularly wrong about everything... hard to say.