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Rare Fully Functional Apple-1 Computer Fetches Over $450,000 at Auction

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A rare fully functional Apple-1 computer has sold for $458,711 at auction this week, according to Boston-based RR Auction.

RR Auction says the computer was acquired by Michigan computer store SoftWarehouse in the 1980s as part of a trade for a newer IBM machine. It was subsequently displayed in the store in a custom-made museum style case, before being placed into storage. The computer was restored to its original, operational state in June 2019 by "Apple-1 expert" Corey Cohen, who evaluated the current condition of the unit as 8/10.

apple-1-auction-2020.jpg

"The Apple-1 is not only a marvel of early computing ingenuity but the product that launched what is today one of the most valuable and successful companies in the world," said Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction, adding that early Apple products continue to attract interest from passionate fans of the company worldwide.

The computer was sold with all components and accessories required for operation and proved to be fully functional for around eight hours in a comprehensive test.

apple-1-auction-2020-2.jpg

It is believed that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak built 200 of the Apple-1 computers and sold 175 of them, making it a rare collector's item. The computer was originally conceived as a bare circuit board to be sold as a kit and completed by electronics hobbyists, but Steve Jobs later sold 50 fully assembled units of the computer to The Byte Shop in California.

Another fully functional Apple-1 computer sold for $905,000 back in 2014.

Article Link: Rare Fully Functional Apple-1 Computer Fetches Over $450,000 at Auction
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/13/apple-1-auction-2020/
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This is pretty cool.

I have a collection of older Macs, but I doubt I will ever have one of these.

MacRumors said:
RR Auction says the computer was acquired by Michigan computer store SoftWarehouse in the 1980s as part of a trade for a newer IBM machine. It was subsequently displayed in the store in a custom-made museum style case, before being placed into storage. The computer was restored to its original, operational state in June 2019 by "Apple-1 expert" Corey Cohen, who evaluated the current condition of the unit as 8/10.
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I wonder if one day, maybe 40 years from now, there will be auctions for MBPs with fully-functional butterfly keyboard.
 
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No expansion slots, soldered on RAM. Hold on though... no dongles.

Suddenly interested in knowing more about how this operated...
 
I still have my Apple 1 and it’s work flawlessly. I’m never selling it. I also have my TI-99, Com 64, Tandy 286 and 486s and they all work great. My 486 actually has an Ethernet port and can go online.
 
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jicon said:
No expansion slots, soldered on RAM. Hold on though... no dongles.

Suddenly interested in knowing more about how this operated...
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It'll make you wish for dongles - hooking up anything external involves soldering and other hardware hackery and writing your own driver software. The follow-on Apple ][ at least had slots (beyond the cassette I/O and NTSC video out) - but you needed a circuit board (read 3" by 6" dongle covered in exposed electronic parts) to connect to anything.
 
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I remember this machine quite well, I know the owners of the software house. And I was the first local computer store. I was the first Apple level II repair technician in the town, was trained in Chicago for repair of the II, III Lisa and printers in 1982 :)

Ahh the memories, I think i threw out two apple I logic boards that I could not get to work and sold them a Apple IIe replacement.

I am still a IT person working in my home town where I fixed all those computers over the years. Just today I put in more memory in a Apple iMac system. Wow were did those 40 some years go :)

Here i am in 1982 just about the time Software house opened for business.

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CarlJ said:
It'll make you wish for dongles - hooking up anything external involves soldering and other hardware hackery and writing you own driver software. The follow-on Apple ][ at least had slots (beyond the cassette I/O and NTSC video out) - but you needed a circuit board (read 3" by 6" dongle covered in exposed electronic parts) to connect to anything.
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Yeah, plus an intricate set of manuals to construct circuits on a breadboard... when Radio Shack was king. I don't quite go that far back with computer hardware, getting more involved in early 90s, working with 8 bit Bernoulli drives, or 8.5" floppies with need of the occasional solder. Still... those early days must have been pretty empowering for those with DYI skill to do it, and have an actual computer running at home.
 
jicon said:
Yeah, plus an intricate set of manuals to construct circuits on a breadboard... when Radio Shack was king. I don't quite go that far back with computer hardware, getting more involved in early 90s, working with 8 bit Bernoulli drives, or 8.5" floppies with need of the occasional solder. Still... those early days must have been pretty empowering for those with DYI skill to do it, and have an actual computer running at home.
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It was a pretty exciting time to be alive. The original "Red Book" Apple II manual had a complete schematic for the Apple II in the back. I had a friend in high school who kept saying he was going to wire-wrap (an old way of building prototypes on a breadboard) together an Apple II from parts, rather than buying one (that was quite within his capabilities, he was heavily into computers and ham radio - he was also a phone phreak, back when that was a thing). At home, we got an Apple II around '79 (it was used, had been a demo in a defunct computer store, was serial # 893 - wish I still had that), and 6502 assembly language became my second computer language (after Basic, on the timesharing system - with printing terminals - at school). Another friend of mine used the game i/o port (intended for connecting 1-axis game paddles), and some custom built hardware, and some custom driver software, to implement a networked/shared printer for a dozen Apple II's at the high school (any of the computers could print to the one printer as if it was directly connected - one at a time, there was no queueing or buffering, but it was an amazing and highly useful accomplishment - and this was the early 80's, there was no networking at the consumer level). It was a pretty amazing time to be involved in computers.

(Oh, 8" floppies, or 5-1/4" floppies or 3-1/2" floppies - never heard of a 8-1/2".)
 
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I was working as a student assistant programmer at my colleges computer center when the Apple I was released. One of the regular employees bought one and brought it in to show it off and experiment with. I built a Schelbi H-8 kit on wirewrap board and had brought it into work as well. Not sure which one was first.

I think for the Apple I you had to supply your own keyboard, and possibly even power supply? We both were comfortable with a soldering iron and wirewrap tool and knew enough electronics.

I hooked the Schelbi up to a Baudot teletypwriter.

dunno if my coworker kept the Apple I. He subsequently worked for Apple.
 
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That guy Waine listed on the label, didn’t he sell his 10% stake in Apple back to Woz and Jobs for $900?
 
project_2501 said:
that keyboard is better than the butterfly keyboard
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How many million-selling books were written on MacBooks with butterfly keyboards?

How many million-selling books were written on beautiful Apple-1 keyboards?

I'll give you a hint: Scrivener doesn't run on an Apple-1.

[ . . . written on a MacBook in Scrivener . . . ]
 
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I wonder how you can justify paying half a million dollars on an electric board.
 
whoa...
wood covers for a monitor
reminds me of vac tube radios circa 1930's or fake wood wall paneling form 70's
nice to have 500k to spend but i have better ideas on spending 0.5 mega buck
though a part of computing revolution conservation is cool too
 
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