The Apple-1 was built only 200 copies, all hand-assembled at Steve Jobs from 1976. The model auctioned Tuesday in Los Angeles, is one of the twenty listed in working condition.
Le Monde with AFP
Worship, even mythical. An Apple-1 Wood, first computer model sold by the firm at the apple in 1976, is auctioned, Tuesday, November 9, in southern California and could leave more than one million dollars (860 000).
The company founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs has built a total of 200 Apple-1, all hand-assembled in Jobs, most of which were sold at the time for $ 666.66 dollars.
The copy auctioned by John Moran auction house in Monrovia, near Los Angeles, is estimated between 400 000 and 600 000, but could pull much more, say experts. An Apple-1 in working order had been sold over 900 thousand dollars in 2014 by Bonhams.
Bought in 1977 by a student to the teacher
According to the expert Corey Cohen, interviewed by the Los Angeles Times 60 Apple-1 are identified to date, but only twenty of them, including the one sold by the house John Moran, still work
The copy is the more original it has an exotic wood cabinet, koa, a native of Hawaii, a rarity that it is to be included in a sale otherwise devoted to art and contemporary design. There are only six known copies of Apple-1 with housing koa, according to the catalog of the house John Moran .
The proposed lot includes the Apple-1 motherboard “NTI” original, connection and power cables, and a Panasonic video monitor 1986.
In 1976, the Apple-1 were among the first models of personal computers already assembled (with components already soldered on the motherboard in particular) but they are often sold without housing or keyboard.
The copy purchased at the time by a professor of Chaffey College, released Tuesday, “is like the Holy Grail for collectors of vintage electronics and computers,” says Corey Cohen. This professor had sold in 1977 to one of his students, who preserved to this day and has chosen to remain anonymous.