Apple-1 up for auction: very rare working copy, the serial is written by Jobs
A very rare example of Apple-1 equipped with monitor, keyboard Datanetics e serial number handwritten by Steve Jobs is in auction. After the first offers, a price of $ 270,000a figure destined to grow as the raises are allowed until 22 May.
It is one of the 200 units produced by the Cupertino company before the Apple-II debut. To boost second generation sales, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak offered discounts and trade-in options at the time, and most of the machines were destroyed once they were withdrawn. So here’s where there is rarity of this PC: belongs to first production batchis fully functional (certified by Daniel Kottke, a former employee of the company at the time of Apple-1) it is also the first to be sold at auction with authenticated serial number (01-0050).
With Apple-1 are offered:
- Brittany McGannon feeder
- Sanyo VM-4509 monitor
- Datanetics keyboard
- copy of the original manual signed by Steve Wozniak (complete with the words “Think Different!”) and Ronald Wayne, co-founders of Apple together with Steve Jobs
- interface for cassettes, power supply, connection cables
It is therefore an example more unique than rare, as mentioned, the only one belonging to the first lot with a serial number: in short, for (wealthy) collectors it is an opportunity not to be missed. What is certain is that this is not the first Apple-1 to be auctioned: for example, in 2014 a working one was sold for an incredible $ 905,000, purchased by the Henry Ford foundation to exhibit at its museum in Michigan. Three years later another model was bought by a German engineer for just 110,000 euros (in any case more than the 666 dollars to which it was offered on the market when new!).
Other auctions have been held in recent years, such as the one where an Apple-1 fetched £ 371,000. Not to mention the many Apple memorabilia, such as the Steve Jobs business card dated 1979 and the check signed by the Jobs-Wozniak couple dating back to 1976.
