Rare Apple I projected to fetch $500K in Christie's auction

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Bidding will start at $300,000 and is expected to reach as much as a half-million dollars when a rare Apple I computer from 1976 goes up for auction.

Apple I
Apple I on display at the Smithsonian. Photo via Wikipedia.


One of the first computers ever built will hit the market next week at legendary art auction house Christie's. The projected sale price was reported on Friday by the Associated Press.

About 200 Apple I machines were made, but most no longer exist. Estimates peg the current number of original Apple computers at between 30 and 50.

Just last month, a working Apple I sold for $671,400 in an auction in Germany. That system had the added bonus of being signed by company co-founder Steve Wozniak.

That sale exceeded the previous record of $640,000 for a working Apple I, which came from an auction sale in late 2012. Even individual parts from Apple I machines have proven valuable, as a working Apple I motherboard fetched $375,000 in an auction last June.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22


    Is it me, or do these "rare" Apple Is seem to be popping up a lot lately?

  • Reply 2 of 22
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    $671,400 for a working one? Talk about Apple Tax. At least it doesn't have the screen build-in.
  • Reply 3 of 22
    If it fails to clear $500K, you know the tech media will be all over this with "Is Apple losing its cool?" headlines. Verge and Jizmodo will be stumbling over each other to write the most sensationalist headline.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    If it fails to clear $500K, you know the tech media will be all over this with "Is Apple losing its cool?" headlines. Verge and Jizmodo will be stumbling over each other to write the most sensationalist headline.

    Can't wait for Sammy to mock Apple users waiting in line for this auction.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    I'd pay $500,000 to avoid fragmentation.
  • Reply 6 of 22
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Jony Ives should make a video about that design.
  • Reply 7 of 22
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member


    What is crazy is that I remember very well having developed BASIC programs on this HP9830 workstation ... in 1973 if I remember well ...   Apple I was far, very far away from this ... at that time ....


     


     


     


  • Reply 8 of 22
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
  • Reply 9 of 22
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post



    From Woz himself:

    http://www.woz.org/category/tags/hp-9830


     


     


    Thanks for the reference. At least HP is still in the pocket calculator business !  (this is why my teenagers kids tell me ...). What a shame for the HP executives of that time !

  • Reply 10 of 22
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    These record prices are not to do with Apple's cool, but that interest rates are so low, and gold price has fallen, so people are looking for other places (such as rare art, wine, antiques and collectibles) to store their wealth. Nice time to be an auction house owner...

  • Reply 11 of 22
    It's one of the first Apple computers built, but far from one of the first computers ever built. Get a copy editor!

  • Reply 12 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    It's one of the first Apple computers built, but far from one of the first computers ever built.

    The longer they wait to fix it, the truer the statement becomes. You haven't incentivized it very well. :lol:
  • Reply 13 of 22
    nagromme wrote: »
    Jony Ives should make a video about that design.

    400
  • Reply 14 of 22
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member


    It bears a striking resemblance to the new Mac Pro, don't you think? Single processor, no slots. It's even more similar to the retina MBP, due to the soldered memory.

  • Reply 15 of 22
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Junkyard Dawg View Post



    It's one of the first Apple computers built, but far from one of the first computers ever built. Get a copy editor!

     


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post





    The longer they wait to fix it, the truer the statement becomes. You haven't incentivized it very well. image


     


    Probably should read "one of the first personal computers built." But either way it shows that history will give Apple its due. The naysayers can ramble on about how Apple didn't invent anything, how Steve Jobs didn't invent anything, how Apple is just a marketing company, how all the stuff credited to Apple existed "years before", and how any feature released in iOS was on Android three years before iOS. Do they actually think repeating this stuff will make it true?

  • Reply 16 of 22
    minicaptminicapt Posts: 219member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post


     


     


    Probably should read "one of the first personal computers built." But either way it shows that history will give Apple its due. The naysayers can ramble on about how Apple didn't invent anything, how Steve Jobs didn't invent anything, how Apple is just a marketing company, how all the stuff credited to Apple existed "years before", and how any feature released in iOS was on Android three years before iOS. Do they actually think repeating this stuff will make it true?



    1. Yes, because it avoids the realisation that so much of what they know isn't so, as in the interminable tiffs over shipped vs sold, and why Apple stole IP from Samsung, etc.


    2. A better measure might be found in exploring the auction results of the wide variety of micro-computers available at or before the birth of the Apple I. Someone must be concealing that info in order to pump up the status of the Apple I.


     


    Cheers


  • Reply 17 of 22
    richard getzrichard getz Posts: 1,142member


    I think those keys are thicker than a MBA :P 

  • Reply 18 of 22
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    .... and too it's the [B]65th anniversary of the Manchester Baby![/B] Who? You should be asking what, as perhaps only a handful of members would know. (I'd never heard of it before today). The computer, tablet or smartphone you're viewing this on owes it's heritage to it.

    "...the Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine – or the Manchester Baby as it’s become know. It’s importance can not be understated as it was [B]the first computer to run a program electronically stored in its memory. (1948!)[/B] Before it, computers performed instructions by either hardwired storage media or punch cards that had to be constantly switched out.

    ...the Manchester Baby’s ability to run programs stored in its memory was due to its novel use of RAM. The machine, which weighed a ton, only had 1,024 bits of memory from which it could execute programs. Of course, its form of RAM isn’t what we’re used to today. Instead, it used a cathode ray tube to store data.

    The Baby was only ever experimental, but the work done on it led to the creation of the [B]Ferranti Mark 1. This was the first computer to ever be sold commercially.[/B] From there, computers became faster, smaller and even started to take on new forms in smartphones and tablets."

    If you have an interest in computer history check out this video on the Manchester Baby's development.


    EDIT: We coulda had the CRT Store. Look about 2 minutes into the video.:lol:
  • Reply 19 of 22
    Here we go one of the original microcomputers the first gen. Made by apple selling for half a million. Almost as much as a 30 min coffee break with Tim Cook.
  • Reply 20 of 22

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Cpsro View Post


    It bears a striking resemblance to the new Mac Pro, don't you think? Single processor, no slots. It's even more similar to the retina MBP, due to the soldered memory.



     


    Yeah, but wood case? That looks so steampunk...


     


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