Photo: ebay
An original Apple computer with a wooden case is up for sale for £1.1 million on eBay, some 2250 times more than its original price tag in 1976. The ‘Apple-1’ was the first product to be developed under the Apple name by company co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and launched in 1976. Source: Daily Mail UK
Around 175 of 200 Apple-1 machines were sold in total, each carrying a price tag of US$666.66 (equivalent to some US$3126 today.)
The fully functional model is being sold by Krishna Blake of the US, who purchased the machine in 1978, and comes with its manuals and a cassette interface.
Also included in the sale is a period Sony TV-115, which was the monitor model originally recommended by Mr Jobs to use to display the computer’s output.
According to Mr Blake, the sale of this rare piece of computing history on the online auction site is ‘truly a first for eBay.’
In March 2020, another functioning Apple-1 model — this one without its original wooden casing sold for US$458,711 (around £335,000) at auction in Boston.
In total, around 200 Apple-1 machines were produced from the garage of Mr Job’s parents’ home in Mountain View, California, of which units Messrs Jobs and Wozniak ended up selling a total of 175.
The Apple-1 would pave the way for the development of the more advanced Apple II in early 1977, which came in a plastic housing with an integrated keyboard.
Mr Blake’s machine listed as #79 on the Official Apple-1 Registry is said to be in the best condition of these six machines, thanks to having been kept in special storage for much of its life.
The machine was been authenticated as a genuine original by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen back in August 2019 at the Vintage Computer Festival West in California.
Beyond reinforcement to the case’s transformer area, the unit is said to have never been modified or repaired and comes with its original power supply and keyboard.
