Apple 1 computer sells for $174,000

Expected to fetch up to $200,000 in auction, a 1976 Apple 1 computer, one of just 200 ever built, has sold for $174,000 through Christie's auction house.

Each Apple I computer was hand-built by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The device up for sale was #82 of the 200, and sold with original packaging, manuals and a letter from CEO Steve Jobs. There are only 30-50 left in the world.

Apple I computers have 8KB of memory and an eight-bit processor.

Read the auction description:

"The first Apple computer, and the first personal computer with a fully assembled motherboard, heralding the home computer revolution.

"Introduced in July 1976, the Apple I was sold without a casing, power supply, keyboard or monitor. However, because the motherboard was completely pre-assembled, it represented a major step forward in comparison with the competing self-assembly kits of the day."

The computer was purchased by Italian businessman and private collector Marco Boglione. With taxes, the 34 year old computer will cost the businessman $210,000.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Nov 2010 22:44

ROMaster2

That's Apple for you.

23.11.2010 23:05 #1

KillerBug

LoL...$200K for something with less processing power than the toy that comes free with a happy meal!

23.11.2010 23:41 #2

mike.m

This guy is a disgrace to us Italians. He must not be sane to spend that kind of money on a piece of junk like this, especially when it's coming from crApple. My 5 year old scientific calculator probably has more power than this, and it's a lot smaller too. I can already see toy-boy Jobs giving an evil grin in the backround as this goes down.

24.11.2010 00:36 #3

KillerBug

Originally posted by mike.m: This guy is a disgrace to us Italians. He must not be sane to spend that kind of money on a piece of junk like this, especially when it's coming from crApple. My 5 year old scientific calculator probably has more power than this, and it's a lot smaller too. I can already see toy-boy Jobs giving an evil grin in the backround as this goes down. Your 5-year-old calculator is like a bank of supercomputers compared to this...digital watches from the 1980's have more memory and processing power than the first apple.

BTW...this is not the stock base model...this was the upgraded model. The base model had only 4K of memory. That little card below the mainboard in the picture is the other 4K...a huge upgrade, but still not as massive as the big daddy...a 44K addon card that gave you a total of 48K memory...who would ever need so much ram?

24.11.2010 05:38 #4

kikzm33z

This supports the idea that Apple fans waste their money on everything so well.

26.11.2010 12:13 #5

Gorgoroth

Well hell I'm curious... According to the article, 200 were made and only 30-50 are left in the entire world?? I guess the other 150-170 were smashed into little pieces by people who thought these "first edition" computers sucked!!

Hey, maw! I don't see no dis-play on that thar tee vee screen?!? What this little green computer do anyway?

Vibrations of Doom Magazine
The world's oldest and longest running online music magazine.
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26.11.2010 16:39 #6

Zealousi

O.k yes is no i7 but really this computer is a serious part of computing history and even tho it is apple and Steve but really have more respect for one of the first PC's. If it was not for this invention then who knows what we would have at this point.

If i had the money to throw away i would buy one as it represents the start of the computer revolution.

26.11.2010 21:21 #7

Gorgoroth

Originally posted by Zealousi: O.k yes is no i7 but really this computer is a serious part of computing history and even tho it is apple and Steve but really have more respect for one of the first PC's. If it was not for this invention then who knows what we would have at this point.

If i had the money to throw away i would buy one as it represents the start of the computer revolution. Geez, if I had the money, I could think of SEVERAL things I'd rather spend 174,000 dollars on... This stupid excuse for a computer doesn't even crack the top 1000 list...

Vibrations of Doom Magazine
The world's oldest and longest running online music magazine.
http://vibrationsofdoom.com

26.11.2010 22:11 #8

Zealousi

Originally posted by Gorgoroth: Originally posted by Zealousi: O.k yes is no i7 but really this computer is a serious part of computing history and even tho it is apple and Steve but really have more respect for one of the first PC's. If it was not for this invention then who knows what we would have at this point.

If i had the money to throw away i would buy one as it represents the start of the computer revolution. Geez, if I had the money, I could think of SEVERAL things I'd rather spend 174,000 dollars on... This stupid excuse for a computer doesn't even crack the top 1000 list... I guess i have more appreciation of computers then you, not taking them as a material item but as i surround myself with computers i find that they are more then metal and plastic, for some it is a way of life and i would not have it any other way. But don't you find it amazing that in 30 or so years the gap between the first PC in the home to what we have today, i don't know about you but that is something well worth appreciating.

There is plenty of things to buy but money is just another material item like a lot of things in this world, to create something from nothing and doing what we enjoy is worth more to some. Money is not the answer to everything.

What would you be doing right now if computers were not invented?

26.11.2010 23:06 #9

Gorgoroth

Originally posted by Zealousi: Originally posted by Gorgoroth: Originally posted by Zealousi: O.k yes is no i7 but really this computer is a serious part of computing history and even tho it is apple and Steve but really have more respect for one of the first PC's. If it was not for this invention then who knows what we would have at this point.

If i had the money to throw away i would buy one as it represents the start of the computer revolution. Geez, if I had the money, I could think of SEVERAL things I'd rather spend 174,000 dollars on... This stupid excuse for a computer doesn't even crack the top 1000 list... I guess i have more appreciation of computers then you, not taking them as a material item but as i surround myself with computers i find that they are more then metal and plastic, for some it is a way of life and i would not have it any other way. But don't you find it amazing that in 30 or so years the gap between the first PC in the home to what we have today, i don't know about you but that is something well worth appreciating.

There is plenty of things to buy but money is just another material item like a lot of things in this world, to create something from nothing and doing what we enjoy is worth more to some. Money is not the answer to everything.

What would you be doing right now if computers were not invented?

Okay, good point... Computers are like these little magic boxes that allow you to do lots of cool things. I clean and remaster vinyl, download music and movies, hell even the MAME and commodore 64 emulators are cool as hell. I've been able to find people I went to high school with that I don't even live in the same town as, and a few of my last girlfriends were met online...

All that being said, I remember the first computer I programmed on, a TRS-80 Model IV... I'd love to have one of THOSE again...

Vibrations of Doom Magazine
The world's oldest and longest running online music magazine.
http://vibrationsofdoom.com

26.11.2010 23:16 #10

Zealousi

I myself still play poke'e'mon yellow on gameboy emulators because that was the best Classic RPG ever created. Even with professional developers pulling in big pay packets, i am sure there is a good portion of people that got into Development for the love of the computer so they sat there all highschool in front of the computer and had no gf's but they were happy because they had their computer. I am sure solitaire has saved everyone at one point from going insane from being bored.

It is just a endless list not to take into fact that the entire world/Internet/Banking/Online Games/Adult Material/Direct to door entertainment of media evolved from that original concept of computers.

Computers are that inbuilt into our life's to the point that the world would go into chaos because it would need to revert back to pen and paper and actually manually doing their work.

This technology has been exploited far beyond what it was built for and while being a corporation chew toy, it accumulates funds to improve the product. We are using the Internet 10 years ahead of it's time, being the open war field that it is bringing fraud to a new level entirely that in the right conditions could never be proven.

Even with all this said, this Apple 1 computer even tho it could do nothing that today's computers conduct on a daily basis it ripped a hole in human history and gave the power back to the people. This was not just any old computer it was the start of a revolution!

27.11.2010 00:21 #11

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