A rare Apple-I computer recently sold for half a million dollars during an auction held by John Moran Auctioneers and Appraisers in California.
The item in question was an Apple-I computer that was built by Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder. Its history was that it was bought by a Chaffey College professor in 1976, then sold for $666, or roughly $3,200 in today’s value.
The initial bid for the Apple memorabilia was $200K but then quickly rose to $500,000. The estimate was between $400K to $600K. The package includes a 1986 Panasonic monitor, programming manuals, cables and the original ‘NTI’ motherboard, as well as handwritten index cards.
Historically speaking, Apple I items are rare and rarely appear on auctions. The last one was a Steve Wozniak-signed model that was auctioned and sold just last year. The machine was in a ‘fully functioning state’ and includes a cassette player, Sanyo monitor, keyboard in wooden case, power supply and original operation manuals.