Steph Deschamps / November 10, 2021
An Apple-1, the first computer model ever marketed by the Apple firm from 1976 and of which there are only a few dozen copies left in the world, was sold Tuesday at auction $ 400,000.
The computer, in working condition and all the more rare for its exotic wood case, was estimated at between $400,000 and $600,000 by the John Moran house that organized the auction in Monrovia, near Los Angeles.
An Apple-1 like this one had been sold for more than $900,000 in 2014 by Bonhams.
The company founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs built a total of only 200 Apple-1s, all hand-assembled at Jobs' home, most of which sold for $666.66 at the time.
According to expert Corey Cohen, interviewed by the Los Angeles Times newspaper, 60 Apple-1s have been identified to date, but only 20 of them are still functioning.
The example is all the more original as it is equipped with a case made of exotic wood, the koa, native to the Hawaiian Islands. There are only six known examples of Apple-1 with a koa case, according to the John Moran catalog.
In 1976, the Apple-1 was among the first personal computer models that were already assembled (with the components already soldered to the motherboard in particular) but were often sold without a case or keyboard.
The copy offered for sale on Tuesday was purchased at the time by a professor at Chaffey College. He sold it in 1977 to one of his students, who has kept it to this day.