Apple-1 Computer to be Auctioned

Apple fans will have the opportunity to purchase a rare piece of cyber history when an Apple-1 computer is auctioned off tomorrow.

The machine was hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and others in garage in Los Altos, California, in 1976 and 1977. It has been listed by California-based auction house John Moran Auctioneers in their Postwar and Contemporary Art and Design auction, which begins November 9 at 11:30am PST.

The unit gained the name the “Chaffey College Apple-1” because its first owner was an electronics professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The individual selling the Apple-1 is a former Chaffey student who purchased it from the professor in 1977 for $650. 

The lot comprises the original Apple-1 “NTI” motherboard, which is marked “Apple Computer 1 / Palo Alto, CA Copyright 1976,” with original blue Sprague 39D capacitors, original power regulators, rare original “Circle D” ceramic .01 capacitors, and an Apple Cassette Adapter (ACI) in an original ByteShop Apple-1 koa wood case.

The case – one of only six known examples in existence – encloses a chunky grey Datanetics Keyboard Rev D that is dated September 21, 1976. 

Also included are an Apple -1 connecting cable and power supply, partnered with a 1986 Panasonic video monitor [model no. TR-930U; serial no. KA6320206; dated: MAY 1986]. 

This is accompanied by a period Xerox copy of the Apple-1 Basic Manual, the Apple-1 Operations Guide, an original MOS 6502 programming manual, and two Apple-1 software cassette tapes with period hand-written index card with memory locations for the Apple-1 loading software. Three original video, power, and cassette interface cables are also included. 

John Moran Auctioneers estimates that the 16-piece Apple-1 lot will go for between $400K and $600K at auction.

The Apple-1 was Apple’s first product. The company sold just 175 of the units for $666.66 each. 

To finance its creation, Steve Jobs sold his VW microbus for a few hundred dollars and Steve Wozniak chipped in the $500 he raised from selling his HP-65 calculator.

Production of the Apple-1 ceased on September 30, 1977, three months after the model’s successor, the Apple II, was introduced.