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The Almighty Buck Hardware Apple

Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000 81

Posted by timothy from the hey-motherboard-problems-are-an-apple-tradition dept.
Dave Knott writes One of the few remaining examples of Apple Inc's first pre-assembled computer, the Apple 1, sold for $905,000 at an auction in New York on Wednesday. The final price outstrips expectations, as auction house Bonhams had said it expected to sell the machine, which was working as of September, for between $300,000 and $500,000. The buyer was The Henry Ford organization, which plans to display the computer in its museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Only 63 surviving authentic Apple 1's were listed in an Apple 1 Registry as of January out of the 200 that were built. The auctioned computer is thought to be one of the first batch of 50 Apple-1 machines assembled by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steve Job's family garage in Los Altos, California in the summer of 1976. It is also believed to be one of only 15 that still have functioning motherboards. That's a bit more beastly than the original price.
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Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000 More

Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000

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  • Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:49AM (#48213307) Homepage Journal

    There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.

    • Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Informative)

      by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:58AM (#48213393) Journal

      Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home

      Thankfully, a lot of the early computers used commodity parts that are still manufactured, such as the 7400 series [wikipedia.org] of discrete logic gates (e.g. 7400 = quad NAND gate, 7404 = hex inverter, etc.). The Apple I's 8-bit microprocessor, the MOS 6502, is still commercially available [6502.org], too.

    • Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Informative)

      by spaceyhackerlady ( 462530 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:58AM (#48213397)

      There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.

      Yup. [brielcomputers.com]

      There are often limits on authenticity, either due to parts availability (e.g. TTL ICs), or for convenience (modern monitors, keyboards).

      ...laura

    • At 905K$USD per unit I'm pretty sure the market is non-existant. ;-)

    • The problem isn't the hardware - it's getting legit "Apple-blessed" Apple ROMs for distribution.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by davidwr ( 791652 )

        I was speaking in general terms. Yes, machines with proprietary, out-of-production components will be difficult or impossible to re-create without cooperation with the company who owns the IP rights.

    • Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MacTO ( 1161105 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @12:16PM (#48213607)

      There are kits, and it would be nice if the museum picked up a few to create an interactive exhibit. Just imagine being able to walk into an exhibit hall where the original is maintained in working order, but also being able to use one of the kits to get a taste of computing back in the day.

      • Just imagine being able to walk into an exhibit hall where the original is maintained in working order, but also being able to use one of the kits to get a taste of computing back in the day.

        You mean typing in everyone's favourite for the demo machines:

        10 PRINT "BUM"
        20 GOTO 10

        Ahh, happy memories!

    • No, there isn't, or else some shrewd businessman would've opened up a shop already.

      At the risk of being modded Troll, I'll say that most people interested in these ancient relics, other than museums, want the software that ran on them, and there are several emulators for that.
      • Well, there was the C-One [wikipedia.org] a decade ago, but it wasn't a business as much as a hobby -- I doubt the designers got much back for their time. Or at least not until they were hired to make a modified version for the home nostalgia market [wikipedia.org], but although they shifted half a million units then, it's likely that any reissue would use software emulation on ARM, as cost/performance ratios would be in their favour now, and it would be competing against software emulation on smartphones (a fair few retrogames are in the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ruir ( 2709173 )
      Is there? I loved the ZX Spectrum as teenager. I know the Z80 processor in & out. Heck, as my thesis I wrote a computer emulation for it. Would I want to deal again with a clunky 8-bit machine connected to a TV and deal with loading tapes for 5 minutes, or retry the load 3 or 4 times before getting it right? No freaking way. The only thing that stands on a retro computing business is that is far more convenient to deal with emulators on modern hardware.

  • No surprise (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:49AM (#48213319)
    Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?

    • Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:59AM (#48213415)

      Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?

      If you can keep it hidden away for 38 years and then sell it for 150,000 percent profit, then obviously it is _not_ overpriced.

    • Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @12:03PM (#48213467)

      Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Please stop posting factual and logical comments, it takes away from the usual anti-Apple circlejerk.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sremick ( 91371 )

        Unless you ever want to upgrade or repair it. But of course hardware never fails and 8GB RAM should be fine for years.

        Epoxied batteries, soldered RAM, nonstandard SSDs... it's insane anti-consumer BS.

        • 8GB RAM? I wish. The "new" 2014 entry-level Mac mini only has 4GB in the standard configuration, like all four models of MacBook Air.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ihtoit ( 3393327 )

          my G3 and my G4 had none of those. Batteries, RAM and storage was all removable and replaceable with commodity parts in the case of the RAM and storage, batteries were another matter (they wanted the machines' serial numbers!), so I gave Apple the fuckoff biscuit and got third party replacements.

      • Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.

        Amount paid for MS/Linux software: $0
        Amount paid for Apple software: $700

        PC hardware survival average: 6+ years
        Apple hardware survival average: 14 months

        Average price paid per PC: ~$1,200
        Average price paid per Apple: ~$2,100

        Between a $2,200 monitor getting a hot pixel epidemic in the first 7 months and a $2,000 Macbook Pro melting down to the point of complete failure in 21 months it was by far the worst investments of my life. Meanwhile, I still have an ancient $150 IBM 486 that works beautifully for my c

      • Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.

        Ah well, the buyer of this Apple is going to be mightily disappointed when he tries to download the latest OS and office suite onto his Apple, isn't he?

  • Steve who? (Score:3)

    by PhilHibbs ( 4537 ) <snarks@gmail.com> on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:53AM (#48213349) Journal

    Who is Steve Job?

  • Wrong Price! (Score:5, Funny)

    by hedgemage ( 934558 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @11:55AM (#48213373)
    What a bunch of frickin' casuals! If they truly knew their history, the price would have been $905,666.66.

  • for the rest of us...one percenters!!!!!

  • At least compared to these Apple products [kyleconroy.com]. (Here's a nytimes link [nytimes.com] if you don't want to go to a random site)

    But seriously I'm glad it's going to be displayed in a museum.

  • sold at it's RRP then.

  • Are you sure this is an original Apple computer? It doesn't have any rounded corners.

  • I used to have an Apple ][+. I sold it back in the mid '90s. In retrospect, I wish I'd kept it for nostalgic purposes. I wonder what that would be worth now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nimey ( 114278 )

      Probably not that much. A new-in-box //c sold for around $2600 a few years back.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrogMan ( 708650 )
        I bought a fully working //c last year for £120. Unboxed though. (And a working Apple II euro the year before for about the same) If you look about, then most of these old ones don't go for much at all really. The esoteric ones sometimes do. e.g. check old ebay listings for the MK14 and Jupiter Ace ... Apple /// and Lisa... Now they'll be worth something... -Gordon
    • Also, I remember seeing an Apple 3 at the bank where my father worked back in the '80s.

    • An Apple ][ must be worth twice as much... you lost a cool 1.8 million simoleons, pal!

    • A cursory look on ebay shows vintage Apple 2 selling for as much as $500. Apple 3 selling for over $1K.

  • Ripped off (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sir Realist ( 1391555 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @12:23PM (#48213669)

    He coulda got a brand new iMac for no more than half that.

  • > $666.66

    Keep in mind a loaded station wagon, of Family Truckster fame, was around $3500.

    Still, it's a 90-fold increase over the original price.

  • Everybody should know the proper plural of Apple 1 is Apples 1 and not Apple 1's.

  • Next item up for bid.

  • Didn't a working original Apple I recently sold for like 300 bucks on Pawn Stars ?
  • I saw the display this past weekend and wondered what the insurance value was. My guess is that the premium just went up.
    Computer History Museum [computerhistory.org]

  • Authenticity is great and all but with so few still working I hope they will at least re-cap the thing, if that hasn't already been done. I'd hate to see them let that original smoke out!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ogdenk ( 712300 )

      No, it'll probably get put in a picture frame and mounted on the wall or in a glass box never to see power again.

      That's what happens when people with more money than brains buy a "piece of history".

      Personally, I think "vintage" computers should be played with, experienced, and used. I let my kids play with my Atari 800 all the time. The Apple I wasn't real special either, the Altair was far more capable when well-equipped and had more historical significance. The only thing Apple brought to the table was

  • My prototypes... (Score:3)

    by MindPrison ( 864299 ) on Thursday October 23, 2014 @04:23PM (#48215749) Journal
    ...aren't as fancy as that pre-assembled fully populated print board with no extra wires as patches...

    I'm a prototype developer too, and I can't help thinking that - that very computer setup...is just a setup to make some money, because it would look plausible to the laymen that knows nothing of hardware development. Take a computer from the 80s, split it apart, nail it to a wooden brick, and voila...you have your first "sony".

    Ya wanna know how real prototyping happens? I know...because I grew up with those guys:

    1) it's never a finished printboard like that.
    2) It's usually a bunch of vero-boards (breadboards) with tons of logic circuits like the TTL74xxx series.
    3) And it would be several prints, for the different sections, a) memory, b) memory management, c) character roms and system memory, d) video memory and video signal generation, e) sound generation board, f) I/O management, for input/output keyboard, disk, cassette, PTT etc.

    and I could go on and on....but I am betting you guys have NO clue (so mod me troll, you 14 year olds), I don't care.

  • At the beginning and end of the linked video showing the demo of the Apple-1, there is some lovely ASCII art shown on the Apple-1 monitor.

    Are these artworks hidden in the rom somewhere? Anyone got a link?

  • I wonder how much I'd get for my (still working) BBC Model A?

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