Rare Apple 1, signed by Steve Wozniak, could be worth $400G
The computer was restored in September 2020
A rare Apple 1 computer signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is set to go up for auction where it could fetch a princely sum.
The rare computer, which was restored to its original state in September, includes the original shipping box, operating manual and "original Apple Cassette Interface manual, which features the original 'Apple Computer Co. logo'," according to auction house RR Auction, which is handling the sale.
“The Apple-1 is not only a marvel of early computing ingenuity, but the product that launched what is today one of the most valuable and successful companies in the world,” Bobby Livingston, executive VP at RR Auction, said in a statement obtained by FOX Business.
(RR Auctions)
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APPLE, STEVE JOBS MEMORABILIA UP FOR AUCTION
Also included in the lot is a program from the 2005 UCLA event where Wozniak signed the box, along with an image of the current owner with Wozniak and a 1994 email from Wozniak about the computer.
"What makes this particular Apple-1 even more valuable is that the collector had the foresight to present one of the extremely rare original boxes to Steve Wozniak and have the Apple-1 creator hold it in his hands one last time," Livingston added.
(RR Auctions)
Although it did not come with peripherals that we take for granted today, such as a monitor or a keyboard, the Apple-1 was ahead of its time: It had a pre-assembled motherboard, while other computers did not.
Given the state of the computer, the signature and the fact it has a box, which RR Auctions said is "one of just a handful of known Apple-1 board and box sets known today," it has a pre-sale estimate of $400,000.
It's not the first Apple-1 to go up for sale at auction in recent memory. In 2019, the computer sold for nearly $500,000, well off the $650,000 experts believed it could sell for.
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Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne co-founded Apple in 1977. Nearly 50 years later, the company is the world's most valuable, with a market cap over $2 trillion.