Used Computer Worth $116,000? Sure, If It’s An Apple-1
A used computer is going up for sale this weekend with a minimum price of $116,000. And yes, this isn’t your ordinary computer. Sotheby’s Auction House will be putting an Apple-1 computer on the auction block this Saturday in Cologne, Germany.
The opening bid for the used Apple-1 computer is set at $116,000 but Sotheby’s is expecting to sell the computer for much more. Last November, an Apple-1 sold for a record $640,000.
German auctioneer Uwe Breker said that the $640,000 price was surprising. Breker expects the Apple-1 computer up for sale this weekend to bring in between $260,000 to $400,000.
Dag Spicer, a senior curator at the Computer History Museum, said that the Apple-1 always attracts big interest because it represents the founding of one of the world’s largest tech companies. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak produced about 200 Apple-1 computers in a garage during the 1970s. Of those 200 computers, only about 46 are still accounted for.
Spicer said: “It is Apple’s creation story, the physical artifact that traces this incredible success to its origins.”
According to PC Mag, the Apple-1 computer on the auction block this weekend was signed by Wozniak. It was originally owned by MLB player Fred Hatfield who played for the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds between 1950 and 1958. The machine also comes with a letter written by Steve Jobs in 1978. The letter asks if Hatfield would be interested in trading in his Apple 1 for a new Apple II. Hatfield declined the offer.
