It’s a rare occurrence in today’s technology world: a computer with a higher resell price than its original retail price. Of course, most computers today can’t claim to be hand built by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Yesterday, an original Apple-1 computer, which originally retailed for $666.66, was sold for $210,700 to an Italian businessman in a Christie’s auction in London. Not a bad return on an investment. According to The Wall Street Journal, Christie’s claimed the sale was “a record for a personal computer sold at auction.”
The 1976 Apple-1 computer was one of about 200 such computers built in Jobs’ parent’s garage before the model was discontinued a year later in favor of the Apple II. The auction’s winner received the computer’s original invoice, packaging, and manual. But not a whole lot else. The computer was auctioned as it was originally sold back in 1976: without a keyboard, monitor, power supply, nor any casing protecting the 8-bit 6502 microprocessor that powered the device. However, as the Associated Press points out, at the time, the Apple-1 was the only personal computer to include a motherboard that came fully assembled.
The computer also included an original signed sales letter from Steve Jobs. Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak, who attended the auction, provided a signed letter of his own. Christie’s had expected the Apple-1 to sell for between $161,000 and $242,000.
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