Apple 1 to be Auctioned Online by Christie's

Numerous sites and published reports have one of the earliest Apple 1 computers being auctioned on line at Christie's First Bytes: Iconic Technology from the 20th Century sale. The online sale starts on June 24th and runs through July 9th.

The Apple 1 is considered one of the earliest machines,rReports have the machine being built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976 or 1977.

The opening bid is set at $300,000 and expectations are for it to sell above $500,000.  Some other early Apple 1 computers ave sold for record prices, including last month at $671,400 breaking a previous record of $640,000 set in November. Sotheby's sold one last year for $374,500.

The Huffington Post reports on the sale

It's the kind of electronic junk that piles up in basements and garages — an old computer motherboard with wires sticking out.

But because it was designed by two college dropouts named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it could be worth more than half a million dollars (€375,000).

An Apple 1 from 1976, one of the first Apple computers ever built and forerunner of today's MacBooks, IPads and IPhones, goes on the auction block at Christie's next week. The bidding starts at $300,000 (€227,000).

"This is a piece of history that made a difference in the world; it's where the computer revolution started," said Ted Perry, a retired school psychologist who owns the old Apple and has kept it stashed away in a cardboard box at his home outside Sacramento, California.

The green piece of plastic covered with a copper-colored labyrinth of memory chips was one of the first 25 such computer elements, and sold for $666.66.

About 200 were made but most have disappeared or been discarded. Various estimates put the number known to still exist from about 30 to 50. They came with eight kilobytes of memory — a million times less than the average computer today.

Vintage Apple products have become an especially hot item since Jobs' death in October 2011, surrounding the mystique attached to this entrepreneur who joined forces with Wozniak to build computer prototypes in a California garage.

Another Apple 1 was sold last month for a record $671,400 by a German auction house, breaking a previous record of $640,000 set in November. Sotheby's sold one last year for $374,500.

"This is the seed from which the entire orchard grew, and without this, there would be no Apple," said Stephen A. Edwards, professor of computer science at Columbia University. "I've been shocked auction prices got into the six digits. The market has just gone crazy."

Source: The Huffington Post