Sotheby’s expects to fetch no less than $180,000 (over 140,000 EUR) for the hardware

Jun 15, 2012 09:45 GMT  ·  By

Auction house Sotheby’s is putting up a rare, “operational” Apple I computer this Friday, June 15th, 2012. The system was handmade by Steve Wozniak himself in 1976 and it’s expected to prompt bids in the $120K-$180K range.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak hadn’t originally planned to sell the hardware when he assembled it in the ‘70s, but Steve Jobs convinced him to start their own computer company. They did and, as they say, the rest is history.

Just like the late Steve Jobs, Sotheby’s also believes selling this thing is a good idea. So good, in fact, that they’re expecting it to fetch no less than $180,000 (around 142,000 EUR). And why wouldn’t they? It’s such a rare piece of Apple history!

The opening bid will be somewhere between $120,000 and the aforementioned figure, but there’s a good chance it’ll fetch a lot more than that. Rich blokes with an affinity for old hardware can cough up as much as a million for something so rare (around 50 remain in the wild), not to mention that it’s in working order and comes with several add-ons.

A Steve Jobs / Steve Wozniak signature would have easily beefed up that opening bid by an extra hundred grand.

According to the description, the system is not only “operational” (meaning it works if you go through the technicalities to connect it to a power source and a display), it also comes with manuals and an Apple I Cassette interface.

The official description from Sotheby’s can be found below (excerpt):

Operational Apple Computer I. An Apple I motherboard, labeled on obverse Apple Computer I, Palo Alto, CA. Copyright 1976. Includes circuit board with four rows A-D, and columns 1-18; MOS Technologies 6502 microprocessor, labeled MCS 6502 3776; video terminal; keyboard interface; 8K bytes RAM in 16-pin 4K memory chips; 4 power supplies including 3 capacitors; firmware in PROMS (A1, A2); low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits; breadboard; heatsink; expansion connector; cassette board connector (15 1/8 x 9 in.; 385 x 234 mm).