Filed under: Apple History, This Old Apple
Found on eBay: An original Apple-1 with wonderful documentation
A few months ago, we provided details of an auction that featured a Mac that had been given to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry by Apple. If you missed your chance to pick up that prime item, now you have an opportunity to own an Apple that is even more rare: an Apple-1 (also known as the Apple I) that's currently on auction on eBay.The starting bid for the Apple-1 is US$50,000. What do you get with your winning bid? A non-working Apple 1 motherboard, the original shipping box (with the return address being the home of Steve Jobs' parents), and the original manual, complete with schematics on how to take the motherboard and build a workable computer out of it.
There's also a tape interface card, used to load or save software from cassette tapes. The card comes with a manual and a cassette with a typed label that says "BASIC" on it.
If you're a fan of Steve Jobs, you'll want two of the items that are included. The first is a letter signed by Steve Jobs that explains how to connect a keyboard and monitor to the computer, and telling the buyer (someone who wanted to be a dealer) when dealer applications would be available. The second is a hand-typed invoice for the computer, showing "Steven" as the salesman for the machine.
The original full-page advertisement for Apple was included with each Apple-1. This features the original Apple "Isaac Newton" logo that was designed by the third founder of Apple, Ronald Wayne. Wayne also wrote the Apple-1 manual. Finally, you'll get a photograph of every other owner of this computer. The existing owner has a picture of himself, the computer, and Steve Wozniak that he's including.
If you're the successful bidder, you are asked to travel to Roseville, California to pick it up due to the irreplaceable nature of the Apple-1. A gallery of the photos included in the auction can be viewed below. And remember, this could be the perfect holiday gift for that special someone...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
greggsymington said 8:51AM on 11-18-2009
$3000 for Shipping??!!!!! Do they ship in a Carbon Fiber box?
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Jason Martin said 11:37AM on 11-18-2009
As the seller states, this is to discourage shipping:
"Due to the irreplaceable nature of this item, I am placing a $3,000 additional fee if the item is chosen to be shipped. I do not do this for the money, I do it to discourage shipping. I want it to be dramatically more expensive to have this relic shipped than to pick it up and safely transport it to its new home personally. "
It would be more economical to either go pick it up personally or even pay someone else to do it for you. And that's the point.
email said 9:00AM on 11-18-2009
starting bid 50k and shipping 3,000 what a rip off. Only a fool (a rich fool) would buy this. I'm guessing that there will be 0 serious bidders.
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ack154 said 10:14AM on 11-18-2009
Na... SOMEONE will buy it. Having lots of money doesn't necessarily mean they're intelligent in their spending of it.
Jason Martin said 11:39AM on 11-18-2009
You seem to think that $50,000 is a lot of money for all people. It certainly is to me, but I know there are millions of people in this world for whom that's nothing, especially for a rarity such as this.
Orion said 10:04AM on 11-18-2009
"Due to the irreplaceable nature of this item, I am placing a $3,000 additional fee if the item is chosen to be shipped. I do not do this for the money, I do it to discourage shipping. I want it to be dramatically more expensive to have this relic shipped than to pick it up and safely transport it to its new home personally. "
What a load of shit. He could have his auction ended for that. eBay specifically notes you can't just charge whatever you want for shipping now. It has to be, or roughly, what shipping really is. What an idiot.
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ack154 said 10:17AM on 11-18-2009
Interesting point. Surely enough care could be taken to properly package and ship this - even given it's "irreplaceable nature." What a tool.
BeyondtheTech said 10:25AM on 11-18-2009
You can take the proper steps and package everything with all the care in the world, but if some dumb delivery guy at $15 an hour does that little sequence as Jim Carrey did in the beginning of Ace Ventura, it doesn't matter, now does it?
Not that I'll ever be able to afford let alone with the auction, it's really wonderful to see these photos and information of where it all started.
Jason Martin said 11:42AM on 11-18-2009
It's a moot point. At the very least, whoever buys this will pay for their own personal delivery guy to hand deliver it door to door, that is if they don't pick it up them self.
craigneth said 10:56AM on 11-18-2009
I actually used one of these when it was new. In fact, I wrote my first BASIC program for it. It was attached to an ASR-33 teletype for output.
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David S. said 11:07AM on 11-18-2009
$666.66? Guess that bite out of the Apple logo has some meaning after all. ;-)
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MacGnG1 said 12:11PM on 11-18-2009
If you take a closer look at the pictures of the documentation they look VERY pixilated. I asked the guy if he could rescan them but he didn’t get back to me.
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mark said 12:58PM on 11-18-2009
Gee since it didn't sell you think he'll knock off a thousand or two and relist?
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brian said 12:58PM on 11-18-2009
Nice or not, the value was overestimated. The auction just ended with no bids.
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mark said 1:40PM on 11-18-2009
I find it hilarious you need to spend 3,000 on shipping because it's very important that this DEFECTIVE board get to you safely.
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Mr Lizard said 2:58PM on 11-18-2009
Does it come preinstalled with Snow Leopard?
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SIP said 3:17PM on 11-18-2009
It didn't sell...
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Doug McIntosh said 4:32PM on 11-18-2009
I smell a rat.
The 6502s that were on the Apple 1 were CERAMIC.
Let me see the date codes on those chips.
And yes, I own an Apple 1.
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OS11 said 11:39AM on 11-19-2009
The Steven Jobs signature on a document like that is worth about $6,000, the Apple I, about $32,000 (only about 300 were made)... the rest about $4,000, so his price is a bit high.
But it's a fairly good investment once Woz & Jobs are gone.
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