Christie’s to Auction Apple 1 Computer

Christie’s Auction House will be auctioning off an Apple 1 computer — the first computer model designed by Steve Wozniak and handbuilt by The Woz and Steve Jobs in Mr. Jobs’s parent’s garage. The auction is for a fully assembled motherboard with some extra components such as a 6502 microprocessor and more RAM that were added later, and the auction takes place on November 23, 2010. Christie’s expects it to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000 (roughly US$161,600 - $242,400).

The circuit board is numbered 82, and that’s out of the 200 that were made before the newly born company moved on to the Apple II computer. That does, in theory, mean that it’s not one of the first 50 that were sold to The Byte Shop, an early computer and electronics supply store that bought the first 50 units made.

Apple 1 Christie's Auction

Apple 1 and paperwork being auctioned by Christie’s on November 23rd, 2010

For those interested in Apple lore, Mr. Wozniak designed the computer, and Steve Jobs thought that he could sell it. Their original plan was to sell them as a kit, but The Byte Shop ordered the above-mentioned 50 units with the stipulation that they be fully assembled. It was that order that gave the two Steves the momentum to try and make something of their Apple Computer company.

Christie’s description: “APPLE-1 — Personal Computer. An Apple-1 motherboard, number 82, printed label to reverse, with a few slightly later additions including a 6502 microprocessor, labeled R6502P R6502-11 8145, printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D and columns 1-18, three capacitors, heatsink, cassette board connector, 8K bytes of RAM, keyboard interface, firmware in PROMS, low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, video terminal, breadboard area with slightly later connector, with later soldering, wires and electrical tape to reverse, printed to obverse Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto. Ca. Copyright 1976.”

Christie’s has more information on the particulars of this auction on the company’s site.