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Apple 1 auction at Sotheby's

Dunno, but the one sold last year seemed to come with more documentation and other forms of provenance. I'd think Sotheby's overestimating the going rate for Apple 1, but they should be qualified enough not to grossly be out on a limb in the evaluation.
 
So is this auction on 6/15/12? They certainly don't seem to want new users figuring out any useful details.
 
Actually this Apple-1 is a better example than the one that sold for over $220k. It has all the original components including the white 6502 and is known to work. It also has original manuals.

The other one was not known to be working when purchased. The owner in Italy brought it to a university to get it running. He was luckily it worked. All it had was a box with Steve Jobs address, otherwise it was an ok condition Apple-1 with missing original components that wasn't running.

Cheers,
Corey
 
hey corey... I am not the ultimate Apple guru but these are easier to restore than say an Altair front panel. In short when you consider the value, an SBC's operational status is less important than say an S-100 from the same period. Less voltage, easier to find replacement parts from the period, etc.
 
Actually the Apple-1 parts can be very difficult to get specific things such as the correct replacement sockets which go bad easily or even some of the chips or correct voltage regulators. Yes you can troubleshoot them and use wrong components, but having a working one with original components is what increases he value. In many cases the boards have been hacked on because they were for the hobby crowd, so traces are cut/tapped and improperly repaired. There is a reason out of about 50 survivors only 6 are currently working. This board has no cut/repaired traces which is a major plus. The one that sold on eBay for 75k was a very hacked on board with lifted pads, scortch marks and many broken traces that were poorly repaired, not to mention the missing original parts (ROMs, LM323k and wrong video pot to name a few). It is also not in working condition and with all the hacks may never get in working condition.

You really can't compare one to an Altair where I can easily find/swap parts with another "donor" Altair. Back when Apple-1s were 10-20k, the Apple-1 that just sold on eBay was a "donor".... Not anymore LOL
 
Hm, ok. I'll take your word for the exceptional condition and original chips in the Sotheby's auction.

A bit curious it is auctioned on June 15 in the auction "Fine Books and Manuscripts". I'm sure Jobs himself would've considered an Apple 1 to belong just as well in the auction today (June 13), "Important 20th Century Design". ;-) There is also an auction on June 14, "Important Watches & Clocks" but I suppose an Apple 1 is so much more than a clock.

By the way, there is a separate lot for a five page document by Steve Jobs from his Atari days on how to convert a World Cup PCB (arcade game?). It is estimated to $10,000 - $15,000.
 
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I think it's being auctioned in the "Fine Books and Manuscripts" as they really don't have a category for "Vintage Computers". I think by also having it in this auction, the lot can co-exist with the Steve Jobs papers from Atari.
 
Just a clarification on the Apple 1 that sold for $213,000. I was the second owner of that computer. It was completely original and never modified. The original owner did hook it up and run it, but quickly found out it was not going to work for keeping business records! He put it back in the box and sat on the shelf until I bought it many years later. There were no missing components as stated by Corey986. It had the original 6502 chip, the cassette interface, all the manuals, the original sales sheet, the invoice from jobs with his parent's house address for a return address, a personal letter from jobs on how to hook up the keyboard, the original BASIC cassette, and came packed in the original shipping box with the die cut foam padding. I doubt that a better or more complete unit will ever be found again.

I have had 3 Apple 1's over the years. One was sold by the Byte Shop (serial #01-0005) that I sold back to Apple, the one now in Italy, and another now in Europe. I am looking forward to see what the one bring on Friday. I think that it will reach the auction estimate, but we shall see soon.
 
It may have been original when you owned it, but it passed through several more owners and at some point the CPU was replaced with a Rockwell 6502 dated 8145. Also someone wired a socket in the breadboard area to the PIA, so it appears that someone after you really did some tinkering with it.
 
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Yep, a lot can happen to an item in 35 years of existance. I learned this from vintage cars. As things pass from owner to owner small "fixes" tend to add up. Craig may have had a pristine Apple-1 board nearly strait out of the box, but once it left his possession all bets became off. That's why getting an un-restored all original 1960's corvette is so expensive and rare if you don't buy one from the original owner (A little old lady from Pasadena). The Apple-1 is like an early muscle car. Owners tended to make mods as time went on and they passed from hand to hand. You don't see many board level mods on a Commodore Pet 2001 because it's target audience was different, it's more like an old lime green Caddy. Other than the fuzzy dice and a big fedora you really weren't getting tinkerers modifying them too often.

Cheers,
Corey
 
It makes me curious what happened to Craig's Apple 1. My experience from the Commodore side is that 6502 chips barely never break unless you do something very stupid to it; usually a lot of other chips and components are dead long before one needs to exchange the 6502. Perhaps the original ceramic 6502 is different from later plastic revisions though. A horrible thought occurs to me that whoever acquired that Apple 1, swapped out the CPU in order to sell the original one to a CPU collector, perhaps even was asked by someone to trade it. The other changes I can't evaluate, if the next owner wanted additional functionality and perhaps paid with a ceramic CPU for a friend to do the job.
 
Yes, CBS just reported that the final price with buyer's premium was $374,500. I think that collecting early micro's has just entered a new era! How I wished that I still had any one of the three Apple 1 computers that I collected over the years. The only remaining artifact that I kept was the original pink copy of the invoice that came with the system that is now in Italy. When steve jobs sold these on his own (Woz claimed he was not aware of it happening) from his parents garage, he used Rediform invoices from an office supply. He typed in the company name and listed the salesman as "STEVEN". When I showed this invoice to Woz he immediately disavowed credit for selling it because his name was "Stephen." Woz also told me that the address on the invoice (Welch Road) is where Job's parents lived and the address on the shipping label (Crist Drive) was an answering/mail service company. That was all in early December of 1976. My, how things changed!

I am looking forward to see who the new owner of this Apple 1 is and the plans for it. Be prepared for a few more Apples to surface now. I know of a couple that have been just collecting dust to this point that will probably be available soon.
 
Wow. Who the hell would ever think a vintage computer would reach that price. I thought they were ridiculous at $10,000.
 
I figured they would eventually be expensive, just not this soon (and most are not worth much even now). Electronics including computers have changed all of our lives, people will collect them just like older people collect muscle cars etc.
 
people DO collect them just like people do with muscle cars, look at us! :D But damn, $300+k for an apple 1, makes one think about what would happen if one of us were to find one in a box of boards someone was going to scrap, and if it didn't work, we've got the skills and the chips to MAKE it work. Would you hold on to it? Try and sell it? Also makes me wonder what some of our stock IBM 5150's are going to be worth in say, 10, 20, or even 30 years from now.
 
The Apple 1 spiked because of the current popularity of Apple and Steve Jobs, even old macs have come up in price a little lately. PCs like the IBM 5150 have probably peaked as much as they are going to (until Bill Gates dies and people feel nostalgic for DOS). In 30 years the people who would have first coded on a 5150 will be dead so that market will be less then what we have now.

If I had an Apple 1 I would sell it without even thinking about it.
 
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