Ebay Watch: Apple I To Go on Sale

8:17 am, September 15th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli

CC-licensed, thanks to Ed Uthman on Flickr.

A man describing himself as an “82-year-old antique” is putting a relatively young 32-year-old Apple I for sale on eBay in the next few weeks.

One of 200 computers hand made by Steve Wozniak, somewhere between 30 and 50 are thought to be still around. (If you’re more interested in seeing one than buying one, the Smithsonian has an Apple I on display as it’s being presented to the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto).

Back in July 1976, the Apple I sold for $666.66. The computers, sold in a kit, came with 4KB standard memory, that you could bump up to 8KB or 48KB with expansion cards. You had to add your own case, keyboard and display.

Guesstimates say the computer could fetch between $14,000 and $16,000.

The seller wrote in to San Francisco Chronicle tech columnist David Einstein about how he might get publicity for the sale.

Einstein replied, “I don’t think your computer is valuable enough to spark much general media interest before you sell it.”

Alas, he underestimated the Cult of Mac. Mr. Antique, we want to hear from you!

Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Cult of Mac, News, Top stories, Vintage Tech | Comment on this article

About the author

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.

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7 comments

There is also an Apple I at the Computer History Museum in Mountainview, CA.

http://www.computerhistory.org/

Barry Wood, on September 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Pas mal non plus en bois…

Franck S., on September 15th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

The Chronicle, and most newspapers these days, are filled up with clueless, self-important idiots like David Einstein. They were hired by money-fuckhead marketeers with no vision and they are as much to blame for the death of newspapers as craigslist and the internet.

Knox Bronson, on September 15th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

Haha! He thought an Apple I wouldn’t fetch much money? Anything that rare is bound to be valuable, let alone something from the early days of home computing; let alone something from the early days of Apple! What a fool. How do we go about more publicly ridiculing him?

Rikki, on September 16th, 2009 at 4:16 am

i’d totally like to take a gander at one. i’m headed to palo alto this weekend…guess i’ll have to try and seek it out. wicked cool idea.

erika dumaine, on September 18th, 2009 at 1:20 am

Here is the website for the Apple 1 that is going up for sale:

apple1forsale.com

BTW, the original Apple 1 also did not come with a complete power supply either. (i.e. you had to go out and buy your transformers to complete the power supply)

John Calande, on September 24th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Sold. Auction #320431509242

Bob, on October 4th, 2009 at 10:06 pm