An auction that included vintage Apple items that were almost thrown away wrapped up this week with many items bringing in more than their estimates. A Lisa 1 and an original iPhone still in the plastic sold at hefty prices. Some technical notes handwritten by Steve Jobs also brought in more than expected. There were many more.
However, some of the Apple items did not sell, including a fully functional Apple-1, likely because bids didn’t reach their reserve price.
The Hanspeter Luzi Vintage Apple Archive with over 500 computers and other Apple items will go up for auction at the end of this month. There’s an Apple Lisa and other classic Macintosh models collected over 25 years.
That means two separate auctions of Apple products will be happening in close succession.
An Apple museum could be made of just the items currently up for bid at a single auction. There’s a fully functional Apple-1, an Apple Lisa 1, some technical notes handwritten by Steve Jobs, an original iPhone still sealed in the plastic and much, more.
Many of these items are expected to bring in big bucks.
If you only brought $50,000 to an auction for an original 2007 iPhone then you didn’t bring enough money. It’s an unusually valuable object because the handset is still sealed in the original packaging, and the item went for quite a bit above the auction estimate.
The winning bidder ended up paying $63,356 for the factory-sealed iPhone.
In the very early days of Apple, co-founder Steve Jobs was VP Operations. And Alfred DiBlasi has one of Jobs’ business cards to prove it.
The card will soon go up for auction. You can own this bit of Apple history if you’re willing to put down enough cash.
Lots of Apple fans know the company’s first product was the Apple-1 personal computer. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs initially put the machines together in a garage in 1976. Now one unit in their early run of 200, known as the “Chaffey College Apple-1” because its first owner taught there, has sold at auction for $500,000.
An incredibly rare Apple VideoPad 2 prototype is headed to auction after it was purchased from an Apple engineer back in 1999. It comes with a black leather carrying case that features the Newton logo, and is expected to fetch $12,000.
The VideoPad, which was scrapped by Steve Jobs upon his return to Apple in 1997, was a personal digital assistant (PDA) similar to the Newton that would have allowed users to carry out video calls. But it never made it to market.
An old, spiral-bound, somewhat stained Apple II computer manual from 1980 went under the hammer at auction the other day. When all was said and done, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay had the winning bid for the thing — $787,484.
Today, the Apple logo is up there with the Nike “swoosh” as one of the world’s most recognizable corporate icons. But, back in 1978, it was the just another logo belonging to an early stage startup that had recently released its first mass-market product, the Apple II computer.
Memorabilia from these early days of Apple is few and far between. However, if you want to get your hands on a piece, an early Apple Retail sign has just come up for auction. It’s not cheap, but it would certainly make a nice addition to any Apple collection.
Steve Jobs didn’t have to fill in a whole lot of job applications during his life. After founding Apple Computer at 21, Jobs’ name was well enough known that he didn’t have to mail off too many resumes and cover letters. Or have reasons to send them out.
However, one of the rare applications Jobs did complete is coming up for auction. It’s a great piece of memorabilia, even if it will likely set you back a whole lot more than Steve would have ever earned in the role.
