Early Apple Employees Auction Killer Collectibles

If there’s a good thing about the recession, it seems to be bringing some fine Apple memorabilia out of storerooms and closets.

Cliff and Dick Huston — ex-Apple engineers, for the record employees 27 and 25 — have decided to part with a treasure trove of Cupertino collectibles by auctioning them on eBay.

What’s on the block:

• Apple 1 (hand wired by Steve Wozniak)

• Apple II- items (auction starts Monday). This includes an Apple II  motherboard,  original circuit design layout, marked up schematic, notes and worksheets, and an Apple Disk II, serial number A2M0003-00001.

• Newton related items, including “iPad” ancestors like a never-shipped version called BIC and Cadillac (auction starts Tuesday)

Other miscellaneous keepsakes — including the fabulous Apple logo glasses (one of 30 artisan-made pairs from 1984) an Apple company phone directory and a mouse prototype, will go on sale during the week.

The brothers Huston were employed by Apple from 1977 to 1984, working alongside Steve Wozniak, both were involved with the creation of the Apple II disk drive – Cliff designed the analog board in the drive, while Dick wrote the 13-sector “boot” ROM and fixed bugs in DOS.

A lot of what they’re selling now was stuff they were smart enough to rescue from the trash can:

“Cliff dropped into Steve Jobs’ office one day and couldn’t help but notice the huge pile of Apple 1 boards – those that had been traded-in for the Apple II.  “What are you going to do with those?” Cliff asked.  Steve told him that they were to be destroyed.  “Mind if I take one…  Oh!   And one for my brother?” Cliff asked.  Steve reached into the pile and pulled out two boards and handed them to Cliff.  Many people around Apple were amused and asked, “Why would you want one of those?”  “It’s history,” was the reply, “just history.”

Even if you don’t have the cash to bid,  every item description contains a generous slice of Apple history.

Nicole Martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.