What was the first gadget Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ever manufactured and sold? No, we’re not talking about the Apple-1, but rather the “blue box,” a device which allowed users to make free long-distance phone calls by reproducing specific dial tones.
One such device is up for auction this month, where it is expected to sell for upwards of $67,400. That’s roughly 67 brand new iPhone X handsets if you want to do the math!
Only 40-100 blue boxes were ever made, and this is thought to be the first offered at auction. It’s a significant item in Apple history because — while Jobs later turned his back on his law-breaking ways — he said that, “If we hadn’t made those little blue boxes, there might never have been an Apple computer.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxCNvNwl60s
An auction estimate of $67,400 may actually be pretty good value, too. The current record price for an Apple-1 was set in 2014 at a Bonhams History of Science auction in New York City, and fetched a whopping $910,000.
The blue box is a less sought-after item than the Apple-1, since it lacks to the distinction of being Apple’s first computer, but it’s also the first solo commercial venture of Jobs and Wozniak — which should arguably carry more of a premium than $67k.
The Bonhams auction will take place in New York on December 6. Better start saving!
Source: Daily Mail
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “Steve Jobs’ ‘phone-phreaking’ blue box is going up for auction”
ROFL Just the other day there was a similar article about a Lisa going for $55,000 and people came on here saying it was top price because old computers are usually worthless junk! Anyway, I don’t accept their argument as absolute and here is further proof that I am right :)
Doesn’t this depend on how you measure value? It’s a significant piece of tech history…
Exactly, as the adage goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Same thing with anything really, just like a guitar that was owned by Jimi Hendrix will sell for $120,000 or more, or the Mona Lisa is worth much more than a Lowry. Why? Perceived value. So trying to apply a generalised “all old computers are worthless” rule just does not work, in my humble opinion.
I wasn’t part of the conversation you describe, but I’d guess people were talking about the fact that plenty of old Apple computers still have market value, rather than your average beige box from an Intel clone PC company in the 1990s? I wouldn’t (or couldn’t) afford to spend tens of thousands on an old Mac, but I’ve certainly paid decent amounts for old tech for collection purposes — long after it’s had value from a technological perspective.