In the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, the author tells the story of the first Apple computer, the Apple I, created ostensibly for the Homebrew Computer Club. According the the account in the book, Steve Wozniak wanted to give it away for free to members of the club; Steve Jobs, however, had a different vision. When convinced to sell the computer, Wozniak chose the price of $666.66, one that reflected his taste for repeating numbers, not the number of the beast. This friday, that price will get a hefty upgrade.
Auction house Sothebys has just posted a memo written by Steve Jobs to his co-workers at Atari, where he worked before starting Apple. The memo was written to his then-supervisor Stephen Bristow, and suggested changes Jobs had for Atari’s World Cup Soccer arcade game to extend the shelf life for arcade owners.
Funnily enough, while the memo is typed on Atari letterhead, it includes a stamp with the name of Steve’s company, “All-One Farm Design” and the address of the garage in which he and friend Steve Wozniak would soon create history with Apple Computer. Imagine if he’d gone ahead with designing farms?
Here’s a cautionary tale that should turn you into a hoarder: a contract of a nearly bankrupt tech company in the mid-1990s is now headed for the auction block with a $150,000 price tag. The company is Apple and the document is the tech giant’s founding contract with signatures of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne — who must be kicking himself at this very moment.
Another rare item from Cupertino, an Apple Lisa 1, hit the auction block this week. The successor to the Apple II and the predecessor to the Macintosh, the Lisa originally shipped back in 1983. Born of the pioneering work done at Xerox PARC and refined by Apple, it was the world’s first commercially available computer with a Graphical User Interface.
The first Lisa used two proprietary 5.25″ floppy disk drives known as “Twiggy” drives. These were problematic and unreliable, and were replaced in 1984 with the Lisa 2 and a 400k 3.5″ floppy drive. Most original Lisas were updated to the 3.5″ disk package, so very few Lisa 1 systems survive today.
As of this writing, current price on eBay is $15,000 after 4 bids, with 4 days left to go. Check back late next Tuesday for the results. Following the recent Apple 1 sale, looks like another possible record in the making!
Apple 1 system number 82 has found a new owner, for the bargain basement price of only $213,600 (£133,250). Sold via Christie’s of London, and originally shipped from Steve Jobs’ garage, the pre-auction estimate had been up to $240,000 (£150,000). The buyer remains unknown at the time of this posting.
The Apple 1 was considered the first personal computer, and approximately 200 systems were produced. About a quarter of those survive today. This kit includes the motherboard, cassette adapter, manuals, the original shipping box in good condition, and a signed letter from Steve Jobs to the first owner.
This particular Apple 1 has made the rounds. Cult of Mac first reported on it in November 2009 when it was posted on eBay for $50,000. A year later and it has appreciated significantly in value.
Even the iPhone isn’t powerful enough yet to run Blizzard’s fanatically popular World of Warcraft MMORPG, but thanks to the World of WarcraftArmory App has long given the mobile night elf or orc alike the ability to access their characters’ stats, check the leaderboards, browse items or calculate their talents.
A forthcoming update to the Armory App finally adds in a long-requested killer feature: the ability to use the auction house out of game. The feature is called Remote Auction House, and it allows you to browse the auction house for free out of game, or to pay an extra subscription price of $3 per month to buy, create or re-list items without ever logging into your Mac.
The subscription fee is a bold move, but Blizzard has proved time and time again that the die-hards raiders will keep ponying up. I’ve known more than a few gamers in my time who spend hours a day in the Auction House: a few bucks a month to allow them to do their auction grinding on the subway or at the park would, to them, be a small price to pay for a little more sunshine in their lives.
The updated app is now out, but the Remote Auction House functionality hasn’t yet been pushed live. Expect it soon.
See the world through Apple-tinted lenses? @Cliff & Dick Huston
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.
The intact side of the 250lb stair from Apple's 5th Ave. store
Controversy pays: after going public about pressure from glass company Seele over the eBay sale of a fractured stair, former Apple employee Mark Burstiner sold the cracked keepsake for $9,950.
It comes from the spiral staircase in Apple’s 5th avenue store, Burstiner saved the glass heading to the trash after it was fractured by a customer’s Snapple bottle.
The final sale price is about four times what Burstiner first thought a 250lb glass stair from the staircase was worth, $2,500.
We can’t wait to hear the buyer gets the thing home and what they do with it. And whether the suits will have any more to say about it.
Weighing in at 250lbs, this glass stair may be the heftiest Apple keepsake yet.
You’ve got about 10 hours to place the winning bid on an unusual piece of Apple memorabilia: a cracked glass stair from the 5th Avenue store’s stunning spiral staircase.
As we predicted, Apple wasn’t happy about it. Former Apple employee Mark Burstiner, who rescued the stair from the trash after it was cracked by a customer’s Snapple bottle, got into an email tussle with a VP from Seele, the company that makes the glass stairs, over pulling the auction.
Burstiner pulled the item, then, in a post on Gizmodo, explained why he decided to put it up for sale again:
As far as Iʼm aware, I have done nothing illegal. I have not stolen. I have not deceived in any way. The step is not confidential, and it is not IP. The step is the very same that any New Yorker could see by walking into Apple Fifth Ave. The only thing I am guilty of is taking the risk of throwing out my back through having to move the step multiple times. I saw an opportunity, I asked for permission, received it, and proceeded. I wonʼt allow a major corporation to bully me into a corner. At the time of this posting, it has been seven full days since I put the listing up, and I havenʼt heard from Apple directly a single time. I have every right to sell my property, and I plan to do so.
The controversy is turning what might’ve been yet another quirky, deserted auction into a potential moneymaker.
The intact staircase of the 5th Ave store. Courtesy Apple.
This one puts the “cult” back in “cult of mac:” someone is auctioning off a broken piece of glass from Apple’s Fifth Avenue store on eBay. It’s a step from the retail locale’s elegant glass staircase, to be precise.
The person hawking it with a starting bid of $700 says:
“They replaced it with a new one after a customer dropped a Snapple bottle on it and cracked it. I picked it up before it could be thrown out over a year ago, figuring it’s a collectible.
