Apple I sells at auction for $335k, the lowest price yet for a working model

An Apple I sold at Christie’s last week for $355,500, the lowest price yet seen for a recent sale of a model in working condition …

An Apple-1 motherboard: labelled Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto Ca. Copyright 1976 on obverse with four rows A-D, and columns 1-18, white ceramic MOS Technologies 6502 microprocessor, 8K bytes RAM in 16-pin 4K memory chips with an additional 4k piggy-packed onto on RAM bank to create 12K of RAM the heat sink removed along with voltage regulators which have been placed onto the metal casing enclosure (which acts as a heat sink), original 3 “Big-Blue” power supply capacitors, firmware in PROMS (A1, A2), low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, fitted with original Apple cassette interface card lettered with “G” within triangle, above D9 is an added 1702 EPROM ; the metal casing painted green with Datanetics  keyboard to front (20 ¼ x 17 x 6in.) ; vintage Viatron monitor model no. 3001-301 (20 x 11 x 9in.) ; in working condition.

The computer may have sold for less than usual due to modifications made by the original owner, who added an EPROM and upgraded the RAM.

A rare ‘Celebration’ model sold last August for $815k, after predictions of a 7-figure sale, and others have gone for upwards of $400k.

Still, this seller didn’t do badly with his $335k: he bought it as the third owner in 1978 for $300.

If you don’t have a 6-figure sum to buy your own, you could always build one …

Via CNET