Old-School Apple 1 Fetches $387K at Auction

How much would you pay for one of the first computers ever made by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? For one lucky bidder with deep pockets, the chance to get a piece of tech history came with a six-figure price tag.

A working Apple 1 computer from 1976 fetched $387,750 in an online auction Tuesday held by Christie's, according to reports. Believe it or not, the winning bid was actually much lower than expected.

Before the auction began on June 24, Christie's estimated it would go for up to $500,000. That estimate was modest considering that just last month, another working Apple 1 sold for a record $671,000 at an auction in Germany, surpassing the previous record of $640,000 set by the same auction house in November. Before that, Sotheby's in New York sold one for $374,500.

The model sold this week as part of Christie's "First Bytes: Iconic Technology from the Twentieth Century" auction included an original, working Apple motherboard (like the one pictured above), as well as a keyboard, monitor, and storage device that were added later. There's no word as to who bought the vintage machine.

There were only 200 Apple 1 computers ever made and today there are only around 46 known units in existence, with just a half-dozen in working condition. They originally sold for $666.66.

Other items in the action didn't fare so well. An Apple Lisa computer from 1984 was predicted to bring in up to $30,000, while a prototype Apple IIGS computer from 1986 was expected to go for as high as $15,000. Neither of those items met the reserve price, so they were not sold, according to Forbes.