This month, I wrote about an Apple-1 computer that was set to be auctioned for $150,000 by the auctioneer Christie’s. The bidding is now closed, and the computer that debuted in 1976, for $666.66, built by Steven P. Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founders, sold for $213,600.
Not a bad return on investment, especially considering most technologies decrease in value as they age.
The lot, which included the Apple-1 computer, an Apple cassette interface card, a typed letter signed by “Steven Jobs” and other archaic goodies, went on sale on Tuesday.
Who was the high bidder? According to Affaritaliani.it, an online Italian newspaper, it was Marco Boglione, an Italian businessman who likes to collect tech-related paraphernalia.
Owning an Apple-1 is definitely the cherry on top of any historical computing collection. There were fewer than 200 of the machines built and sold before Apple moved on to create the Apple-II. The Apple-1 is also considered to be one of the first genre of computers that led to the genesis of the home-computing revolution.
The auction of the Apple-1 was part of a series of high-tech auctions that took place on Tuesday through Christie’s. An Enigma cipher machine, which was used to encrypt secret messages during World War II, was also auctioned off, fetching $107,000.
The Enigma machine was used in World War II, not World War I.