What you need to know
- An ultra-rare Apple-1 has sold at auction.
- The final price came in at over $450,000.
- For that, you could have bought eight Mac Pros.
An ultra-rare Apple-1 computer has sold at auction for over $450,000.
Last week, the incredibly unique machine surfaced over at RR Auction in Boston, where it was reportedly expected to fetch more than $300,000. The lot was described as a "fully functional" Apple-1 computer with all accessories and components in tow. The Apple-1 was also featured on an episode of Pawn Stars.
As noted by MacRumors, the Apple-1 was made by Steve Wozniak, who reportedly made 200 of the devices, selling 175 of them.
According to the item's description:
A masterpiece of innovation, the standard Apple-1 included 4K of inexpensive dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which could be expanded to 8K on board or 64K externally; this Apple-1 has been wired to use 8K of onboard Mostek DRAM. Most computers in the Apple-1's price range used more expensive static memory (SRAM), which limited them to 1K of memory for a similar cost. We still use DRAM technology today in computers, mobile phones, and electronics.
Bidding on the device closed yesterday, with the winning bid coming in at $458,711.25 including buyer's premium. There is no indication at this time as to who bought the device. For that monstrous price, the buyer bagged the working computer along with an Apple Cassette Interface, a terminal keyboard kit, a period monitor complete with wooden display case, power supply, TV modulator and copies of the operation manual.
Of course, for the price of $458,000 they could have bought eight fully decked out Mac Pro computers, with plenty of cash leftover.
The most expensive Apple-1 auction is believed to have fetched over $900,000.
Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.
Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple.
