A rare functional example of Apple’s first computer, the Apple 1, is for sale on eBay, with the seller charging a cool $ 1.5 million for the privilege of owning a piece of tech history.
According to the description of the item, first noticed by IGN, the model is verified as original by Corey Cohen, an Apple 1 expert whose knowledge is often sought for valuations at larger auctions.
Known as the “Canadian” in Mike Willegal’s Apple-1 registry, the sample on eBay is one of six known surviving units housed in an original Byte Shop KOA wooden box. It comes with an original power supply and datanetics version D keyboard, as well as a period-correct Sony TV-115 monitor with video modulator.
The Apple 1 board is unaltered and in “near perfect” condition, according to the seller. It’s also one of the few remaining units to be fully operational, a point proven when it ran for more than six hours a day while on display at the Vintage Computer Festival West in 2019.
Current owner Krishna B. Blake purchased the Apple 1 from the original owner in 1978 as part of a trade-in agreement for a newer Apple II. Blake’s Montreal computer store was responsible for servicing Apple II before Apple entered Canada.
Despite its origins and current state, the Apple 1 offered for sale through eBay will not meet Blake’s asking price of $ 1.5 million. Other examples are nearing the $ 1 million threshold, the closest being a 2014 sale worth $ 905,000, but more recent auctions have brought in bids below $ 500,000.
A total of 200 Apple 1 computers were created, each hand-built by company co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs’s garage in Los Altos, California. When the product was first released in 1976, it sold for $ 666.66 without the power supply, display and keyboard. or housing.