Apple Computer Sells For $200,000+

By Mike Wheeler

If you have an old Apple computer collecting dust in the garage or attic, maybe you should give auction house Christie's a call. It has just auctioned off a rare Apple PC that sold for just over AUD$216,000, which went to Italian collector Marco Boglione.

The PC, which didn’t ship with a casing, power supply, keyboard or monitor, originally sold for US$666.66, and in this case, came with a signed letter from current Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, as well as a massive 8kbytes of RAM. What you could do with 8kbytes of RAM is another story, but it is only 1 of 200 ever manufactured. Although there was no casing or keyboard, it was one of the first PCs to come with a fully assembled motherboard.

Originally manufactured in 1976 it was soon superceded by the iconic Apple II, but still deserves its place in computer history as it provided an important step towards the type of PCs that are available today. The other co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, told the Associated Press; "Today my heart went out as I got to see things auctioned off like the Turing documents and the Enigma machine — and the Apple I. It really was an important step, (even though) I didn't feel that way when I designed it."

It is not known how many of the other 199 Apple 1 computers still survive in good/pristine condition, but hazarding a guess, not many.

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