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Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000

49 points| tilt | 11 years ago |bonhams.com | reply

46 comments

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[+] vblord|11 years ago|reply
That's a crazy amount of money. But I'll be honest... if I had a ton of money I would buy it too. IMO, this is a part of computing history that is very important. I think having a collection of the history of computers would be awesome.
[+] ChuckMcM|11 years ago|reply
I've always enjoyed the Apple 1 auctions. I probably should have bought the one at the Vintage Computer Festival in 2000 for $5,000 but I couldn't see its value :-). Somewhere out there is my home built Digital Group machine (also with bodged together keyboard and converted tv for a monitor) but Dr. Suding didn't go on to create an influential computer company. But he did have the coolest dual cassette tape system that tried to be a DECTape equivalent.
[+] annnnd|11 years ago|reply
> Indeed, the story is perhaps just as famous now as the one that inspired the company name: Newton theorizing gravity under the apple tree.

This is incorrect according to Jobs biography - apparently the name was given in reference to Steve Jobs' eating preferences. :)

[+] ezolotko|11 years ago|reply
Two months ago I ordered an original ZX Spectrum 48K, on board series 3B for about $200. It is the same I had as my first computer when I was a kid. I knew I could have it all on the emulator, and, I didn't expect how much excitement and inspiration I had after loading several games from a cassette recorder and playing on a pixel-crawly TV. In fact, had to take sleeping pills after the first time. Now I am thinking to buy myself a C64, a separate small TV, and an Apple ][ with a monitor... will have to buy a separate table for that.
[+] andyjohnson0|11 years ago|reply
I wonder what kind of condition those large electrolytic capacitors are in after 38 years? They don't last forever.
[+] cmiller1|11 years ago|reply
Did anyone notice this link on that site?

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/

How cool, I wish they had put it into production.

[+] wazoox|11 years ago|reply
The LC with the portrait black and white display was quite common among text-writers in the 90s.
[+] salgernon|11 years ago|reply
It looks a lot like a Macintosh color classic.
[+] HeyLaughingBoy|11 years ago|reply
Hmmm.

I have a set of original IBM 5150 (PC/XT I think) technical and operator manuals. Wonder if they're worth anything. Doubt I'd sell them, there's something about opening a computer manual and seeing actual schematics!

[+] ommunist|11 years ago|reply
I always wondered what a fantastic resale value Apple gear has and always had.
[+] Tyrannosaurs|11 years ago|reply
I've got an old MacBook kicking about somewhere. If an Apple I is worth that much I should get at least a million for a MacBook, it's way more powerful.
[+] _nickwhite|11 years ago|reply
I'm not sure who won the auction, but this should be in a museum somewhere. Hopefully it will find its way to one.
[+] LandoCalrissian|11 years ago|reply
If I had a completely unreasonable amount of money I would buy this, quite a bit out of my price range.
[+] Siecje|11 years ago|reply
The Apple 1 is open source so you could create this yourself.
[+] treehau5|11 years ago|reply
And gold is available everywhere, so you could create your own vintage coins.
[+] rhapsodyv|11 years ago|reply
My old MSX dont worth anything... maybe someday :-/
[+] smackfu|11 years ago|reply
Rare + unmodified + working = $$$$$
[+] ooz|11 years ago|reply

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[+] colinramsay|11 years ago|reply
Maybe it could, but it's not your place to decide. The person who purchased this could have bought it for some sentimental value, because they think it's an important piece of computing history which should be preserved - or perhaps both. Are you to be the judge of the validity of those things?
[+] phurley|11 years ago|reply
It was sold to a (wonderful) museum, The Henry Ford (http://www.thehenryford.org/), which every geek should visit at least once.

As an artist walks through an art museum and can see the progression of ideas from antiquity to the present. As an engineer you can walk through the history of technology at The Henry Ford, from a black smithy to a tour of a modern assembly line and most all stops in between.

You would be hard pressed to think of a better home for this machine. 900k is a lot of money, but I am glad it will be in a great museum, rather than at a private collector's home.

[+] ToastyMallows|11 years ago|reply
I could say that about most things that people spend money on, but it's not my money to spend.
[+] DonHopkins|11 years ago|reply
I wish my mom could auction off the Apple ][+ she bought for me in 1980 for $2000 for $900k. Who are you to decide she doesn't deserve such a good return on her investment? That's up to the buyer to judge, not you.
[+] mrb|11 years ago|reply
This is why, if you own one of the first FPGA/ASIC Bitcoin miners, you should keep it. They could become historical artifacts of a technology that may end up changing day-to-day trade & finance... Personally I kept my Ngzhang Icarus units, Enterpoint Cairnsmore1 units (one of them is serial# 3), Ztex 1.15y units, Avalon gen1 units (the first commercially available Bitcoin ASIC), and our TAV 105 Gh/s units. Most of them were extremely small production runs: less than 1000 units ever built.

Back in 1976, very few people understood how the Apple 1 and personal computers were about to change day-to-day communication.