Apple I Auctioned Off For Over $200K

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The first Apple computer, the Apple I, was sold to an anonymous buyer for £133,250 or  $213,600 at a Christie’s auction in London today. The computer is one of 200 that were ever produced.

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The computer had a letter of authenticity signed by the creator “Steven Jobs” and was in it’s original packaging – a box with a return label addressed to Job’s parents’ home. The 1976 computer had no casing, power supply, keyboard or monitor: It was a do-it-yourself venture that mimicked the other self-assembled computers of the day. The motherboard was complete with a few slight modifications including 8k of RAM and an 8-bit 6502 microprocessor. It would eventually be discontinued the next year when the Apple-II came out, which was fully encased, came with a keyboard and had sound and expansion capabilities. The original buyer paid $741.66 around 30 years ago for the product, although the original retail price was $666.66.

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Apple co-founder Steve Wozinak said to The Wall Street Journal at the auction, “I gave them away for free. It was really just an attempt to help people move the world forward.”

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