Steve Jobs’ time capsule
A 1976 Apple-1 computer prototype, once owned by the company’s legendary founder Steve Jobs, was sold at an auction for almost $700,000.
During the mid-1970s, this computer was used by the company’s co-founders, Steve Wozniak and Jobs, to convince one of the world’s first personal computer store owners, Paul Terrell, of its capabilities. Terrell was impressed with the demo and requested a fully assembled computer to sell for $666.66 before eventually requesting 50 Apple-1 computers.
However, the prototype once owned by the deceased billionaire was sold by the Boston-based PR Auction, according to the Associated Press. A Bay Area collector who wishes to conceal their identity took home the computer for $677,196.
“There is no Apple-1 without this board — it’s the holy grail of Steve Jobs and Apple memorabilia,” said Bobby Livingston, the auctioneer’s Executive Vice President to the AP.
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The Apple 1 prototype has experienced light wear and tear in the last five decades. (Photo courtesy RR Auction / Fox News)
“The board’s present condition lends some insight into Jobs’s judgment of it: he saw the prototype not as something to be enshrined, but as something to be repurposed,” the auction house said in the product’s original listing. “Several of the ICs have been plucked from their sockets, as have the microprocessor and other components, presumably for use on early production Apple 1 Computers.”
In order to authenticate the item, Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen extensively examined it and compiled a 13-page report that accompanied the prototype upon its sale. Polaroid photos were also reportedly used to confirm the item’s legitimacy.
Previously, the item resided in the garage the founders of Apple used to start up the company until Jobs gifted it to the seller 30 years ago.
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The Apple-1 computer was the company’s first product and was discontinued in 1977 after the release of its successor, the Apple II.
