Own A Byte Of Apple History: Christies To Auction An Original Apple 1
As Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock continues to rise towards yet another all time high, those who have an appreciation for the history behind the rise to fame, will have a chance to own a piece of that history. Christie’s of London is set to auction off an original Apple 1 computer on October 9th. This particular piece is one of only 200 made, which were designed and hand-crafted by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak.
The computer, which originally sold for a cost of $666.66, has a memory capacity of 8K, which seems incredibly tiny, especially when compared to the memory which is found in today’s Apple computers. PCMag.com puts this into perspective by pointing out that even the tiny iPod Touch has far more memory than the Apple 1. In fact, a modern electronic toaster could outperform this computer, when it comes to memory space.
The excited techies and investors, who are expected to bid on this computer, will not be looking at its computing abilities, or its available memory. Rather, they understand the intrinsic worth of the piece as a collectible token of tribute to the humble seeds, from which, the multi-billion dollar corporation we know as Apple today, sprang from 46 years ago.
How much is the piece expected to bring at auction? This particular computer belongs to the estate of Joe Copson, a former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) employee, and according to PCMag.com, it’s expected to fetch approximately $127,000.00. However, it should be noted, that the computer could easily fetch far more than the estimated price. A motherboard from an original Apple 1, which is identical to this, sold for $374,500.00 on the auction block at Sotheby’s in June of this year. Also, an Apple 1 computer sold for $213,600.00 in 2010.
Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), alongside of Steve Wozniak, had a dream of building top grade computers for people to use in their everyday lives. They began to live that dream through the Apple 1. In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak were able to sell 50 Apple 1 motherboards to Paul Terell, who owned a chain of computer stores, called the Byte Shop. He paid approximately $500.00 each for the boards, and told Jobs and Wozniak that they must come pre-assembled, and not as a DIY kit.
The cost of starting Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as a company was high, as Steve Jobs was noted to have sold his only vehicle to generate funding needed for the project. Wozniak was also said to have sold his HP-65 calculator, the world’s first handheld calculator which had a magnetic card reader, and was priced at almost $800.00.
However, when the date of the company’s IPO came, the sacrifices made by Jobs and Wozniak proved to pay off. Both of them made millions and became very wealthy in the wake of the company’s success. Now, almost 50 40 years later, we have a chance to see an amazing piece of this company’s rich history, become available to the public. What is the moral of the story? Well, maybe the age old adage of large trees growing from small seeds, is the first thought that comes to mind.
