An original Apple computer built by firm co-founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976 has fetched $400,000 (£294,990) at auction in the US. The rare Hawaiian koa wood-cased Apple-1 – still functioning – is one of only 200 made and sold in kit form. The computer has only had two owners, a college professor and his student to whom he sold the machine for $650, said John Moran Auctioneers in California.
The sale included user manuals and Apple software on two cassette tapes. The koa wood case of the auctioned model was added by a pioneering early computer retailer in California, which took delivery of around 50 of the Apple-1 machines. Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple on 1 April 1976 in a garage in California. To help finance the Apple 1 production, Jobs sold his VW Microbus, while Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500.
In 1976, the machines were sold for $666.66, reportedly because Wozniak liked repeating numbers. It is believed there are around 20 such computers in the world still capable of functioning. The auctioned machine is not the highest-grossing Apple-1 computer – that distinction belongs to a working version that sold for $905,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York in 2014.
Reported by: Anthony Philips
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