This rare working Apple-1 with an unusual processor is up for auction
An original and functional Apple-1 computer with a rare processor is up for auction now, and is expected to sell for more than $300,000.
Hardware
The Apple computer from 1976 has extra collector value because of its Synertek C6502 CPU, which appears to be "one of the last populated NTI Apple-1 boards", according to the Boston-based RR Auction house.
Bidding started at $50,000 and after seven bids the Apple-1 computer from Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak is currently valued at $106,295. Anyone else that wants the historically important relic of personal computing would need to place a bid of $116,925.
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According to RR Auction, this Apple computer is only one of two known surviving NTI-based Apple-1 computers compared to the more common Apple-1s with MOS 6502 microprocessors.
"The Synertek C6502 is considered to be the rarest example of a licensed 6502 CPU from 1976," the auction company states.
The Apple-1 was restored to its original state in June 2019 by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen. Michigan-based computer store SoftwareHouse got the Apple computer in the 1980s in exchange for an IBM machine.
For possibly $300,000, the winning bidder will get a piece of personal computing history with 8K of RAM and motherboard with an original back that still features the "37" sticker on NTI units.
It also includes the original Apple Cassette Interface, a terminal keyboard kit, a video monitor in a wooden case, power supply, TV video modulator, Xerox copies of the Apple-1 Operation Manual and ACI Manual and a display case commissioned by SoftwareHouse.
The built-in video terminal enabled output to a TV screen or video monitor, which at the time was a major advancement in the usability of video output technology.
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The Apple-1 was originally conceived by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as a bare circuit board to be sold as a kit and completed by electronics hobbyists. Then one of the first computer stores agreed to buy 50 Apple-1 computers, but only if they were fully assembled, at which point the the Apple-1 became one of the first computers that did not require soldering by the end user. Over about ten months, Jobs and Wozniak produced about 200 Apple-1 computers and sold 175 of them.
An Apple-1 thought to have been built by Jobs sold for over $500,000 in 2016, but another that was expected to sell for up to $330,000 only sold for $130,000 in 2017. One sold for $905,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York in 2014, while a prototype Apple 1 sold for $815,000 in 2016.