Original Apple-1 computer up for auction at Christie’s

Fancy buying a piece of computer history? Sadly, it’ll cost you dearly.

One of the original Apple-1 computers, as shipped from the garage of Steve Jobs back in 1976, is up for sale at Christie’s.

The computer is apparently “number 82”, and comes with the original invoice and a typed letter signed by “Steven Jobs”, as well as all the original packaging, documentation, and manuals.

The invoice shows that the Apple-1 plus cassette interface cost $741.66 when sold back in July 1976, but today, it’ll run you to a fair bit more than that. Christie’s is expecting it to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000.

The Apple-1 was discontinued by October 1977, after the Apple II had been introduced in April earlier that year. The Apple-1 boasts a mighty 8K of Ram and a 6502 microprocessor.

Is it one for Stephen Fry’s collection of Apple goodies, perhaps? Interestingly, the cost of the base computer without the cassette interface was $666.66, indicating that perhaps Mr Jobs was doing other deals in his garage which involved salt, pentagrams and black candles…