Rare Apple-1 With Storied Ownership Fetched Over $500,000 at Auction
upstart writes:
Unit housed in original wood case thought to be one of just nine surviving examples:
A rare and fully functional Apple-1 with its rare Byte Shop wooden case is up for auction right now [Auction closed 20 September 2025]. Thought to be one of just nine surviving samples remaining in the original wood case, bidding on Lot #7083 will conclude on Saturday, September 20, 2025. You can join the RR Auctions Remarkable Rarities event in person at 1 pm EST (Boston, MA), by phone, or online (worldwide).
The estimate for this wooden tech history marvel from 1976 is $300,000+. It has already achieved $144,311 in pre-live bidding.
[...] The set includes:
- Original Apple-1 board, marked on the reverse with "01-0020"
- Original Apple Cassette Interface (ACI) board
- Original Byte Shop wooden case with built-in Datanetics keyboard and Triad power supply
- Period-correct video monitor and associated cables
- Period-correct copies of software on cassette tapes, with contemporary handwritten notes and instructions
- Modern copy of the Apple-1 Operation Manual
As it stands, this rare computer would be a desirable item, but its appeal is lifted further because it was owned by the first female graduate of Stanford Law School, June Blodgett Moore.
The condition of the computer is graded at 8.0/10 by the auction house. As such an old tech artifact, there are issues impacting the score. For example, RR Auctions notes a hairline crack on part of the case and a section of rear paneling that has been removed to provide access to cabling.
[...] The wooden case seen used for this model was implemented to elevate the Apple-1 beyond being a Homebrew Computer Club kit aimed at DIYers. The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, insisted on completed kits being supplied for its retail operation. Steve Jobs and Steve 'Woz' Wozniak complied by supplying 50 units in this wooden case. It would be one of the first personal computers available to consumers that didn't require assembly.
The retail deal meant that The Byte Shop bought 50 Apple-1 computers in wood cases for $500 a piece, and resold them at $666.66. Wozniak would recount, "That was the biggest single episode in all of the company's history. Nothing in subsequent years was so great and so unexpected."
[Ed. note: It sold for $570,209]
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