‘Holy grail’ of vintage tech to hit the auction block

LOS ANGELES — Apple’s new-model, top-of-the-line MacBook Pro laptop computer could set you back nearly $4,000 before taxes.

But that will seem like a Black Friday steal when a 45-year-old Apple computer goes on sale this week in Monrovia, where it may fetch six figures or more.

On Tuesday, John Moran Auctioneers will auction off a functioning Apple-1 computer hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and others in a Los Altos, Calif., garage in 1976. The system was the rock upon which the trillion-dollar Apple empire was built.

In his 2011 biography “Steve Jobs,” Walter Isaacson quotes Wozniak as saying of the Apple-1: “We were participating in the biggest revolution that had ever happened, I thought. I was so happy to be a part of it.”

The unit is dubbed the “Chaffey College Apple-1” because its first owner was identified as a Chaffey professor. It was unearthed from the Rancho Cucamonga home of a former Chaffey student who had purchased it from the professor for $650 in 1977.

The student, who wishes to remain anonymous until after the sale, held on to the computer for the next four decades.

The investment may pay off as the auction house and Apple-1 experts expect the unit to sell for close to $500,000, if not more. The estimates are not unfounded; an operational unit was sold for $905,000 by Bonhams auction house in 2014.

“This is kind of the holy grail for vintage electronics and computer tech collectors,” said Corey Cohen, an Apple-1 expert. “That really makes it exciting for a lot of people.”

Cohen has made a career of examining, authenticating and refurbishing Apple-1 units for auction houses and others and was called in by John Moran to do the same.

About 200 Apple-1 units were assembled by Wozniak, Jobs and others, 175 of which were sold.

About 60 Apple-1 units still exist, Cohen said, with only about 20, including the Chaffey unit, capable of functioning.

Cohen said the unit was not in “bad condition” when he examined it, although the keyboard required complete rebuilding.

“When you see certain items, you just know that they’re going to be showstoppers,” said Nathan Martinez, advertising and marketing director at John Moran. “The Apple-1 is one of those.”

Absentee bidding for the computer opened at $200,000 last week. The most current bid as of Friday afternoon was $250,000.

“A lot of people just want to know what kind of a person collects Apple-1 computers and it’s not just people in the tech industry,” Cohen said.

People in arenas from politics to cosmetics have Apple-1s, he said.

Cohen himself owns an Apple-1 unit, but even the chance at a six-figure payday is not enough to get him to sell.

“I don’t need to sell mine,” he said. “My kids will have to deal with that.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/301xW88