from the NYTimes
True computer nerds, do I have a deal for you!
Christie’s, the tony auctioneer, is hawking a snazzy computer that it hopes will sell for between $159,800 and $239,700. You’re probably wondering what kind of computer is worth close to a quarter million dollars? Let me tell you about its specs first.
This machine is loaded with only the best: It’s got three capacitors (yes that’s right, three), a whopping 8 kilobytes of random access memory, a printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D, whatever that means, and an Apple-1 motherboard.
So why would something that could barely power a game of Pong be worth so much? Well, this is one of the very first computers ever made by Apple and is considered the first personal computer. What separated this computer from others was the fact that the motherboard came pre-assembled, whereas home computer owners of the past had to fit and solder the parts together themselves.
The Apple-1 computer was built and sold by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founders, in 1976 for $666.66 — the strange price was put into effect because Mr. Wozniak liked repetitive numbers. (An inflation calculator determines that price is equivalent to $2,560 in today’s dollars.) It’s estimated that only 200 of these computers were produced and sold before Apple moved onto the next model, the Apple II.
According to the auction Web site, this version of the Apple computer is number 82 of those made, was hand built by Steve Wozniak and then “despatched from the garage of Steve Jobs’ parents’ house – the return address on the original packaging present here.” (The Christie’s catalog uses a British spelling of dispatched. )
The version for sale through Christie’s includes “the original packaging, manuals, cassette interface and basic tape, early documentation and provenance, and a commercially rare letter from Steve Jobs.”
The computer is part of a Nov. 23 auction in London of rare books and manuscripts that will quicken the heart of any rich geek. It includes a book by Charles Babbage, a collection of Alan Turing’s published papers, an Enigmacypher machine and the patent specifications for an ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer.
