After sitting in a garage for several decades, a rare Apple computer dating back to the 1970s is up for auction and expected to sell for more than $400,000 this week.
The “Chaffey College” Apple -1 is aptly named for where the owner first purchased it on the university’s campus in Rancho Cucamonga. He told John Moran Auctioneers that he bought the high-tech piece of machinery from his professor in 1977, when he was a student at Chaffey College.
The computer is one of just 200 Apple-1's designed by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the Bay Area in 1977.
Fifty of the 175 computers sold were purchased by Paul Terrel, the owner of ByteShop in Mountain View, Calif.
Each went for $666.66, but Nathan Martinez, the advertising and marketing director at John Moran Auctioneers, said it’s unclear how much the former Chaffey College student paid his professor for the computer.
One of the most interesting features of the computer is it’s Koa wood outer shell - which the OC Register reports could link it directly to Terrell, since he’s known to have added frames of Koa wood to at least six of the Apple-1’s he assembled.
Inside the wood are the computer's motherboard, keyboard and circuits.
Perhaps most intriguing about the machine is that it still functions perfectly.
“[It has] recently undergone an extensive authentication, restoration and evaluation process by one of the foremost experts in the field,” the auction house said in a statement, adding that all components were inspected.
The auction is currently open to absentee bidders, but the live, virtual auction will begin at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9. Bids opened at $200,000 and as of publication, Martinez said the current bid is already at $225,000.
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