Rare Apple-1 Prototype Owned by Steve Jobs Expected to Fetch More Than $500,000 at Auction

Apple’s history tells us the story of how Steve Jobs transformed the computer industry. The company produced numerous prototypes of Apple-1 computers that now sell at auctions for thousands of dollars. Today, a prototype of “Apple Computer A” Apple-1 computer owned by Steve Jobs is going up for auction. The prototype is expected to sell for more than $500,000. Scroll down to read more details on the subject.

Apple-1 Computer Prototype Selling at Auction, Expected to Fetch More Than $500,000

The auctioned Apple-1 computer is hand-soldered by Steve Wozniak in 1976. In addition, the printed circuit board was used by Apple’s late CEO to demonstrate the capabilities of the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell. Terrell was the owner of The Byte Shop which became the first retailer to sell Apple-1 computers. Terrell ordered fully assembled 50 machines and sold each unit at a price of $666.66.

The Apple Computer A has been matched to the photographs taken in 1976 by Terrell that show the prototype in use. The computer going up for auction is listed as number two in the Apple-1 Registry. It was previously considered “lost” but now it has been authenticated by expert Corey Cohen. The RR Auction describes that there are some damages to the board.

This prototype resided on the ‘Apple Garage’ property for many years before being given by Steve Jobs to its current owner approximately 30 years ago. At that time, Jobs had been ousted from Apple and was looking forward to the promise of NeXT and Pixar. The board’s present condition lends some insight into Jobs’s judgment of it: he saw the prototype not as something to be enshrined, but as something to be repurposed. Several of the ICs have been plucked from their sockets, as have the microprocessor and other components, presumably for use on early production Apple-1 Computers.

The board appears to have been damaged by pressure on the upper right, resulting in a crack that runs from adjacent to the power supply area above D12 down through the bottom of the board to the right of A15. The missing piece is presumed to have been discarded, but can be reimagined thanks to Paul Terrell’s photographs of the complete board. One of the distinguishing features of the “Apple Computer A” prototype was its use of three orange Sprague Atom capacitors, rather than the familiar ‘Big Blue’ capacitors used on the production Apple Computer 1.

This Apple-1 computer is different from other production ones since it houses a different processor, lacks the green protective coating, and reads “Apple Computer A”. As mentioned earlier, the machine is expected to fetch more than $500,000 at auction.

This is all there is to it, folks. We will share more details on the subject as soon as further information is available. Share your valuable insights with us in the comments section below.

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