Original Apple-1 Computer Prototype By Steve Jobs Hits Auction Block, May Fetch $500,000

A rare piece of history, Steve Jobs's iconic Apple-1 Computer prototype is going under the hammer.

The bidding for the Apple-1 Computer prototype is slated to end on August 18. Image: Getty

A rare piece of history, Steve Jobs's iconic Apple-1 Computer prototype is going under the hammer by a Boston-based auction firm named RR Auction. The bidding for the Apple-1 Computer prototype is slated to end on August 18 and the current bid is at $278,005, says a report. The bidding is underway for the device that was hand-soldered by Steve Wozniak and may fetch $500,000.

The rare prototype device is one of 200 that Jobs created in his Los Altos home with Steve Wozniak, Patty Jobs, and Daniel Kottke and it was used by the former CEO of Apple to demonstrate the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell, owner of the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, which is said to be one of the first personal computer shops, said a report by The National News.

The prototype, which was considered “lost” until recently, is what Jobs used to demonstrate the Apple-1 to personal computer store owner Paul Terrell in 1976. According to the item description on RR Auction’s website, Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak originally envisioned the Apple-1 computer as part of a $40 do-it-yourself kit, added a report by news agency Bloomberg.

"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," says a lot listing by RR Auction, according to The National News.

To recall, at an auction held on November 9 last year, an original Apple computer, hand-built by Apple Computers founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, was sold for $400,000. The first Apple-1 computer was sold for $666.66 in 1976. When the computer was put up for auction in California, it was expected to fetch up to $600,000, the AFP had reported. 

In 1975, Jobs and Wozniak set up a shop in the garage of Jobs' parents. The shop was dubbed the venture Apple. They started working on the prototype of Apple-1, which is one of the 200 devices made by them at the start of Apple Computers.