Apple-1 for sale. Steve Jobs buys back 34 years history?

Steves Woz 'n' Jobs' first pomaceous computer on the auction block. Perhaps Jobs wants it for his collection?

By Richi Jennings. November 12, 2010.

Christie's London auction house is selling an original Apple-1 computer, the rare forerunner of the Apple II. This Steve Wozniak designed, 6502 based piece of history includes a letter signed by Steve Jobs and the original packaging. But, like an iPad, it lacks a keyboard. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers inquire about a $250,000 re-mortgage.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention Sci-fi demotivational posters...
(AAPL)

Nick Spence reports from London, England:

Christie’s of London will be selling the Apple-1, which originally retailed for a demonic $666.66 ... Steve Wozniak reportedly liked repeating digits. ... The lot comprises components from the Apple-1, original manual and packaging along with a letter from Jobs.
...
Christie's adds: "The first Apple-1s were despatched from the garage of Steve Jobs' parents' house - the return address on the original packaging present here." ... The Apple-1 goes on sale at Christie’s on 23 November.

Drew Cullen is a tech. culture vulture:

Lot 65 is expected to fetch £100,000- £150,000, [in U.S., about $150,000 - $250,000] according to Christies, which says it is in superb condition. ... [It] has its original packaging, with the garage's return address. ... Also included are the original manuals, a letter from Steve Jobs and an invoice dated 12/7/76.
...
The Apple 1 was the first pre-assembled PC - no soldering required. ... [But] there was no casing, monitor, power supply, or keyboard.

But Chris Davies notes that it's not entirely original:

From the description, [it's] been tinkered with somewhat ... there’s apparently a “breadboard area with slightly later connector, with later soldering, wires and electrical tape.”
...
However, you’re still getting the 6502 microprocessor, printed circuit board with ... heatsink, a cassette board connector, 8K bytes of RAM, a keyboard interface and video terminal.

Sadly, Nick Bilton gets his ENIAC history wrong:

The computer is part of an ... 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 Enigma cypher machine and the patent specifications for an ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer. [cough-Colossus-cough]

And Mike Schramm mmuses on the purchaser:

It'd be nice to see this either bought up by Apple themselves (though Jobs must still have even more interesting treasures) ... or by a museum somewhere. But even if it goes to a private collector ... they can make sure to preserve this piece of Apple history.

Meanwhile, Steven Mostyn can't resist a couple of ObAppleDigs:

But does it have Flash support?
...
Even 34 years ago Apple’s hardware was shockingly expensive.

 
Bonus link: Ken Gagne builds an Apple-1 replica from scratch
  
 
And Finally...
Sci-fi demotivational posters
[some hilarious; some not so much]
 
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.

You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.