Some people have far too much money. Why not just place the thing in a museum if it's that important to the history of computing?
Working Apple-1 'Byte Shop' computer expected to fetch $375k+
A "clean and unused" prototype Apple-1 that actually works has been put up for auction by purveyor of Cupertino relics RR Auctions. Copyright RR Auctions Pic RR Auctions The special feature of this piece, as the auctioneers would have it, is that Steve Jobs had written down the stock number "01-00002" on the board, and that …
COMMENTS
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Monday 5th December 2022 17:25 GMT jake
Fools and their money?
I suspect that more than one of the "original, working" Apple-1 boards that has sold for umpteen thousand currency units is a fake.
Consider that I could easily make a reproduction that would fool "experts" for under US$1,000. The Woz gave out the board design and parts list at a Homebrew Computing meeting in '76. It's not like the technology is a big secret or anything, and all the necessary parts are still readily available. I might not even have to leave this property to collect period-correct examples. Next, throw in a little unscrupulous silk screening of copyright notice, and Bob's yer Auntie.
Before anyone says it, you can't tell from serial numbers ... thanks to bad record keeping, and a general lack of giving a shit about that kind of documentation back then, nobody knows for certain what the numbers were. I doubt the "verified Jobs handwriting" means much ... it consists of three numeric characters and a dash written with a Sharpie on fiberglass/epoxy.
Not that I would recommend committing such a forgery, of course. But you've got to wonder every time one of these things turns up ... especially one in working condition.
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Monday 5th December 2022 19:16 GMT doublelayer
Re: A "clean and unused" prototype Apple-1 that actually works
They're playing the odds that nobody who is willing to pay that much for one would ever plug it in. If they do and it lets out the magic smoke, then they can blame the damage on the buyer. My guess is that "working" translates to "there's no obvious reason on visual inspection why it shouldn't be working".
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Monday 5th December 2022 22:08 GMT doublelayer
Re: A "clean and unused" prototype Apple-1 that actually works
I stand corrected. I missed that somehow in my first reading. I'm still not sure how they could be certain it was unused before it was restored, but they can know it's running (for now, but I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for it having an enduring continuing run). I doubt that will matter though, as it's still unlikely that someone will buy this in order to turn it on.
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Tuesday 6th December 2022 00:41 GMT jake
Re: A "clean and unused" prototype Apple-1 that actually works
"I'm still not sure how they could be certain it was unused before it was restored"
I can think of two ways ... Either no scratch marks on the connectors and perfect/no threads in the standoffs, or they built it in their garage the evening before.
"I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for it having an enduring continuing run"
I can see it ... That board is particularly easy to debug to component level, and all the parts are available, either as period-correct New Old Stock from various used equipment warehouses, OR as brand-new, made last week parts.
"as it's still unlikely that someone will buy this in order to turn it on."
It will never run again. It's an investment(??), not a computer.
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