Old Apple 1 Up For Auction, Expected To Go For $160,000+ 156
vanstinator was one of several readers to point out that Christie's is holding an auction for one of the original Apple 1 machines, complete with a manual, the original shipping box, and the letter from Steve Jobs to the owner. The invoice says the computer was purchased on December 7th, 1976, with an Apple cassette interface card, for a total price of $741.66. The auction house expects it to sell for over $160,000.
Same old Same old (Score:4, Funny)
Overpriced Apple Product? How is this news?
(I keed I keed)
$666.66 WTF? (Score:2)
Priced at $666.66, the first Apple-1s were despatched from the garage of Steve Jobs' parents' house - the return address on the original packaging present here.
Hmm. Maybe Jobs (like O'Donnell) was dabbing in witchcraft?
Re:$666.66 WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Don't be silly. After 25 years of inflation, it's actually a slight discount.
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It's news because it shipped jailbroken.
I have books with every single bit of addressing space of the apple][ documented, commodore people had the same. It means we actually owned the damn thing.
Huh, things improved (Score:3, Interesting)
For that price you can get a Mac Pro today:
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem”
3GB (3x1GB)
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
One 18x SuperDrive
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Or, using the original numbers, you can get a 32GB iPad 3G.
Or, being one of the guys who built it, you could be worth ~$6,000,000,000.
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Why does every 'douche' keep comparing a Xeon to a consumer grade processor?
The reason is simply that apple refuses to sell a normal desktop. The choice of apple desktop machines comes down to
* mini: a small form factor machine built with latop parts and with specs comparable to a low end laptop
* imac: an all-in one with midrange desktop specs, no room for more hard drives or expansion cards, no USB3 or ESATA, and the options for screen size and graphics memeory tied together with the CPU options and hard
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pertmgreen, imacs are perfectly fine for the vast majority of consumers. Consumers don't give a crap about installing more hard drives and other shit like that. They know that their time is valuable so they will go out and buy a new computer, hand down the old one to someone and expect to have something that works out of the box. This applies equally to both mac owning and pc owning consumers.
If you are concerned about "saving" money through the false economy of "upgrades" then that means that you consider
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pertmgreen, imacs are perfectly fine for the vast majority of consumers.
There are plnety of people who would be fine with a low end imac and never upgrading it. But then i'd bet most of those would also be fine with a cheap dell at around half the price.
I'd wager that most people who require more than a low end machine will also have some clue as to what they do and don't need out of a machine.
They know that their time is valuable
According to wikipedia the median earnings for "persons over the age of 15 wh
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You should help someone upgrade from one Mac to another sometime. You might be suprised as to how many of your steps are unnecessary. [Hint: you can boot a Mac as a firewire drive and completely transfer the user data, software, and system configuration from one machine to another as part of the automated setup process].
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You couldn't buy a PC when the Apple 1 came out, it was 1976(!). The Apple 1 was a competitor to the Altair and Imsai. The main competitive difference was that it could be bought fully assembled (but for a case) and would generate a composite video signal.
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Oh you beat me to it!
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%24741.66+*+inflation+rate+united+states+December+1976+to+November+2010 [wolframalpha.com]
So it was a non-trivial purchase (Score:2)
I make pretty good money but the last thing I spent $2800 on was a TV, and that was seven years ago.
It would have taken a pretty well off hobbyist to buy one of those back then. IIRC, the economy kind of sucked, inflation was high and so was unemployment.
1up (Score:3, Funny)
Gee, thanks for getting the Mario Brother's 1up sound effect stuck in my head. It's not something I associate at all with my experiences with Apple products :-P
Drips and "eeps", on the other hand...
Steve Jobs, the Satanist (Score:5, Funny)
This explains so much!
However, because the motherboard was completely pre-assembled, it represented a major step forward in comparison with the competing self-assembly kits of the day. Priced at $666.66, the first Apple-1s were despatched from the garage of Steve Jobs' parents' house - the return address on the original packaging present here.
That's right. Steve started selling the Apple 1 for the price of the mark of the beast.
-Rick
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That's right. Steve started selling the Apple 1 for the price of the mark of the beast.
-Rick
Not to be overly pedantic, but the "number of the beast" is 666, not a fraction higher than 666.
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666.66... = 1
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I sometimes get that confused with 667.
The Neighbor of the Beast.
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> but the "number of the beast" is 666, not a fraction higher than 666.
Oh, that's just the Apple premium.
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0.1%? I don't think so.
Re:Steve Jobs, the Satanist (Score:5, Interesting)
The mark of the beast is 616. The monks copying up the bible and translating it assumed that it was the handwritten equivalent of a typo, and that the number should really be 666. And thus, an editorial decision affected millions of people down through the ages who freak out when 666 comes up, eg in their change or as a price for a bunch of items, or a bus route or house number.
The Number of the Beast (Score:2)
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The mark of the beast is 616.
If this is so, it explains a lot. 616 is the original area code for Western and Upper Michigan. This has now been split into 4 area codes, but 616 still covers Grand Rapids, Holland and Wyoming. If you want to look for the most extreme religious fundamentalists in Michigan, that's where they still are!
Now why did I get rid of my tricked out Apple 2+?
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Not actually the case. The number varies between dialects, in a manner consistent with it being a numerological encoding of NERO CEASER or NERON KAISER or whatever the name in that dialect was.
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Yes; but don't you think they'd freak out just as often when $616 or $6.16 comes up? I really don't see what difference it makes. All I know is one day I tempted fate and spent $6.66 at the gas station and need a new transmission before I got from there to office. I don't do that any more. Now I will always buy a pack of gum or a coke or something whenever that happens.
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Is freaking out / affecting people like that about 616 any better?...
Re:Steve Jobs, the Satanist (Score:4, Informative)
According to a show I saw on the History Channel, it was actually code for the name of the current Roman emperor (so as to get past the Roman censors). And that it changed a couple of times to slightly different numbers. The original author's point was actually a scathing commentary on any form of centralized government or empire. Which makes logical sense as well for someone under arrest for their beliefs - typical rebellious manifesto type writing. But somehow that got lost after The First Council of Nicaea and the alterations that they enforced.
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"Scathing commentary" probably goes too far... OK, real reason to answer: pointing out how your username can be quite easily misread, in my language, as a word for "hell" ;p
(though mentioning History Channel as the source makes me both sad (because of the horrible gimmicky "whoa!" visual style of many US and partly UK documentaries nowadays - luckily Planete seems to resist, so far) and suspect (I recently witnessed describing some trijet with aft-mounted engines as "737")
Re:Steve Jobs, the Satanist (Score:5, Funny)
That rounds up to 667, the neighbor of the beast.
Re:Steve Jobs, the Satanist (Score:4, Funny)
>That rounds up to 667, the neighbor of the beast.
Not sure how it works in the US but on most streets over here (UK), 664 and 668 are the neighbours of the beast while 667 is normally on the opposite side of the road.
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Depends on where. Most cities, the street numbering isn't straight linear, and is actually determined by what block you're on. 602 may be right next to 604, but if 604 is at an intersection, the next house will be 700. That happens in pretty much any North American city I've ever been in. They also have been known to skip house numbers for large buildings, so downtown you might find the street numbering goes 628, 680, 720, etc. Heck, even in the suburbs, that happens: my house is number 32, my neighbour to
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My street starts at 427.
I wish I knew why.
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In at least some areas, it's done based on a grid layout. So, if your street goes east to west, if you draw an imaginary line going north to south, most houses on streets going east to west under that line within your locality will be somewhere around 427.
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>That rounds up to 667, the neighbor of the beast.
Not sure how it works in the US but on most streets over here (UK), 664 and 668 are the neighbours of the beast while 667 is normally on the opposite side of the road.
Here in the US, we call all the people in your neighborhood "neighbors", including those across the street, down the block, and around the corner. The distinction of 664 and 668 is that they are next-door neighbors of the beast. Presumably, the beast has a larger neighborhood than just those two.
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Here in the US, we call all the people in your neighborhood "neighbors", including those across the street, down the block, and around the corner. The distinction of 664 and 668 is that they are next-door neighbors of the beast. Presumably, the beast has a larger neighborhood than just those two.
Which I suppose makes the question relevant, "Is the Antichrist British or American?"
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Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. It figures.
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$0.66? (Score:2)
What about the change? Is this the mark of the beast, plus just a little more? Isn't that the Apple way anyway?
Posted from an aging MacBook I'm too cheap to replace.
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It's not a translation problem, some of the original manuscripts have different text. Kind of a problem with the days before copy machines. I think more versions have 666, but the older ones have 616.
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They never changed it. If you read the bible it references 616 for the mark of the beast. I have no idea where the 666 ever came from.
Actually, both numbers are in the same passage in versions of the bible from the same period. It's 616 in the earliest versions in greek, but 666 in some latin versions. This actually makes sense as historians believe it was a numerological code used to identify the emperor and since his name had different characters in each language it adds up differently.
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Put in perspective - the Apple I is exceedingly rare. There were only a couple hundred made, whereas Commodore sold about 20 million C64s.
Replica I (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're interested in the Apple I from a retro-computing standpoint, instead of owning a museum piece, you can actually buy a kit [brielcomputers.com] and build a clone.
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And there's another clone [achatz.nl] using a similar approach (of emulating the video section with a microcontroller,) and a 100% trace-for-trace replica [willegal.net] (read: except for the cloner's signature hiding in the board, you can't tell that it's a clone at all) out there.
(There's also the Obtronix replica, which is 100% chip-for-chip, but not trace-for-trace, identical. It's no longer in production, though.)
First time this is actually appropriate... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes but..
Does it run Linux?
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can you get linux running on 8KB of RAM?
If so, I salute you.
Re:First time this is actually appropriate... (Score:4, Funny)
I can get it running but I can't catch it aftewards.
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You just need lots of swap space.
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You probably can't run Linus's original keyboard driver on that. Seriously, according to this it requires at least 640K of RAM for Minix and since Linux started as a replacement kernel I bet it was at least in a similar ballpark...
http://www.linfo.org/minix.html [linfo.org]
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Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
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How about Contiki instead?
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How about Contiki instead?
That only works if you're aged between 18 and 35 years old, and I don't support age discrimination.
Apple releases... (Score:5, Funny)
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Re:Apple releases... (Score:4, Funny)
You're holding it wrong.
Re:Apple releases... (Score:5, Funny)
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Furthermore: they sold better than the existing MP3 players of the day in few specific places (highly visible and vocal, but...). Which actually didn't change later.
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For what it's worth, the G1 iPod was pretty lame.
What was lame about it? It was far more sophisticated than its competitors.
Let's be honest... (Score:2)
The auction house expects? (Score:4, Insightful)
Part of me wants to trust them as experts, but part of me also feels that old (albeit rare) computer parts don't have the value they think it does. I guess we'll find out.
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On items with this sort of juice, the auction house usually guesses way low.
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On items with this sort of juice, the auction house usually guesses way low.
this sort of juice? This is an old computer with a good box and receipt, not a Picasso.
Re:The auction house expects? (Score:4, Funny)
Of course it isn't a Picasso. The price is $160 thousand, not $160 million.
As for the "juice", if you just got the boards it would just be a computer. With the other paraphernalia you've got a whole museum setting in one package. Anyone musing on this will be given to imagine the original owner's entire experience being one of the pioneers of computing at home. There's a depth and breadth of context that one more circuit board doesn't bring to it. And then there's the autograph and a record of Jobs' customer-service style, with a bit of wry irony in that it's typewritten.
$160k is the low end of Christie's estimate. The high end is quite low, too.
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On items with this sort of juice, the auction house usually guesses way low.
this sort of juice? This is an old computer with a good box and receipt, not a Picasso.
No, he means apple juice.
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Were they in this kind of shape, with all the accoutrements, plus Steve Jobs' autograph?
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Some of them have been in better shape.
This one has had some modifications that reduce the value. (They're all going to have some modifications, but there are unoriginal chips on this board, and that'll hurt value, I suspect.)
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Honestly the documentation and the signed letter from Steve Jobs is probably the big money on this item. It has a well documented history which also helps.
Let's face it. Odds are that you could build an exact duplicate of an Apple I with a little effort. It is the documentation that will drive collectors batty.
I'll Bid if it has.. (Score:3, Funny)
The 3 GEEs and the WI-FIs... ....oh but I guess you really meant BEE GEEs and the HI-FIs??!?!
Green Mushrooms (Score:2)
Old Apple 1 Up For Auction
Is it the 1-up they used when they re-hired Steve, or the 1-up they got when Microsoft gave them capital?
VIC-20 up for auction, bargain at 1/2 the price :) (Score:3, Funny)
Really???
I have a Commodore PET and several VIC-20's to put up for auction!! I know, I know the VIC-20 only had a 22 column display but no worries I'll throw in a 40 column cartridge adapter for a mere $20,000, a MUST have if your television tube is larger than 12", huh??? ;)
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Heh, I can do better then that,
I have an Apple II
Thats, right - twice as good and as valuable as that old crufty Apple I, in fact, if you you got the cash, I know where to get my hands on an Apple III!
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In '99 or '00 I sold a working PET2001 (real keyboard, not chiclet) with tape cassette drive for $5000. I'm sure I could have gotten more for it if I tried.
"Valuable printed books and manuscript" (Score:2)
Genius Bar?? (Score:4, Funny)
What about the Apple 0? (Score:2)
Apple I Doesn't Have Flash (Score:5, Funny)
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According to Steve Jobs, "Flash is a resource killer, and in order to deliver the best computing experience possible while running Integer BASIC on the 6502, we have dropped Flash." That being said, it should be possible to install Flash from a third-party cassette tape.
But what if I upgrade to Disk BASIC?
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Disk BASIC was a TRS-80 product.
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Disk BASIC was a TRS-80 product.
Hence, an upgrade.
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According to Steve Jobs, "Flash is a resource killer, and in order to deliver the best computing experience possible while running Integer BASIC on the 6502, we have dropped Flash."
But what if I upgrade to Applesoft BASIC?
So... (Score:2)
Assuming $160k price holds, that makes for a 17% rate of return. Not too shabby. And, interesting enough, that's almost the same exact rate of return for someone who bought apple at IPO. Although the missing 4 years of appreciation would leave you with only half as much money.
More auctions (Score:4, Interesting)
There is vastly more nerdy stuff for rich collectors than a mere Apple 1.
Ergo, my Apple ][... (Score:2)
I'm gonna call Christie's a soon as I dig it out of my closet.
Who assembled it? (Score:4, Interesting)
.
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I would imagine that Jobs was probably out hustling, so that would be his lower chance. However, the letter would most likely have been typed and s
Act fast and you can own my original APPLE ][ for (Score:2)
the meager sum of 8k dollars.
It has 48k!!! (updated from 32)....I have the original tape drive AND the dual floppy drive, as well as one of those monitors where everything is green.
As well as:
*Apple Trek (Killing Klarnons is awesome, trust me, when you fire a photon torpedo that looks exactly like this: * and see it shooting across the green screen in 8 bit glory, you'll know that all the money you spent on an Xbox360/PS3 was truly wasted.
Life time supply of cassette tapes? (Score:2)
Otherwise pass.
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I'd pay a lot more that 50 bucks for a Difference Engine in pristine condition. Or even a Harvard Mark I. Although I don't know how I could fit them in my apartment....
Historical value (Score:2)
Obviously the purpose of a museum is lost on you.
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Since the invention of graphical communications media, yes.
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Actually, in the case of the Apple-1, you have to hit Reset after you turn it on, and then you get dumped into the Monitor.
Then your options are to hand-type BASIC in, or to load it from cassette (if you have the ACI or a replica thereof, which this one does.)