Apple I computer sells for record price

On June 15, Sotheby's in New York sold an Apple I computer for a record $374,500. Selling for more than double the high estimate, this is the highest price known for an early personal computer, produced at the dawn of home personal computer revolution. It was one of the first home computers available with a fully assembled circuit board, at a time when many models were sold as kits with circuit boards, that needed soldering at home.

The Apple I was also among first home computers to make use of a keyboard for input and to provide output that could be displayed on a TV monitor. The model auctioned by Sotheby's used a MOS 6502 CPU, and had 8K RAM, expandable to 48K using expansion cards. 4 power supplies were also part of the lot, as was an Apple I cassette interface. Various paperwork, including an operation manual, a BASIC User's Manual and various advertising and other documents were included.

The Apple I was available between July 1976 and August 1977, with an original price of $666.66 (reduced to $475 in April 1977), and was Apple Inc's first computer (they were known as Apple Computer Company at the time). It was replaced by the Apple II in April 1977, although for a few months both continued to be sold. The scarcity of the computer is partly down to the fact that only around 200 were made, and many were traded in for the Apple II.