A fully functional and rare 1976 Apple-1 computer was sold to the unnamed buyer for $365,000.00 on an auction at Christie's in New York.
The computer was purchased originally by Charlie Ricketts on July, 1976 when he dropped by at the garage of the parents of Steve Jobs in Palo Alto, California. He paid $600 for that unpopular computer back then, and paid additional $193 for an extra programming a month later.
They were not sure of what Job's did on the programming of the system. But Bob Luther, who sold the computer, said that Job done system's enhancement in order to store program and to run version of Apple's Basic language on programming. Luther said that Job was "actually quite a competent technician."
Luther acquired the Apple-1 a decade ago during a sheriff's auction in Washington, D.C. He then became obsessed with the history of Apple-1 computer. That was the very reason why he wrote a book consisting of 391 pages regarding that computer. He purchased the Apple-1 computer for $7,600 together with its manual, and 1970's cancelled checks of Charlie Ricketts. "I think most people there thought I'd paid too much for it," he recalls.
Though the return on Luther's investment is good at $365,000, he says it was "definitely less than expected."
Henry Ford Museum purchased a different Apple-1 last October and paid $905,000. A two-and-half higher than what Bob Luther got. He states "It's just the realities of auctions". "You take a chance when you go to auction" he added further.
Luther's earning is far better than Ron Wayne, Apple's co-founder. He only got $25,000 for his archives together with the early logo of Apple. Also included were renderings of Wayne's Apple II case design proposal.
To note, you can approximately buy 365 MacBook Pros on the purchased price of the Original Apple-1 being auctioned.