50th Anniversary Apple Auction Includes Rare Apple-1 Prototype Valued At $500,000
Has it been half a century already? Believe it or not, Apple is turning 50 years old this year, and to celebrate the occasion, auction house RR Auction is hosting a huge 50th anniversary Apple sale with a whole bunch of desirable collectibles, some of which are expected to fetch half a million dollars or more. One of them is an ultra-rare Apple-1 prototype identified as Board #0 that predates production and was never meant for sale. For reference, a functional Apple-1 in a rare wooden case sold for $475,000 just three and a half months ago.
The Board #0 build is the earliest known fiberglass Apple-1 prototype assembled before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak supplied Byte Shop with its first models.
"It occupies a singular and critical place in Apple history as the first corrected-layout board used by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to validate the Apple-1 design before entering into commercial production," the auction page states.
Documentation reveals that Apple commissioned the first Apple-1 PCB layout from Howard Cantin in March 1976. This led to the tan phenolic prototype board that is part of the 50th anniversary auction, and makes it extremely rare, even among already-rare Apple-1 systems in general.
This was designed as an inexpensive test board and it took a lot of reworking to get to function the way it should. The irony is that, 50 years later, it is anything but inexpensive.
"Apple needed to confirm that the revised design functioned correctly when produced on a proper fiberglass PCB. The 'Celebration' Apple-1 is that transitional board: the validation unit assembled before Apple built the first 50 machines for Paul Terrell’s Byte Shop order," RR Auction states.
There are other unique traits that separate the Celebration model from other Apple-1 computers. For example, Board #0 employs wave-soldered Robinson-Nugent sockets, whereas later boards were equipped with less expensive sockets from Texas Instruments. Board #0 also employs a mix of hand-soldered components, as they were sourced locally for testing.
The Apple-1 Board #0 prototype that's up for auction includes the board itself, a vintage and period-correct Key Tronic keyboard, power supply that's also vintage and period-correct, a vintage Sony TV set, a replica Apple-1 user manual signed by Woz, and a replica Apple-1 schematic that's also signed by Woz.
Current bidding for the Apple-1 Board #0 auction is over $100,000. The auction runs until the end of the month and is expected to end at or north of $500,000.
First Apple Check Marked As No. 1 Is Up For Auction
Another big ticket item that's expected to fetch at least $500,000 is an Apple check marked as "No.1" that's signed by both Jobs and Woz. It's written in the amount for $500 and dated March 16, 1976, which predates the official founding of Apple on April 1 of the same year.
"This inaugural Apple check thus stands as an extraordinary artifact from the very moment theory became product—when a visionary schematic, a garage workshop, and a fledgling partnership crossed the threshold into an operating business," the listing states.
Current bidding for the first Apple check sits at over $160,00 and also runs until the end of the month.
You can hit up the 50th Apple anniversary auction page to see a wide range of other items up for sale, many of which are far more affordable than the Apple-1 or first Apple check (as in, hundreds or thousands of dollars, versus half a million).
