Apple’s First Computer Built by Steve Jobs, Wozniak to be Auctioned

Original Apple computer, also known as 'Chaffey College' Apple-1, will go for auction on Tuesday. The computer was hand-built by founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak 45 years ago. The computer was tested by Steve Jobs’ sister Patty Jobs and Daniel Kottke in the Jobs’ home.

'Chaffey College' Apple-1 is likely to fetch up to $600,000 at an auction organised by the auction house John Moran Auctioneers. To add to its novelty, the computer is encased in Koa wood – a richly patinated wood abundantly available and easily available in Hawaii. There are only six known examples of the Koa wood case in existence and this unit is one of them.

The device is one of only 200 made jointly by Jobs and Wozniak at the very start of the company’s rise from a garage start-up to a tech behemoth worth over $2 trillion. Steve and Wozniak sold these computers as component parts.

One hundred and seventy-five of them were sold for $666.66, a figure that catered to Wozniak’s love for repeating numbers. 50 of the 175 computers were sold to Paul Terrell, owner of ByteShop in California’s Mountain View.

When he received the boxes each containing an Apple-1 kit, Terrell was less than pleased. He believed that these all-in-one units could simply be plugged in by the consumer. Jobs said that each box included elements needed to compose the machine and convinced Terrell that ByteShop could make a profit by selling keyboards, monitors and power supplies within their store, the auction house says on its website.

“The Apple-1 Computer on offer has only had two owners. It was originally purchased by an electronics professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, who then sold it to his student in 1977,” the website further reads.

November 09, 2021