Auction Team Breker hopes to top the world record for an Apple-1 in its May 25 sale, offering a Steve Wozniak-signed example of Apple's first computer.
 Will the Steve Wozniak signature and extra documents launch this machine to a new world record? Or will its failure to sell in the previous auction deter collectors? |
The German company set the record in November 2012 at $518,529, beating the previous world record - set at Sotheby's in June 2012 - by 38.4%. The Sotheby's sale made a 75.8% increase on 2010's record, showing the increasing value of early Apple products.
This increase is in part due to the attention surrounding the company following founder Steve Jobs' death, but is also spurred by collectors realising the importance of the company to modern technology.
The current Apple-1 holds an estimate of $262,500-394,000. It is signed "Woz", co-inventor Steve Wozniak's nickname during the early days of the company, which further increases its appeal to collectors.
With an interface for a printer grafted onto it, this machine is unlike any we have seen at auction so far. In full working order, it is accompanied by the original manual as well as a letter from Steve Jobs, in which he offers the owner an upgrade to a Apple II 4k motherboard for the handsome sum of $400.
There are believed to be around 50 examples of the Apple-1 surviving today, most of which have been indexed by engineer Mike Willegal. This example is listed as #37 in Willegal's index and was previously featured in another of Auction Team Breker's sales, but failed to sell on that occasion.
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