This Year, 2021 marks the 45th anniversary of the birth of Apple, and John Moran Auctioneers is giving tech lovers the opportunity to own a piece of Apple History with the Auction of The Chaffey College Apple-1.
The Chaffey College Apple-1 will be available at auction during the Post-war & Contemporary Art + Design Sale on November 9, 2021.
A fascinating piece of tech history, it features many period-correct and original parts, such as a motherboard, monitor, keyboard, 2 cassette tapes, 3 wires, and a period xerox-copy of the original owner’s manual, all in working condition!
It has been extensively authentication, restoration, inspection, and generating a full condition report.
John Moran Auctioneers is thrilled to give tech lovers the opportunity to own “The Chaffey College Apple-1” estimated at $400,000-600,000 
Detailed view of the hand-built motherboard of “The Chaffey College Apple-1” offered by Moran’s.
In mint condition, the Chaffey College Apple-1 is valued at around $400,000 – $600,000. It was originally owned by an electronics professor at Chaffey College who purchase it in 1977 who then sold it to his student.
“I purchased this used from the original owner in 1977. He was a teacher at Chaffey College, and I was taking his programming course. He was excited to buy the Apple-II and sold me this for about $650. Of course, nobody knew it would become a collector’s item…”
Angela Bryant
Apple is one of the world’s largest technology companies, valued in the Trillions and founded by two steve in one garage and the Apple Computer 1, more commonly known as the Apple-1.
Back in 1976, electronic engineer Steve Wozniak (b. 1950) team up with marketing guru and industrial designer Steve Jobs (1955-2011) to build the Apple 1.
The first version of the company’s personal computer built by Steve Wozniak was essentially a motherboard and a manual with instructions on which components needed to be purchased in order to assemble and use the machine. Wozniak contemplated making instructions available on how to build the computer he designed from start to finish for free to anyone who had the patience to create one on their own.
Steve Jobs convinced him to instead combine the motherboard and its connections into a magazine box and sell them as a kit. 200 Apple-1 computers were hand-built by Wozniak, Jobs, and a skeleton crew in the garage that belonged to Jobs’ parents. 175 of them were sold for $666.66, a figure that catered to Wozniak’s love of repeating numbers. 50 of the 175 computers were sold to Paul Terrell, owner of Byte Shop in Mountain View, California.
When Jobs delivered the 50 Magazine boxes each containing an Apple-1 kit, Paul Terrell was not happy. He anticipated 50 all-in-one units that could simply be plugged in by the consumer, an unheard-of concept at the time. Jobs defended his delivery by pointing out that each box included all necessary elements to compose the machine and further convinced Terrell that Byte Shop could make a profit by selling keyboards, monitors, and power supplies within their store as an opportunity to upsell the product.
The wooden case that houses this computer is made from Koa wood and is in very good condition. In the 1970s Koa wood (native to Hawaii) was abundant on the west coast, but due to cattle grazing and extensive logging, the Koa tree is rare and more expensive. There are only six known examples of the Koa wooden case in existence, and this unit is one of them.
Want to purchase The Chaffey College Apple-1?
It’s available for auction at the Post-war & Contemporary Art + Design Sale on November 9, 2021 but you can get a private viewing one week before the sale if you reach out to the auctioneers.
Bidding will be available online via the Moran Mobile App on both iOS and Android Devices. Live bidding is also available on the desktop through the John Moran Auctioneers website along with support for telephone and absentee bidding.
This should fetch a lovely price not only for the fact that it is a very rare computer but the fact that it is a rare piece of Apple History, a global technology leader.
What are your thoughts on this auction of a piece of Apple history? Share them in the comments.
