Working Apple 1 computer sells for over $374,000

A rare and still functioning Apple 1 computer has been sold at the auctioneers Sothebys for $374,500. The amount raised at the auction was double the expected price.

Apple's first ever computer was the Apple 1. There are few of these machines in existence and even fewer that are still functioning. This rarity probably explains why a working Apple 1 machine was sold for a price of a third-of-a-million dollars at the New York auction. According to the BBC, around 200 Apple 1s were built, assembled solely by Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak. The Apple 1 originally retailed for the amusing price of $666.66, because Wozniak liked repeating digits. The first machines were sold in 1976. At the time the company was called Apple Computer Company. It is now a multi-billion dollar empire, called Apple Inc. The Apple 1 consisted of a circuit, for which the user needed to connect a keyboard and a television set. The Apple 2 was launched a year later in 1977. At the same auction, a memorandum written by Steve Jobs, dating back to the time when he worked at Atari, sold for $27,500.