If you go to Apple’s website, you will have a hard time exceeding $12,448 for a fully maxed out, customized to the hilt Mac Pro. However, this does not come anywhere close to Apple-1 computer, which ranks as one of the most expensive Apple products ever sold!
According to Christie’s of London, Apple’s first computer (Apple-1) was sold to an anonymous buyer for GBP 371,250 ($459,000), in an online auction conducted during 16-23, May 2019.
This computer was previously owned by Rick Conte, who bought it in 1977 to learn BASIC and later donated the computer to Maine Personal Computer Museum in 2009.
Originally priced at $666.66, the auctioned computer is one of the few rare functioning Apple-1 computers that currently exists in the world.
Most Expensive Apple-1 ($905,000)
According to Christie’s website, they had earlier auctioned an Apple-1 computer signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak for $387,750 in 2013. However, the highest price paid for Apple-1 computer is $905,000, by Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan on 22 October 2014.
When it comes to individual buyers, the highest individual price paid for Apple-1 computer is $815,000, paid by Shannon and Glenn Dellimore, co-founders of skincare line “Glamglow”.
In case you are interested, the latest listing (20, September, 2025) for a functional Apple-1 computer with rare ‘Byte Shop’ wooden case can be seen at RR Auctions.
How Many Apple-1 Computers Exist in the World?
As indicated by the name, Apple-1 was the first line of computers that were hand-built by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and launched in 1976. Out of 200 Apple-1 computers sold, only 15 are currently known to be held in public collections by museums dedicated to science and technology around the world.
Encouraged by the success of Apple-1, Jobs and Wozniak launched Apple-2 in 1977, which continued to remained in production and improvements until 1993.
Apple-1 was discontinued in October 1977, with Jobs & Wozniak encouraging owners to return their machines for trade-ins and discounts. The returned Apple-1 computers were destroyed, which explains why only a few Apple-1 computer survived and fewer exist in working condition.
Apple-1 Computer Specs & Features
You may find it hard to believe that Apple’s first computer (Apple-1) was basically a motherboard, it did not even have a Keyboard or a Monitor to connect to.
In order to make a working computer, the users had to add a case, power supply transformer, power switch, keyboard and a monitor (a television set).
Source: Wikipedia
Apple-1 came with 4Kb dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which could be expanded to 8Kb on-board and to 64kb externally.
By current standards, 8kb is not even good enough to store a single iTunes song and you can easily find USB Drives with 1TB storage capacity. However, in those days 8kb was extraordinary, as most computers in that price range included just 1Kb Static Memory (SRAM).
Another innovation was the built-in video terminal, which allowed users to view commands in real time by connecting Apple-1 to television screen or video monitor. In comparison, competing models like ASR-33 Teletype could only print output to spools of paper.