Record Breaking Price Paid At Auction For First Apple Computer - But This Collector Owns Two Of Them!

Hi, I'm David Greelish, Computer Historian. If you missed it, another Apple 1 computer went to auction recently, on Saturday, November 24th. This is the second high profile auction for an Apple 1 in the last two months, and the third in the last five months. This recent, working example of computer history sold for €491,868 ($630,000) at a German auction, easily surpassing the existing record. The last record-breaking price was set at Sotheby’s in New York in June 2012 for a sale price of $374,500. There was also an auction at Christie's in the UK on October 9th, but that non-working Apple 1 failed to sell for a minimum of £50,000 ($80,062). Here is a list -

High Profile Auctions:

$630,000 (€491,868) | November 2012 | Breker

$374,500 | June 2012 | Sotheby’s (first sold on eBay, see A)

$212,267 (£133,250) | November 2010 | Christie’s (first sold on eBay, see B)

eBay Auctions:

$75,600 | June 2012

$22,766.66 | September 2010 (A)

$42,766 | March 2010

$50,000 | November 2009 (B)

$17,000 | September 2009

Thanks to Mike Willegal for his excellent online resource, the Apple 1 Registry -http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-originals.htm

Also recently, I had the chance to sit down with a local computer collector here in my area (Roswell, Georgia, outside of Atlanta). He is Lonnie Mimms, and he has two Apple 1s, and use to have three. One of his Apple 1s work, while the other does not. Let's start off where I ask him about his Apple 1s. This interview was conducted before the recent Apple 1 auction: