A picture’s worth more than the real thing
When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted to price his new Apple-1 computer, he chose a price roughly three times what it cost to build it: $666.66. The price made his cofounder and chief system designer Steve Wozniak laugh because of its proximity to a joke line he used to dial, and it ultimately caused the pair some grief because of its digit relationship to, well, the sign of the beast.
Almost 50 years later, that price is a fraction of what you might pay for Polaroid pictures of the original Apple-1 Computer prototype. A collection of three photos of the board, the board and its caseless computer, and a monitor running Apple’s own brand of BASIC are on auction at RRAction House and currently sit at a bid of $2,148. The auction is open until August 22, so that price might differ by the time you visit and maybe bid.
Jobs used these images as part of his pitch deck, which he presented to early client Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop.
