Apple I sold for record price - 99mac

first Apple computer in 1976 was sold at auction in Germany for a record price of 4.5 million kronor.

market for Apple’s oldest computers continue to set records. An Apple I computer made in 1976 was sold for 671,400 dollars, about 4.5 million at an auction in Germany on Saturday, writes The New York Times.

same auction company, Team Breker, also hit a record in November last year, when they sold the Apple I for 640 000 dollars. The German company raised the price of the previous record from the auction house Sotheby’s in New York a lot. In June 2012, they sold the Apple I for 374,500 dollars.

computer sold in the weekend was well preserved and functional. Apple made a total of 200 copies and get there today, which may explain the high prices. When it was launched it was sold for $ 666, equivalent to about 18 000 in today’s value.

Team Breker says that the buyer is a wealthy entrepreneur from the Far East who wish to remain anonymous. According Uwe Breker is part of the allure of Apple I do not what it is, but what it represents. In an interview with the U.S. newspaper The New York Times, he says:

“It is a superb symbol of the American dream. Two guys who dropped out of school in California followed an idea and a dream, and that dream became one of the world’s most admired, successful and valuable companies in the world . “

Uwe Breker first told the newspaper that it sold the computer was originally owned by Fred Hatfield, a great baseball player in the 1950s who passed away in 1998. But over the weekend reporter got an email from another Fred Hatfield, a retired electrical engineer in New Orleans, who said he was the original owner of the computer and attached a picture of a letter, dated January 18, 1978 signed by Steve Jobs.

letter received Hatfield because he complained about the lack of software for the Apple I and he offered to switch to an Apple II. Self owned Hatfield computer until earlier this year when he sold it for 40,000 dollars. The computer was not working when he sold it, says Hatfield. It was the new buyer as refurbished machine and got it signed by Steve Wozniak, which probably also raised the value, before it was sold in Germany and hit record.