A fully operational Apple-1 computer, one of 50 built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, is going under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York, where it is expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.
First-hand-crafted in Steve Jobs' mother's garage almost half a century ago, its fully-working condition is a rarity among surviving Apple-1s.
"It's what launched the company, what changed the world," said Sotheby’s Vice Chairman and Global Head of Science and Natural History, Cassandra Hatton.
Ms Hatton said that Jobs and Wozniak "scrounged" together the money to finance the first 50 prototypes.
"Jobs went out and really went hard trying to get people to buy one computer," she said.
"They got really lucky in that the owner of this place called the Byte Shop in Palo Alto happened to see them giving a demonstration of a prototype, and he said, 'I'll take 50 of those,'" she said.
The original 50 are identified by a non-sequential number inscribed on the backs of the computers, written in pen ink.
"Some historians think that it may be in the hand of the Byte Shop owner, others believe it is in the hand of Steve Jobs," Ms Hatton said.
"Either way, that is how we can tell the difference between that first batch of 50 and other ones, because once they got the money for those first 50, they ran out and they bought the parts to build another 200," she added.
The Apple-1 will be offered during Sotheby’s 'Geek Week' History of Science and Technology sale from 2-17 July.
"The owner paid, I think, $350,000 for it about 10, 11 years ago., so the estimate is very conservative and it's something that's stood the test of time in terms of importance," said Ms Hatton.
