Tech
Rare Apple-1 computer valued at price of 275 iPhone 17 Pros
A working 1977 Apple-1 expected to garner at least $300,000 leads RR Auction’s sprawling sale of rare hardware, prototypes, and Steve Jobs memorabilia from Apple’s earliest years.
The Apple-1 comes from Apple’s second batch of 50 machines, according to the auction house. Known as the “Neumark” computer, it sits inside a modified Smith-Corona typewriter case and was restored to working condition by Apple-1 specialist Corey Cohen in June 2026.
Apple sold the Apple-1 as an assembled circuit board rather than a complete consumer computer, so buyers had to add the other components and an enclosure themselves. The Neumark machine stands out because it still works inside the suitcase. The auction also includes surviving documentation.
RR Auction’s estimates aren’t guarantees of what buyers will pay. Final prices will depend on how much competition each lot attracts before the sale closes.
The auction, titled “Steve Jobs & the Computer Revolution: The Apple 50th Anniversary Auction Part Two,” spans early Apple hardware, prototypes, business records, marketing material, and items connected to Jobs and his family.
Other notable lots include a factory-sealed 4GB first-generation iPhone and the P68 “Stealth iPod”, an oversized development prototype Apple used to hide the original iPod’s dimensions. RR Auction estimates each could sell for about $50,000.
The sale also includes an early ventless Apple II with a Rev. 0 logic board and an Apple Lisa-1 with its original “Twiggy” drives. The two computers help show Apple’s progression from its earliest consumer machines to the hardware that paved the way for the Macintosh.
A Jobs-signed Apple business card graded PSA GEM MT 10 carries an estimate of $60,000 or more. A July 29, 1976, Apple check signed by Jobs and made payable to Elizabeth Holmes, whom RR Auction identifies as Apple’s first bookkeeper, is estimated at $25,000 or more.
Jobs family items add a more personal record
Some of the auction’s most unusual items matter less for their technical importance than for what they reveal about Jobs and his family.
One is an eighth-grade science fair project Jobs built called “What is the Silicon-Controlled Rectifier?” RR Auction estimates it could sell for $20,000 or more.
The project predates Apple by years and offers an early glimpse of Jobs’s interest in electronics.
The sale also includes a Macintosh 512K and an Apple II that Jobs gave to his father, both with their original accessories and software. RR Auction estimates each computer at $5,000 or more.
Other items from the Jobs family home include framed magazine covers, a rainbow Apple logo stained-glass decoration from Jobs’s childhood bedroom, and electronic components stored at the Los Altos property tied to Apple’s early history.
The Jobs family items probably won’t approach the Apple-1’s price, but they provide personal context that the computer hardware can’t. The magazine covers, stained-glass Apple logo, and stored electronic parts show how Apple’s early history remained intertwined with the Jobs family home.
Bidders must place an initial bid by 6 p.m. Eastern on August 20 to keep participating after the deadline. RR Auction’s 30-minute extended-bidding rule begins at 7 p.m. Eastern.
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