A rare Apple 1, the first computer ever built by Apple and its co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, is going up for auction on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old computer could sell for as much as $600,000 when the sale is finished, according to John Moran Auctioneers, the organization handling the sale.
Known as the 'Chaffey College' Apple 1 (due to the fact it was first owned by a Chaffey professor), it is encased with koa wood. It also comes with the original Apple 1 'NTI' motherboard, power regulators and a blue Sprague 39D capacitor.
The winner of the Apple 1 will also receive a 1986 Panasonic video monitor, a Xerox copy of the Apple-1 Basic manual, the operations guide and a MOS 6502 programming manual.
The lot also contains two Apple-1 software cassette tapes, with 'hand-written index card with memory locations for the Apple-1 loading software,' the auction house wrote in its description.
An Apple 1 computer is going up for auction on Tuesday and could sell for as much as $600,000, John Moran Auctioneers said
It is encased with koa wood, now a high-priced commodity and comes with a host of accessories
The winner of the Apple 1 will also receive a 1986 Panasonic video monitor, a Xerox copy of the Apple-1 Basic manual and the operations guide
The winner of the auction will also receive two Apple-1 software cassette tapes (pictured)
A hand-written index card with memory locations for the Apple-1 loading software is also included
Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, came up with the idea to sell 'something like 50' Apple 1's to Byte Shop for $500 each
It was eventually sold at retail in July 1976 for $666.66 due to Steve Wozniak's (right) fascination with repeating numbers
The Apple 1 helped springboard the rise of the Cupertino, California-based tech giant, with Wozniak selling off his HP-65 calculator to finance and manufacture the item.
Jobs, who died in 2011, came up with the idea to sell 'something like 50' Apple 1's to Byte Shop for $500 each.
It was eventually sold at retail in July 1976 for $666.66 due to Wozniak's fascination with repeating numbers.
It was eventually bought from the professor by a Chaffey student for $650 in 1977, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It also comes with the original Apple 1 'NTI' motherboard, power regulators and a blue Sprague 39D capacitor
Approximately 200 Apple-1 units were assembled, with 175 of them eventually sold. Only 60 of them are still in existence and approximately 20 of them are in working order
The student, who is remaining anonymous until after the sale is final, held on to the Apple 1 for the next four decades.
'This is kind of the holy grail for vintage electronics and computer tech collectors,' Corey Cohen, an Apple-1 expert told the Times.
'That really makes it exciting for a lot of people.'
So far, there have been two bids, with the highest coming in at $225,000, but a live auction is happening on Tuesday.
Approximately 200 Apple-1 units were assembled, with 175 of them eventually sold.
Only 60 of them are still in existence and approximately 20 of them are in working order, Cohen added.
Most Apple-1s were not sold with cases, potentially making this particular computer more valuable.
Koa wood is now an expensive commodity, selling for as much as $50 per board foot, and there are only a handful of Apple-1s with cases, Cohen explained.
'It has all the pieces and it has some really good provenance,' Cohen explained to the news outlet.
'We can pretty much track it back to the original professor who owned it.'
The unit was in the student's possession until Noelle Valentino, John Moran's department manager trusts and estates, gave a talk to financial advisors to see if any of their clients had hidden treasures.
One client of an anonymous wealth advisor said they had a computer they kept for 40 years and the rest is history.
'At first I really
