One of the first 3,000 complete units made

An original and completely unmodified 1977-era Apple II computer, including the original Integer ROMs, has fetched $6,100 at auction on Ebay. Remarkably, the unit is still in full working condition despite its age, and is from very early on in the Apple II's production run, with a "revision 0," or original design, logic board. The complete unit has a serial number of #2812, light green expansion slots and was never upgraded to display six colors.

The seller, located in Lebanon Ohio, positioned the unit as being for a serious Apple collector only due to the scarcity of a 1977 unit that is both working and was never upgraded to the more useful Applesoft ROMs in 1979. The machine, largely designed by Steve Wozniak, is in excellent cosmetic condition and represents one of the first "complete" pre-assembled computers consumers could buy. It originally retailed for a minimum of $1,298 (with 4KB of RAM).

It is believed that this unit was within the early run of the Apple II production run that was assembled entirely in Silicon Valley, before assembly moved to Texas. The circuit boards were manufactured in Ireland and Singapore. The board has a different, higher serial number than the computer overall because at the time of manufacture, Apple as still selling additional boards separately for electronics hobbyists who built their own units.

The auction closed yesterday with a total of six bids, beginning with an original starting price of $2,499. The winning bid is close to the amount normally seen for original Apple I computers, and does not include shipping which could add another $50-100 to the final price. The auction received a total of 735 views prior to the winning bid.

by MacNN Staff