One of the rarest computers on Earth is sitting in a gallery on Clarendon Street in Boston this week, free for anyone to walk in and see. The machine, known in collector circles as the Hatfield Apple-1, is a working example of Apple's first personal computer, built in 1976 and now expected to sell at auction for between $500,000 and $800,000.
Bonhams is displaying the computer at its Boston gallery from Monday through Wednesday, with free admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to MassLive. The stop is part of a broader tour that also brought the machine through Los Angeles earlier this month and will send it to San Francisco before it goes to online auction October 4 through 14, according to Bonhams.
Apple made about 200 Apple-1 computers, and roughly 75 are known to survive today, per the same account. Only a fraction of those still power on, which is what makes the Hatfield unit, cataloged as No. 48 in the official Apple-1 Registry, so significant to collectors. The registry identifies it as a second-batch board manufactured in 1976 with an “NTI” stamp on its underside.
A Deal Fred Hatfield Turned Down
The computer's paper trail traces back to its original owner, Fred Hatfield, who bought the machine when it first went on sale in 1976 as Apple's debut personal computer. In January 1978, Steve Jobs sent Hatfield a typed letter offering to trade the Apple-1 for a new Apple II 4K board, then retailing for $598, in exchange for the old machine plus a $400 cash payment, according to AppleInsider. Apple was trying to retrieve early units to cut down on technical support headaches as it pivoted toward the mass-market Apple II, the outlet reports.
Hatfield declined the offer, a decision that preserved a complete second-batch motherboard that would eventually become one of the most documented Apple-1 units in existence. Bonhams specialist Ian Ehling said the Hatfield machine is among the most compelling surviving examples, according to MassLive.
From $40,000 to Nearly $700,000
The machine's modern market history began in 2013, when a buyer purchased the then-non-working computer from Hatfield for $40,000, according to MassLive. That buyer repaired the unit, obtained Steve Wozniak's signature on the motherboard, and resold it at Auction Team Breker in Cologne, Germany, for approximately $671,400, per Engadget.
The current auction lot includes more than just the circuit board. It comes with a 1977 Koyo TMC-9M video monitor, a Panasonic RQ-2102 portable cassette recorder, an Apple cassette interface board, custom power supplies, and original operation manuals, according to Hypebeast. Original Apple-1 buyers had to supply their own power sources, keyboards, and displays, so a complete working setup like this one is unusual.
Weighing the $500,000 to $800,000 Estimate
Bonhams' pre-sale estimate reflects a market that has stayed strong for functional Apple-1 units. A separate working Apple-1 motherboard sold at auction in July for $499,363, beating its own pre-sale estimate of $300,000, per AppleInsider's report. The record for any Apple-1 remains the $905,000 paid in October 2014, when the Henry Ford Museum bought a fully operational unit at a Bonhams auction in New York, according to CBS New York.
Steve Wozniak originally priced the Apple-1 at $666.66 when it launched in July 1976, a figure he later said came from his fondness for repeating digits and a one-third markup on the machine's $500 wholesale cost, according to CNET. Wozniak has maintained he was unaware of any religious connotations tied to the number. Apple's commercial break came when Paul Terrell, owner of The Byte Shop in Mountain View, ordered 50 assembled Apple-1 units, which Jobs and Wozniak hand-built in the Jobs family garage, per the same report.
Bonhams' History of Science, Technology & Computing auction in October also includes other rare Apple artifacts, including an Apple Lisa 1 microcomputer estimated at $50,000 to $80,000 and an Apple Paladin prototype estimated at $40,000 to $60,000, according to AppleInsider. After its Boston stop, the Hatfield Apple-1 heads to San Francisco for a final public viewing before bidding opens next month.
