Original Apple-1 Computer Sells For $210,000 USD In London

Today at Christie's auction house in the center of London, that Original Apple-1 (or Apple I) we mentioned 10 days ago sold for just a little under what it was expected to bring in, selling for a total of 133,250 pounds (about $210,000.) It came with a signed sales letter from Steve Jobs (you know who he is) and the original packaging. Christies mentioned in the sale that this computer, when introduced in 1976, was the only "personal computer" sold with a fully assembled motherboard, meaning the user would only have to purchase a keyboard, power supply, and display separately. Kinda like the beginning, ya know? The Apple I originally sold for $666.66 and was sold for about one year.

The final bid was made by Italian businessman Marco Bodlione, a man who fancies himself a private collector and his brother (who was at the auction) "The first time I had heard of the idea of a personal computer, it was from Marco," Macro's brother Boglione said. He bought it "because he loves computers."

Also present at the auction was none other than Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer. He was kind enough to add an autographed letter to the lot (though it's unclear whether his letter went into this box or the greater lot of technology-related goods available at the auction.)

"Today my heart went out as I got to see things auctioned off like the Turing documents and the Enigma machine and the Apple I," Woz told journalists right after the auction. "It really was an important step – I didn't feel that way when I designed it. ... I'm very delighted for the gentleman who purchased it." The Turing documents he speaks of are writings by British mathematician Alan Turing, and the Enigma is a historic German code-making machine.

[Via AP on Yahoo!]