Working Apple-1 computer for sale with signed motherboard and cassette interface

Those who win Bohnam's auction for one of the original Apple-1 computers known as "Hatfield" after its first owner will walk away with an offer letter from Steve Jobs himself and a motherboard signed by Steve Wozniak.

The piece of electronics history could fetch more than $800,000 in an auction that will run until October 14, 2026, and still works like when the first batch made it to computer shops in Palo Alto, CA. The board comes with the famed Sprague "Big Blue" capacitors and an Apple cassette interface board. The lot includes the original manuals, a preliminary Apple BASIC guide, and a typed invitation to the Apple-1 Owners Club, too. 

Apple-1 Hatfield computer story

Fred Hatfield, who worked at Computer Data Systems, bought it in 1976, the same year Apple was founded. He, however, quickly hit the problem every early adopter faced, as there was barely any software for it. Fred whined to Apple multiple times, and in January 1978 he received a typed letter signed by Jobs, who was then listed as Vice President of Operations. The offer was to send back the Apple-1 together with a $400 check to receive an Apple II 4K board.

Hatfield declined, but that decision looks painful today as he later sold the OG board for roughly $40,000 in non-working condition. The new owner repaired the motherboard, had Steve Wozniak sign it, and sold it in 2013 at a Cologne auction for $671,400.

Wozniak designed the Apple-1 by hand around the MOS 6502 processor, a chip far cheaper than the Intel and Motorola options at the time. Jobs and Woz reportedly funded the first run by selling a VW van and an HP calculator, which is as good a story as any about Silicon Valley billionaires starting the business in their garage.

About 200 Apple-1 units were made, and 50 fully assembled ones went to The Byte Shop, a California retailer. The launch price was $666.66, a number Woz apparently liked for its repeating digits, which today would be the equivalent of a computer selling for $3,924.74, or about what an Apple Studio Display XDR goes for on Amazon.

"Computer" is a rather strong word, though, as the Apple-1 was in fact a bare board, so buyers had to furnish their own case, power supply, keyboard, and display. Wozniak has described seeing a typed character appear on a screen as a first in history. Only around 74 Apple-1 boards are known to survive, and this one is number 48 in the registry.

Working examples have passed $900,000 at auction before, so a new record is not out of the question with this one. Either way, Fred Hatfield's trade-in offer by Steve Jobs remains one of tech nostalgia's best stories about a missed opportunity.