Apple Computer Once Sold by Steve Jobs Sells For $365K

Dec 12, 2014 07:30 AM EST | Matt Mercuro

An Apple computer that Steve Jobs once sold out of his parents' garage in 1976 for $600 sold at auction for $365,000 on Thursday.

The Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer, which was named after its original owner Charles Ricketts, is the only known surviving Apple-1 documented as having been sold directly by Apple's co-founder to a person from the Los Altos, California family home, according to the Christie auction house website.

The computer sold for under Christie's estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 and was a lot less than the $905,000 paid by the Henry Ford organization in October for one of the computers.

"It was a little disappointing," said Bob Luther, about the selling price of his Apple-1, according to Computerworld.com. "But it was time for me to move on, and it's good that it's sold. Owning it has been an incredible experience. And I can't complain. I'm a big Apple fan and I'm not very diversified in my 401(k) because a very high percentage of it is in Apple stock. And (that Apple stock) has been very good to me."

Luther purchased the Apple-1 at a sheriff's sale in 2004 for $7,600.

Fewer than 50 original Apple-1s are believed to be in existence still, of the couple hundred Apple originally manufactured, according to Reuters.

A collection of documents owned by little-known third co-founder of Apple, Ron Wayne, sold for $25,000 at the auction as well, according to Computerworld.com.

During the same auction, Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum purchased a Bacchic figure supporting the globe by 17th-century artist Adrien de Vries for $27.9 million, with some help of various foundations and private donors. The sculpture's pre-sale estimate was believed to be $15 million to $25 million.

"It follows the trend of masterpieces achieving outstanding prices," said Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie's and the auctioneer for the sale, according to Reuters.

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