COLOGNE, Germany, May 24 (UPI) -- An auctioneer in Germany said he has set the starting bid for an Apple-1 computer at a stunning, but not record-setting, $116,000.
He expects much more than that, The New York Times reported Friday.
An original 1976 Apple-1 computer that was purchased for $666.66 when it first came out – worth $2,700 today when accounting for inflation -- sold at an auction last November for $640,000.
Uwe Breker, the German auctioneer, expects bidding this week for a working Apple-1 to reach up to $400,000, he said. "But we will see," he added.
The auction on Saturday will take place at the same auction house in Cologne, Germany, where the record-setting price was reached in November.
The Apple appeal has to do with the company's early mystique combined with simple supply and demand. On top of that, add in some wealth, of course, and a motivating dash of what the Times called "techo-fetishism" and prices for old Apple-1 computers have soared.
The first run of computers made by Apple were assembled in co-founder Steve Jobs' family garage in Los Altos, Calif., in 1976. There were an estimated 175-200 made.
There are 46 of them left, says Mike Willegal, who keeps track of them on an online registry.
