Steve Jobs’ Apple computer fetches $400,000 at auction | An apple

The computer that was auctioned is known as the “Chaffey College Apple 1” because the original owner was a professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, also in California. He eventually sold the computer to a college student in 1977 so that he could purchase an Apple II. The student, whose name has not been announced by John Moran Auctioneers, has yet to be kept. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.

What makes Chaffey College even rarer is that it is largely covered with koa, a special wood from Hawaii. Only six of the original Apple 1 devices were made this way. It is estimated that there are still twenty Apple 1s that are still working. One of them even fetched $905,000 (780,650 euros) at an auction in New York in 2014.

The Apple 1 was the first Apple product to be sold in stores and come with a warranty. “It was guaranteed to work,” Apple historian Corey Cohen told the Los Angeles Times. “Before that, there were other computers, but they were combinations that didn’t always work.” That’s why Cohen calls Chaffee College “a kind of holy grail for vintage computer collectors.”