First Generation Apple Computer Sold for $750,000

One of the 50 original Apple-1 computers built by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs was sold for $750,000 to The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation in an auction Wednesday at Bonham's History of Science in New York, CNET reported.

The turnout surpassed the predicted auction price of $300,000 to $500,000, and with auction fees added to the net, the buyer will have to cash out a total of $905,000.

"When acquiring artifacts for The Henry Ford's Archive of American Innovation, we look at how the items will expand our ability to tell the important stories of American culture and its greatest innovators," said the company's president, Patricia Mooradian.

Mooradian said that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs did with Apple-1 what Henry Ford did with the Model T, according to a report from CBS News.

Their innovation completely altered "the way we work and live," she added. "The Apple-1 was not only innovative, but it is a key artifact in the foundation of the digital revolution."

The auction lot included a fully functioning Apple-1 motherboard, a vintage keyboard, the original power supply and a Sanyo monitor. It was kept under glass since 1989 by the family of John Anderson, the founder of the Cincinnati AppleSiders, according to CBS News.

While all other operating Apple-1 computers put on sale in the past four years have been damaged, repaired or modified, the unit sold to The Henry Ford has remained intact and usable.

The newly purchased vintage computer is one of the 15 remaining functional units, assembled in the summer of 1976 at the garage of Steve Jobs, when Apple was still starting. It is the first personal computer available in the market, hand-built by Wozniak, the report said.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs' Apple is referred to as a company "from garage to world's most valuable," according to Computer History Museum.