Vintage Apple-1 motherboard bearing Wozniak's signature and a Jobs letter heads to auction block
A fully functional Apple-1 motherboard, autographed by Steve Wozniak and accompanied by a letter from Steve Jobs, will be offered at Bonhams in New York next month. The auction house values the lot between $500,000 and $800,000, though the same board previously sold for $686,000 in 2013. The package includes period-appropriate peripherals and original manuals.
The board originates from the second production batch, distinguished by an "NTI" stamp beneath its component-side label. It retains original components including a white ceramic MOS 6502 processor and three Sprague "Big Blue" capacitors, alongside a cassette interface board. The accompanying peripherals—a period monitor, cassette recorder, and two ASCII keyboards—plus original manuals with Apple's Newton logo, complete the package.
Fred Hatfield, an Ohio computing enthusiast, purchased this unit in 1976 from the second batch of fewer than 200 Apple-1 systems ever produced. His 1978 complaint about scarce software prompted Steve Jobs' signed reply offering an Apple II upgrade, a letter that now accompanies the lot. The board last sold in 2013 for $686,000.
This auction could reinforce the perception of early personal computing artifacts as blue-chip collectibles, potentially drawing new investors into the market and further inflating prices for vintage technology. It may also spark renewed public interest in computing history, highlighting the handmade origins of an industry now dominated by mass production. Museums and private collectors could compete for the lot, affecting which institutions can access such heritage pieces.