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Better Purchase Than The iBond? The Original Apple 1, For The Low, Low Price Of Only $400,000

Tyler Durden's picture




 

With today's cap-arb market frenzy focused on the latest development out of Cupertino, where Tim Cook moments ago announced that Apple's Goldman-syndicated bond issue would be $17 billion, the biggest ever for a corporate issuer (basically representing a circular cash flow stream where hedge funds give AAPL cash, so that AAPL cash pay them cash in return), some are wondering: is locking in a sub-4% yield for 30 years the best idea for a company which may not exist long before that? And with the stock recently having crushed the Apple collective, plunging 40% from its all time highs in a few short months, leaving many bottom and momentum-chasing hopefuls explaining just how they get to throw good monopoly money after bad monopoly money time after time, some are looking at alternative means of expressing their affection for the computer/cell phone/tablet company preferably coupled with a juicy ROI.

One such suggestion comes from Germany's Auction Team Breker, which last November made news for selling an original 1976 Apple I computer for the world record price of $640,000 (€492,000). Considering the Apple I originally sold for $666.66 in 1976, this represents a jawdropping CAGR of 20%+ over 37 years, a return which trounces virtually every other asset's return over the same time horizon, or most other time horizons.

Presenting the implied appreciation of an original Apple I purchaed in 1976 through to its auction closing price:

On 25 May 2013 collectors, capital appreciation chasers and Apple-aficionados will have the chance to buy another of the 6 surviving Apple I computers still in working order. Expected price $260,000-$400,000.

Since there were only 200 made, the scarcity and sentimental value of the otherwise completely useless piece of hardware is ensured forever. Whether the price will continue to rise at a 20% annual pace is unclear although if the pace at which central banks are injecting liquiduity in perpetuity in the market, all of which ends up for purely speculative purposes is any indication, this 37 year old computer may be a far better bet for capital appreciation, even if, like gold, it can't be fondled, and it has no dividend.

And if owning a really, really expensive paperweight with sentimental value is not one's cup of tea, Breker has many other products for sale at what it calls an auction of "firsts." Among these:

  • the world's first "Intel 4004" microprocessor in a 1971 "Busicom-141PF" (Euro 8.000 - 12.000 / US$ 10,000 - 15,000) and the first major Personal Computer, the "Altair 8800", which kick-started the PC revolution from the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in 1975 (Euro 3.000 - 5.000 / US$ 4,000 - 7,000).
  • Three hundred years before the birth of Steve Jobs & "WOZ", French physicist and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, was designing the first commercial mechanical calculator. The "Pascaline" of 1652 could add and subtract two numbers together; multiplication and division relied on the 9's complements principal still used in computers today!! Because of its importance to mathematics, 9 machines still in existence are all in museum archives. The 10th is being offered here at auction (Euro 100.000 - 200.000 / US$ 130,000 - 260,000).
  • In the late 18th century, poor roads and coach travel led English inventor James Watt to build his portable copying press: the first multiple-copying machine and the first patented instrument too (Euro 3.000 - 5.000 / US$ 4,000 - 7,000)!
  • A century later, and on the other side of the British Channel, mechanical life was being designed to amuse and be admired. Luxury Parisian toy makers of La Belle Époque combined music, mechanics and magic in the creation of automata like Gustave Vichy's "Marchande des Masques" (Euro 30.000 - 50.000 / US$ 40,000 - 65,000), perhaps inspired by Monet's portrait of his wife Camille as "La Japonaise".
  • Functionality came to the fore again in the 20th Century with mechanical encrypting devices such as the iconic second world war "Enigma" with codes so complex, its inventor claimed, it would take a code-breaker, working day and night, 42,000 years to exhaust them all (Euro 15.000 - 25.000 / US$ 20,000 - 33,000).
  • Also included in the auction are historic telephones, antique typewriters, telegraphy and all manner of technology. Says company founder Uwe Breker, "this sale is unique in presenting masterpieces from the spectrum of antique technology, from the 17th century to the 21st."

Full auction details here

And for those who just must have a piece of the original Steve Jobs, here is some more on the Apple I auction.

 

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Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:22 | 3514795 Zer0head
Zer0head's picture

What about  the Bernankeprinter QE1?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:25 | 3514814 slaughterer
slaughterer's picture

You can make an Apple 1 yourself for less than $100 these days.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:28 | 3514831 camaro68ss
camaro68ss's picture

Apple 1, better then gold, until its not. you cant eat Apple 1 now can you?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:48 | 3514892 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

I wonder how much you could get for John Titor's favorite computer, the IBM 5100?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:02 | 3514951 francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

I'd hold onto it... It oughtta go for anywhere from a Wozillion to a Jobillion joobux after the next QE...

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:19 | 3515024 Stackers
Stackers's picture

The original Pascal computer would be cool to have.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:46 | 3515126 Pool Shark
Pool Shark's picture

 

 

What will you give me for my old Timex-Sinclair or Amiga?

 

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:41 | 3515351 nope-1004
nope-1004's picture

 

 

NEW

10 HOME

20 PRINT "This is a waste of money".

30 RUN

40 GOTO 10

 

This is a waste of money

This is a waste of money

This is a waste of money

This is a waste of money

.

.

.

.

.

 

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:54 | 3515397 krispkritter
krispkritter's picture

After seeing a Cray computer on a government auction site a few years ago,  I found this old article on one that was being Ebayed in 2000.  Note that this guy also found and bought an Apple I circa 2000 for $50k.  He's probably happy with that investment.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245425.html

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 17:52 | 3515608 Dr Benway
Dr Benway's picture

OK sorry for being pedantic, but Tyler please check your Buffett quote on this one.

 

The Octagenarian from Omaha said you CAN fondle gold, but it won't respond (much like his genitals).

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:44 | 3514878 wee-weed up
wee-weed up's picture

Take a bow, WOZ!

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:29 | 3514835 timbo_em
timbo_em's picture

At 85B/month the Fed cannot afford to sell one of them. They're all needed to create all that wealth.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:32 | 3514846 SolidSnake961
SolidSnake961's picture

wrong Tyler! gold CAN be fondled, i fondle it every night before sleeping ;)

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:22 | 3514800 maskone909
maskone909's picture

OT what happens to bitcoin when quantum computers hit the market?
http://www.dwavesys.com/en/dw_homepage.html
Quantum cpu's can runthrough prime numbers like a hot knife thru butter

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:23 | 3514816 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I would guess that it would just max out the number of bitcoins much faster.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:44 | 3514873 forwardho
forwardho's picture

Thats kinda like building the mercury rocket system to light a cigar.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:52 | 3514884 RSBriggs
RSBriggs's picture

Considering that the D-wave machine isn't a true quantum computer, and that a viable quantum computer of just 8 qubits is probably 20 years away, it isn't a problem for the foreseeable future. 

And quantum computers don't just solve prime numbers.  If you guess the solution enough times, eventually one of the answers it gives you will reach ~50% probability.  So far, they've actually managed to guess that 3 * 5 is 15, about 50% of the time, given a long enough series of guesses.  

Short term - not an issue.  Long term, it might mean mean that the last Bitcoin gets mined in 2104 instead of 2140.  But if you're going to throw several billion dollars at BitCoins, you'd be better off just trying to buy them all and to start re-sell them once you've cornered the market.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:56 | 3514917 maskone909
maskone909's picture

20 years away? What are you basing that timeline on? Does moores law agree with that prediction?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:02 | 3514956 RSBriggs
RSBriggs's picture

I'm basing it on the current state and rate of advancement of the technology.  Quantum computers will never be a commodity item.  They can guess some things very fast, but they aren't worth a shit for running a word processor program, and the server you run a blog on will never be a quantum computer.

But please, "Moore's law" is not a law, or even a formal theory - a CEO said that it seemed to him like the number of transistors you could cram into a particular chip about doubled every couple-of-years.  It seems to me that Microsoft releases a bad operating system every other time they release a new one, but I wouldn't attempt to have that established as "RSBriggs' law" ...

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:04 | 3515195 EscapeKey
EscapeKey's picture

20 years fucking lol. They were expected to be out "in 20 years" 20 years ago. And optical processors were supposed to have been out 10 years ago.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:06 | 3515187 EscapeKey
EscapeKey's picture

Yeah good luck with that. You'll be dead by the time those general purpose unicorn computers will be put.

And quantum's claims have never been acknowledged by outsiders. Pretty telling, really.

Finally, bitcoin is based on sha256, not factorization. So why does that matter, anyway?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:24 | 3514808 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

"9's complement."

Damn, it's been so long since school daze, I had to go look up the details.

At this rate, I'll have forgotten everything I learned before I pay off my student loan.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:22 | 3514813 spastic_colon
spastic_colon's picture

i think i'll just say NEIN!

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:33 | 3514842 Agent P
Agent P's picture

Order now, and we'll throw in a 2nd one FREE (just pay processing)!

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:33 | 3514847 Sokhmate
Sokhmate's picture

I'm waiting for Bender's brain to be up for auction.

http://transbyte.org/SID/SID-files/Bender_6502.jpg

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:39 | 3514850 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

    The Twinklevoss twins should by it to set on their stack of Shitcoins...

  Remember this BOZO? Remember the guy (self-described FX genius) who spent 200,000 pounds on a night out? Just been charged by police. | ForexLive It might make a nice conversation piece in his jail cell.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:43 | 3514851 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I still have my Amiga 500 with a 1 meg external hard drive I'll auction off right now...any suckers...er.. I mean takers?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:53 | 3514913 Godisanhftbot
Godisanhftbot's picture

 try a mexicano, they might think its one of theirs.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:31 | 3515075 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

If we're all selling junk, I mean valuable pieces of modern history, I have a Commodore 64 with a cassette drive. (That's a massive 64 kb of Ram and 20 kb of Rom). 

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:35 | 3514854 ParkAveFlasher
ParkAveFlasher's picture

1976 ... wow ... six years later, the US Mint converted the penny from 98% copper to 98% zinc. 

How much copper is there in a computer?

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 01:42 | 3516848 RebelDevil
RebelDevil's picture

Not much. Hence why they're called "copper traces".

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 08:51 | 3517294 awakening
awakening's picture

motherboards like mine, 2oz (though I haven't tried scrapping one to verify) - http://www.gigabyte.com.au/MicroSite/57/tech_090116_2oz.htm

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:35 | 3514857 Gringo Viejo
Gringo Viejo's picture

So tell me....what am I supposed to do with these fuckin' Twinkies now?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:54 | 3514906 RSBriggs
RSBriggs's picture

Well, they never go bad, so you've got your long term food storage problem solved....

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:45 | 3515376 krispkritter
krispkritter's picture

How dare you call them food...

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 14:55 | 3514910 Godisanhftbot
Godisanhftbot's picture

 sell you my atari 800 for $10.  roi -99%

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:02 | 3514953 oddjob
oddjob's picture

I prefered intellivision.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:22 | 3515026 orangegeek
orangegeek's picture

How about a nice Radio Shack TRS 80 Model III?

 

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:08 | 3514980 silverserfer
silverserfer's picture

hmmm, the apple computer sold for $666 dollars originaly and the apple was the forbidden fruit.

Just what are you getting at Tylerz?

God, I can see Reggie Middleton running 100 miles with this one.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:21 | 3515022 orangegeek
orangegeek's picture

But can I load it with Windows 8?

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:30 | 3515068 Fuku Ben
Fuku Ben's picture

Yes, but for that kind of money I will need it to track my every move, keystroke and word spoken around it. I just don't feel comfortable with privacy any more. Privacy is only acceptable for terrorists and governments which are often synonymous terms. 

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:45 | 3515136 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

I think that's Krugman's face in the monitor smirking at the buyers of Apple iphones, ipads, ishares, ibonds, and icrap, all purchased with the iKeynsian largesse pouring into i-tbtf corporations and i-ebt card holders.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:49 | 3515140 mademesmile
mademesmile's picture

Did they really price them at $666.66? That's just creating paranoia on purpose.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 16:02 | 3515186 snblitz
snblitz's picture

Yes they were 666 dollars and they ran an Garden of Eden themed ad as the earliest color ad I remember.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:59 | 3515181 snblitz
snblitz's picture

When I visited Apple in the Apple 1 days they were located on Bandley Avenue in Sunnyvale.  I met both Steves then.

I do not recall the Apple I's mentioning Palo Alto.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 21:49 | 3516286 aphlaque_duck
aphlaque_duck's picture

Bandley ave is in Cupertino.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 18:48 | 3515755 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

And to think, I used to make 10-15% a pop on commission when I used to broker these things in the 2000s for $15-$30K.

I am Chumbawamba.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 20:05 | 3516006 Insignificunt
Insignificunt's picture

English inventor James Watt... 

 

Better not show your faces in Greenock any time soon Tylers.

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 01:31 | 3516828 Golden_Rule
Golden_Rule's picture

lol.. fukin apple fan-girls

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