AI Representation: Vintage apple-style computer showcase. Image credits: Image credits: Chatgpt
Since Moore died in the late 1970s, not long after the Apple-1’s 1976 release, she would have acquired the machine when it was still new rather than as a vintage collectible. Not much else is known about how she came to own it, except that the machine is currently included in the informal Apple-1 registry as Moore No. 15.
However, it appears that the history of the ownership of the machine goes back to June Blodgett Moore, a graduate of Stanford Law School.
The circuit board, which was packed in a wooden case, took first place on the list of best-sellers on September 20, 2025, at the auction of Remarkable Rarities organized by RR Auction in Boston, which is an auction dedicated to rare things and historical artifacts. The circuit board was part of the functional Apple-1 computer, which was refurbished before being sold; fifty such computers were produced by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for the computer store. The Apple-1 was sold for the record price of $475,000, the top price of the auction; the Sun Yat-sen-related collection was the sale’s second-highest seller. The Apple-1 was the highest-priced item in the sale of unusual collectibles that was held in Boston. The item was bid up to more than $140,000 during the pre-auction stage, with an estimated price of no less than $300,000 before the live auction, according to RR Auction. The item ended up selling for around $380,000 during the last part of the auction, but when the buyer’s premium was added, it totaled $475,000. Indeed, the Apple-1, designed by Wozniak, an engineer at Hewlett-Packard at the time, was a one-board computer that he himself described as ‘a showpiece for the Homebrew Computer Club,’ according to his recounting of events for the Computer History Museum . Unlike most surviving Apple-1 machines which have been displayed in a static manner, this particular one was working even before the auction began. The computer had been inspected and restored prior to the auction by Corey Cohen, an Apple-1 restoration specialist, who rated the machine at 8 out of 10, according to the RR Auction listing.
The computer once belonged to June Blodgett Moore, a Stanford Law School graduate, according to RR Auction. The uniqueness of this computer consists of its cost and wooden housing. This raises many questions concerning the story of the first Silicon Valley hardware and the first woman lawyer. The situation changed when Jobs approached Paul Terrell, owner of the newly opened Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, and persuaded him to order fifty assembled units rather than kits.
