Before you ditch that junk box full of disused PCBs take a minute to check you’re not harbouring a valuable heirloom. The Henry Ford museum at Dearborn in the US were successful bidders on a 1976 Apple 1 computer at the recent ‘History of Science’ auction held by Bonhams. In a press release Patricia Mooradian president of the Henry Ford museum said “Similar to what Henry Ford did with the Model T, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs put technology directly in the hands of the people with the creation of the Apple-1, completely altering the way we work and live”

The computer is thought to be from the first run of 50 Apple computers ever built and soldered together by Steve Wozniak in Steve Job’s garage. By all accounts there are only 15 surviving operational examples left (unless you know better). Kristen Gallerneaux, one of the museum’s curators said “The likelihood that a unit as complete as this will come up for auction is slender”. The original Apple 1 retailed for $666.66.

As well as the motherboard the lot included a keyboard, Sanyo monitor, what looks like a homebrew power supply and two old tape decks. If you do strike gold in that junk box clear-out Bonhams will be holding their next ‘History of Science’ auction in October 2015.

Photo courtesy of Bonhams