The license plate MYAPPL1 is a big hint.
Rancho Cucamonga, California resident Joey Catuara is enjoying his 2022 Lexus LC500 all thanks to a computer he bought for $650. Fresh out of the Lexus dealership, Catuara took to Facebook and shared with fellow LC 500 owners what made that computer so special.
Here’s a screenshot of Catuara’s post below with the Facebook post linked here.
“In 1977, I took an electronics class at Chaffey Community College, and the teacher was selling his Apple 1 computer to buy the new Apple 2 computer, Catuara explains.”
“I bought it for $650 (it was $666 new.)”
If you don’t already know, the Apple Computer 1 (AKA an Apple 1,) is literally the first product and computer released by the Apple Computer Company (today known as Apple Inc.) back in 1976.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe brainchild of Steve Jobs and designed by Steve Wozniak, the Apple 1 was a landmark computer for the most famous computer company in the world today.
According to Apple 1 Registry, only 200 Apple 1’s were produced, 175 were initially assembled, and between 60-70 are believed to exist today.
Compare that to the Apple II, about 4.8 million of those were produced and sold.
A post by the Daily Bulletin profiling Catuara’s fortuitous purchase and eventual auction says that Catuara did the bare minimum to preserve such a historic computer.
“Catuara confirmed that he kept the computer under a towel in his closet for 44 years until it was sold on Tuesday after his broker learned of interest from the auction house.”
44 years later in 2021, Catura partnered with John Moran Auctioneers and Appraisers and sold the Apple for $500,000.
“After commissions and taxes, I was left with half of that – much of which I used to buy my 2022 Infrared LC 500 (in April ’22, waiting for production to resume after Covid).”
Half a million was smack dab in the middle of what the auction house thought it’d fetch but is hundreds of thousands off the Apple 1 sales record of $905,000 in 2014.
“The plate is self-explanatory, Catuara ends his post.
“The frame is the official name given to my computer when it sold.”
The top of the frame reads “Chaffey College” and the bottom reads “Apple 1 Computer.”
The Chaffey College Apple 1 Computer was bought by a collector in Germany, where it is today.
