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Somebody Is Selling a Rare Working Version of One of Apple’s First Computers on Ebay

By
Jamie Ducharme
Jamie Ducharme
By
Jamie Ducharme
Jamie Ducharme
January 6, 2018, 12:15 PM ET
Ellen Nold
Ellen Nold, the manager for support programs for the Apple Link program at Apple Computer, in 1986. On her desk sits a Lisa, the first consumer-oriented personal computer to use a graphical user interface. Many of its features were incorporated into the Macintosh. (Photo by Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images) Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

You could be the proud owner of one of Apple’s earliest computers — if you have at least $55,000 to spare.

An eBay user is auctioning off a rare working Apple Lisa 1, which, when it hit the market in 1983, was the first commercial computer with a graphical user interface. Bids on the machine, which boasts a drive for Apple’s short-lived Twiggy floppy disks, will be accepted until Jan. 14, and had reached $55,100 by Saturday.

The Lisa 1, named for Steve Jobs’ daughter, was largely considered a flop for Jobs and Apple, according to a Wired retrospective. It cost the company $150 million to develop the model, but only 10,000 units — priced at $10,000 each — sold. The model was pulled from the market after only three years, Wired writes, and Jobs was eventually yanked from the project to focus on a new effort: the Macintosh.

“The Lisa was a milestone in history of the modern art [of] computers and is nowadays one of the rarest machines existing,” the eBay post reads. “Collectors guess between 20-100 are left on our planet.”

While the machine is probably best as a collector’s item, the eBay auctioneer assures buyers that the Lisa is in good working order, right down to its Twiggy drives.

“This Lisa 1 is optically and technically in excellent condition,” the post reads. “Both twiggy drives are working and spinning perfectly.”

About the Author
By Jamie Ducharme
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