Product Description

In 2004 author Bob Luther noticed a tiny classified advertisement in the Washington Post newspaper, for a sheriff's sale. The sheriff was preparing to auction goods seized from a successful dot com entrepreneur who had fled the United State. Despite having sold his company for one hundred million dollars, he had failed to make payments on his private jet, which led to the seizure of his assets. The ad indicated the auction would include the first Segway ever built, and the first Apple computer ever sold. Luther had less then a week to do research, to figure out if the items were the real thing! The story takes you to the auction and then on a journey to find out the real story on this 38 year old machine. Friends and co-workers of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from the days of Apple being in the garage are interviewed and share their stories. The elusive machine, the Apple-1 is one of 200 built in the earliest days of Apple Computer. Today they are rare and highly sought after by collectors at auction worldwide. The book shares stories of those collectors. What starts off as a little story about an old and very outdated computer grows to include a historical account of the early days of what has become one of the worlds most successful and valuable companies. This book presents that beginning time on a very personal level, and with a cast of colorful characters.