A PRICEY GARAGE SALE

What would you pay for an Apple-1?

On Dec. 11, an Apple-1 computer that co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents' Los Altos garage in 1976 hits the auction block. Christie's auction officials expect the bidding to reach more than $500,000. The computer's original price tag: $600.

We imagine this news will send millions of Americans scurrying into the garage or spelunking in the basement for computerized treasures from the time when the primitive portable computers and monster-sized cellphones roamed the Earth.

Like most Americans, we harbor little nostalgia for electronic devices that we've tossed away when the next shiny device distracts us. Who lusts after, say, an ancient Radio Shack TRS-80 computer (affectionately known as the Trash 80 to a generation of reporters who endured its infuriating quirks) or one of those hulking videocassette recorders that begat DVRs that begat streaming video?

But, after spending a lifetime in front of a keyboard and a blinking screen — often blissfully — we can understand why the Henry Ford organization recently paid $905,000 at auction for another Apple-1. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., is a perfect place to stash an electronic fossil behind glass so visitors can goggle at the astonishing pace of change. The computer will be on display near the Your Place in Time exhibits, which holds such technological artifacts as a Weltron eight-track player from 1970, a Pong video game by Atari from 1975, a Sony Discman from 1985 and a Nintendo Game Boy and game cartridges from 1989.

Sorry, antique hunters, but none of those is likely to bring $500,000 at auction.

The Apple-1 will, because it helped create "the Big Bang moment" of personal computing, Andrew McVinish, Christie's director of decorative arts, tells us. It reminds us of something rare and precious: A moment when a couple of guys in a garage launched a new era with a bold idea and boundless enthusiasm.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE