What you need to know
- Historic pieces of technology and memorabilia connected to industry innovators recently sold at an auction.
- A Pong prototype, a piece of unissued Microsoft stock, and early mice concepts were among the items sold.
- Bidding closed at the end of last week, and the selling prices are now up on the RR Auction website.
Several historic pieces of technology and associated memorabilia were auctioned off recently. The collection included two mice owned by Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the mouse, and multiple items connected to Apple founder Steve Jobs. The auction also had an early Pong prototype, which brought in the most money for any single item.
Now that the auctions have closed, the bids have been finalized, and the dust has settled, we can take a look at what people spent on historic gadgets. Topping the list is a Pong 'Home Edition' prototype that sold for $270,910. Several pieces of Steve jobs memorabilia went for high amounts as well, including a check signed by Jobs and Steve Wozniak worth $163,923.
The winning bid for an unissued piece of Microsoft stock from 1990 was $1,305. For that price, the purchaser could have obtained more than four shares of actual Microsoft stock, but those wouldn't have the historic significance of the auctioned certificate.
The mice that were auctioned off were given to Bill Daul by Engelbart. While the inner works of the mice differ greatly from today's input devices, it's easy to see a resemblance between them and the best gaming mice of today.
You can check out the RR Auction website to see how much people spent on the other big-money items, including a computer manual worth over $42,000.
