20 Landmark dates for tech collectors. Part 1: 1784 to 1972

This week a humble looking Apple computer was auctioned for over half-a-million dollars.

It was a very special machine, one of the earliest ever made, and looking a million miles away from the current sleek machines.

A board from the Romkey Apple-1 that sold this month. It was assembled in a garage and sold to specialist users - now these machines rule the world. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.

Making the Romkey Apple-1 the star item in their big History of Science and Technology sale in Geek Week shows Sotheby’s know there’s a big market for what to some of us are still new-fangled breakthroughs.

And it will only grow.

Why?

First of all, the top end of any collecting market is dominated by the tastes of the very wealthy.

We can see this from ancient Rome through the Italian Renaissance the Grand Touring British nobility and beyond.

Today’s very wealthy include a big helping of tech innovators.

The Paul G Allen Collection auction is the most valuable in history. Image courtesy of Christie's.

In 2024 Christie’s held the most valuable single-night auction in history. It came from the collection of Paul G Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft.

Mr Allen’s huge collections included lots of traditional art. He also indulged his passion for rock ‘n’ roll by buying Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat for $2 million in 1997.

But the sale was topped off with a major selection of computers.

The top item was an Apple LISA from 1983 that sailed beyond a $30,000 top estimate to make nearly $900,000.

Those who have grown rich from the tech industry are going to want to celebrate it, so you can expect pioneering machines to continue to grow in growth.

Secondly, we all have a stake in this.

I remember action figures from my childhood.

A youngster growing up now is more likely to recall a games console or cartridge. In time, collectors will have to (and are starting to) confront how to preserve things that only have a digital life.

Later in life, perhaps flush with money from their AI wrangling job, those grown-up kids might want to recall their childhood joy by rebuilding a collection around those games.

Everything is always the same

Collecting markets rely on unpredictability - the rare survival, the unusual error product.

While also being very predictable.

(We like a paradox here.)

Tech is an almost ideal collecting product.

It’s now so all-encompassing in our lives that you should expect it to follow the patterns of previous innovations like cars, printed books, guitars, cinema, pop music and so on.

Value will be determined by innovation (firsts always go well), quality, rarity, condition, desirability (so a less rare Apple that everyone remembers might be worth more than an obscure machine that was more important technically).

So far, only Steve Jobs has really stood out as a personality in the modern tech world.

We record his autograph at rising by as much as 832% in a single year from 2017 to 2018 (albeit for a very special document).

Others will undoubtedly follow: Elon Musk seems the most likely candidate, though there are other well-known names to keep an eye out for if you’re collecting with future value in mind.

To help you navigate the tech collecting world, here’s a quick list of dates to shop around, with some values at auction as the raw data.

20 dates for tech collectors. Part 1: 20 - 11

1784 - Johann Helfrich von Muller makes the first adding machine.

These calculators are rather beautiful but very unlikely to come to market. Von Muller’s papers can be valuable. A letter accusing him of stealing the idea for the machine is listed online for around $5,000, while a (good, first-edition) copy of his own book on the project can cost around $50,000.

A Muller calculator housed in a German museum. What a lovely machine it is.

June 14, 1822 - Charles Babbage announces the first Difference Engine

Babbage’s popular reputation as “the father of the computer” makes him highly collectible. Autographed letters make hundreds of pounds at auction and important documents 10s of thousands. His machines - the Difference Engine - were never made in his lifetime, but one his son attempted (and failed) to complete sold for nearly £200,000 in 1995.

1842 - 1843 - Ada Lovelace proposes the first algorithm

Ada Lovelace’s role in the history of computing is not completely clear, but her work on calculating and calculating machines are sometimes described as the first computer programme. A copy of the translation and notes by her sold for £95,000 in 2018.

A photograph of Ada Lovelace, whose interest in pioneering science extended to these very early photographic portraits.

1890 - Herman Hollerith’s punch-card system is used for the United States Census.

Herman Hollerith’s breakthroughs later went on to become the bedrock on which IBM was founded. His use of punched cards for machine sorting were a big win in data processing. His machines were generally built for big organisations and don’t look very like a modern computer. They can be found listed online for as little as $5,000 and up to $10,000.

1936 - Alan Turing’s On Computable Numbers is published.

Turing is perhaps the most recognisable figure in mid-century computer breakthroughs. This 1936 paper creates the idea of the modern computer - a machine that can work anything out. Turing is a hugely collectible figure. In June 2025, a trove of his papers was sold for £465,000. A copy of this paper made over £200,000.

1941 - Konrad Zuse’s Z3

Zuse was working in Nazi Germany in support of the Nazi war effort and his innovative machines were used to make guided missiles that landed on European cities. But, his Z3 is credited as the first digital computer. After the war he continued to work on computers in an idiosyncratic, individual way. Zuse is not highly collectible - the original Z3 was destroyed by Allied bombing of Berlin. His paintings - he took up the hobby after retirement - are sold, sometimes for thousands of pounds, and his autograph can be found listed for hundreds of dollars.

A Colossus machine at Bletchley Park. Both sides in World War II made breakthroughs in computing as they battled for an advantage.

December 1943 - Colossus computer is developed at Bletchley Park code-breaking operation

The Bletchley Park code-breaking operation, in which Alan Turning was a key player, is one of the best-known high-tech operations in military history. The series of Colossus machines that were developed over these years were vital. It is probably the first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Alan Turing's work contributed to Colossus, but he didn't design it himself. Much potentially collectible material around this project is in official collections, including at the museum now on the site, but there is a lively, profitable trade in the Enigma machines that were decoded there. They routinely auction for hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the record is currently a £630,000 price achieved in 2019.

1947 - William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain invent the transistor at Bell Laboratories

This removes the need for vacuum tubes from switches and makes smaller, solid-state switches possible. Early transistor products can be very collectible. A particular favourite is the US-made TR-1 transistor radio. These 1954 machines can claim to have made quite an impact on popular culture and commonly make hundreds of dollars on auction sites.

1958 - Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invent the computer chip, or integrated circuit

Another important step on the way to smaller, faster computers. Early chips have been listed for auction but have failed to sell. One was listed in 2014 with a $1 to $2 million estimate but was withdrawn when the top bid failed to clear $900,000. A prototype was auctioned with a $400,000 low estimate in 2017, but also failed to sell. 

An Englebart mouse that recently made nearly $50,000. Image courtesy of RR Auctions.

1968 - Douglas Englebart’s computer

Most striking to modern eyes in Englebart’s prototype is the mouse and a graphical user interface (the monitor we all use today). These access tools will eventually take the computer out of engineering departments and labs and into homes. A visionary step.

Early examples or mouses (mice?) sell for big money. Just a few days ago, in July 2025, one made nearly $50,000 at auction. A prototype made just shy of $180,000 in 2023.

September 1972 - Magnavox Odyssey released

Enter the gamers. There’s now a huge focus on gaming in collecting, and this is the root of all that. The Odyssey was rudimentary of course: you plugged it into a TV where it could show three dots and a line on the screen, suitable for playing simple tennis simulators. But it opened the door to home computer games.

Unless you have prototypes or otherwise special machines you might find these gaming pioneers good value. They can be found selling for a few hundred pounds online.