Skip to main content

Own a piece of Apple history with this Blue Box auction

A piece of Apple history is going on sale at Bonhams auction house this week, with the offer of a first iteration Blue Box circuit board made by the co-founders of Apple themselves, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, in the 1970s.

The auction house says the Blue Box was purchased directly from Steve Wozniak in 1972. “Blue Box, 1972. An original first iteration ‘blue box’ populated circuit board made by Steve Wozniak and marketed by Steve Jobs and Wozniak, 51 x 72 mm, with speaker wire and 9volt battery connector,” the item’s description reads. “Provenance: Purchased directly from Steve Wozniak by the consignor in Autumn 1972 during a drive together from Sunnyvale to Los Angeles.”

Recommended Videos

Blue boxes were devices used primarily in the 1960s and 1970s as some of the earliest hacking tools. These devices generated tones that were used by phone operators, so by holding the blue box’s speaker up to a phone receiver, the user could trick the phone operators into providing things like free long-distance calls.

These devices were an early interest of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who worked on and with the devices throughout the early 1970s. The pair said that working on blue boxes helped teach them codes and tricks for working with computers, and were a direct influence on their work that would become the Apple company. In fact, Steve Jobs famously told his biographer Walter Isaacson that without Wozniak and his blue boxes, “there wouldn’t have been an Apple.”

The legend goes that Wozniak designed the boxes and Jobs came up with the idea to sell them after the pair became interested in not only using the devices but also building them. After a close call with the police, they gave up on the blue box project and moved onto other projects, including the eventual formation of Apple.

Bonhams is currently accepting bids on the item for between $4,000 and $6,000, but it’s sure to generate considerable interest among Apple fans and historians so the price may well escalate rapidly. The auction closes on Thursday, November 5 at 10:00 PT, so if you want to grab this piece of Apple history then you can head to the bid page.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Steve Jobs’ 1973 job application is now in an unusual auction
Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone in 2007.

Even giants of the tech world had to start somewhere, evidenced by a job application (below) filled out by the late Apple chief Steve Jobs in 1973 at the tender age of 18.

The one-page document is currently in an auction that closes on Wednesday, July 28, with moneyed fans of the tech giant expected to bid big bucks for the unique artifact.

Read more
Someone just bid a whopping $4M for a seat on Blue Origin rocket ride
episode 273 blueorigin newshepard launch

Blue Origin will soon launch its first-ever space tourism rocket trip. Inside a capsule atop its New Shepard booster will be none other than Amazon founder and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, along with his brother, Mark, and the person who bids the most in an online auction this weekend.

This seat will change how you see the world.

Read more
Blue Origin auction sees huge new bid for first rocket ride
Blue Origin's reusable New Shepard rocket lifting off.

A mystery bidder has just offered $3.5 million for a seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed rocket ride on July 20.

Bid for the very first seat on New Shepard

Read more