Apple I computer sold by Steve Jobs from parents' garage up for auction at Christie's

NEW YORK (AFP).- An early Apple device sold by Steve Jobs from his parents' garage goes under the hammer in New York next month valued at $400,000-600,000 in an increasingly competitive computer relic market.

Christie's says the Apple-1 is the only surviving such computer documented to have been sold directly by the late Apple founder to a customer from the garage in Los Altos, California.

It goes on sale in New York on December 11, the auctions house said.

The Apple-1 is considered a vanguard of the personal computer revolution, being the first pre-assembled personal computer ever sold.

Christie's says its estimated value of $400,000 to $600,000 is the highest pre-sale estimate for an Apple-1 offered at auction.

Institutions have snapped up relics of computing history, making it rare for private collectors to acquire specimens on the market, and prices are rising.

Last month, auction house Bonhams sold for $905,000 in New York an Apple-1 built by Jobs's business partner Steve Wozniak.

Considered the world's most expensive computer relic, it was bought by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

In 2013, Christie's sold a 1976 Apple-1 for $387,750 and in 2010 another for 133,250 British pounds in London -- $212,267 at the time.