News : Mac on auction block

In what may just be a perfect storm of technology geek gadget lust, an auction house in Southern California is preparing to auction off the first Apple Macintosh Plus ever made–a computer that was owned by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. The event promises to bring together two of the most famously devoted fan bases– Apple buyers and Trekkies.

Profiles in History, an auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia, will offer the aging Mac at an auction scheduled for Oct. 8-9. (For those keeping score at home, the device bears the serial number F4200NUM0001.)

The Macintosh Plus was launched in 1986 and featured a whopping 1 megabyte of RAM (today’s comparable desktop computers come loaded with a base 1 gigabyte of RAM — a 1,000 times more). It was the third model in the Mac line and cost $2,600, according to Wikipedia. The very first Mac Plus to roll off an Apple assembly line was presented to Roddenberry as a gift. He died in 1991.

The auction house said It has an estimated sale price of $800-$1200.

Also on the auction list is Michael Jackson’s white glove that he wore on the Victory Tour. One would expect a somewhat higher price for that cultural artifact.