An 11×14 inch piece of green plastic with an array of memory chips capable of eight kilobytes of memory and a small bundle of wires is expected to fetch at least $500,000 at auction at Christie's auction House next week.

For many years, it was exactly this type of junk that was tossed into a pile or stowed away in a junkbox and forgotten, still around long after its usefulness had expired and it had been replaced by more powerful and sleek models. Or in many cases found its way to the trashcan.

But, this month at Christie’s Auction House, this barebones predecessor to MacBooks, IPads and IPhones will start bidding at $300,000 and is expected to go way beyond that starting point. Last month, a similar Apple 1 sold for a reccord $671,400 in a German action house.

This particular computer, the Apple 1, one of the first ones ever built in 1976 belongs to Ted Perry a retired school psychologist. He traded some other computer equipment for the relic years ago and it has been stashed away in a cardboard box ever since. The motherboard is one of the first 25 made. The were about 200 made but it is estimated that only 30 to 50 remain in existance.

Apple 1 computers were designed and sold by two college dropouts, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Christies hired an expert to come to Perry’s home to test the old computer. While all the other items connected to the motherboard were added later, the motherboard was original. They turned it on and it worked.