A recycling centre in Silicon Valley is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be a collectible item worth $US200,000 ($261,470).

Victor Gichun of Clean Bay Area says the woman dropped off boxes of electronics that she had cleaned out from her garage after her husband died.

A vintage 1976 Apple-1 computer.

It wasn't until a few weeks later that workers at the recycling centre opened the boxes to discover an Apple I (one) computer inside, one of only 200 or so vintage Apple computers made in the late Steve Jobs' garage in 1976.

Gichun sold the computer to a private collection, and he wants to split the proceeds with the mystery donor.

In October last year an Apple I sold for $US905,000 at auction.

AP and Fairfax Media