Steve Jobs application going up for auction as both physical item and NFT

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A job application filled out by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is again headed to the auction block, this time both as a physical item and as a non-fungible token (NFT).

Credit: Apple
Credit: Apple


The rare piece of Apple memorabilia has been put up for auction in the past, both in 2018 and, most recently, earlier in 2021. This time around, however, a London entrepreneur is taking bids for an NFT version of the application for the first time.

The auction's organizer Olly Joshi will take bids for the physical Steve Jobs application through his website, which is based on an auction app named Snoofa. The NFT version of the application will be available through Rarible. Bidding starts July 21.

"The Steve Jobs hand-written 1973 job application auction aims to highlight the modern shift in perceived value -- the physical or the digital," Joshi said in a statement to CNET.

In addition to actually auctioning off the application, Joshi is also attempting to make a point about physical and digital goods. On the website, he's asking users to submit whether they believe the physical or NFT versions of the application will sell for more.

"Will this open a whole new market for decentralized collectibles? Will this cement the status-quo?" The website reads. "Or could we see a stalemate with a fresh understanding that both can coexist and even complement one another as we traverse the next 50 years of innovation?"

The actual physical item is a single sheet of paper filled out by Jobs himself in 1973, predating his time at Atari and the founding of Apple Computer with Steve Wozniak in 1976. The NFT version, however, will likely be the same document, just sold as a blockchain-based asset that acts as a token of ownership.

According to the auction website, a portion of the profits will be donated to the Cancer Research Center and One Laptop per Child.

Jobs' application last sold at auction for $222,400. It isn't clear if the NFT version will sell for more, but buzzy NFTs have sold for millions of dollars in the last year.

An NFT of the source code for the World Wide Web, for example, fetched $5.4 million in June.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    Let’s see what chump with too much money on his hands will splash out for this NFT.  The buy should look forward to pain and anguish as he watches others copy his precious NFT.  Get your popcorn out.
    DAalsethbaconstang
  • Reply 2 of 7
    sbdudesbdude Posts: 259member
    Unless it was digital to begin with, why would you want a digital "token" copy of an actual item?
    DAalsethwilliamhbaconstangdysamoriabyronl
  • Reply 3 of 7
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    He's selling the NFT and the physical copy separately?  Wtf kind of new insanity is this?
    baconstangdysamoriabyronl
  • Reply 4 of 7
    DogpersonDogperson Posts: 145member
    If they want to raise money for OLPC, make actual paper copies and sell them.....
  • Reply 5 of 7
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    I have a copy of original Mozart piano scores. Pretty nice. Under no circumstances would I have paid for them as if they were the originals though. They can be manufactured again and again, as can NFT’s. But the certificate is what’s making the difference. However virtual it is, that’s the whole idea behind NFT, right? To prove that it is genuine and legit, with a baked in ownership log? But the moment another copy is manufactured, it would be logical if the value dropped below half. I can understand supporting artists this way, but for collectible items, it’s a mere speculative broker business.
    dysamoria
  • Reply 6 of 7
    xbitxbit Posts: 390member
    JWSC said:
    Let’s see what chump with too much money on his hands will splash out for this NFT.  The buy should look forward to pain and anguish as he watches others copy his precious NFT.  Get your popcorn out.
    Chump? Money launderer, more like.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Somebody somewhere said “I envy software developers; what with being able to sell the same product over & over again with almost zero expenses... But I don’t want to make software. I want to be able to get money without actually doing any work!”

    Someone else said: “I wish everything could be arbitrarily valued in a gambling system like the stock market!”

    Someone else said: “I love the energy waste of bitcoin, and wish the wasteful stupidity could be brought to all markets!”

    And then NFT was born to “supply” all these “demands”.
    rbnetengr
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