Steve Jobs $4.01 check to RadioShack sold for $46,063 at auction
Steve Jobs went shopping at RadioShack in 1976, spending a whopping $4.01 via a signed check -- and that check has blown away expectations, hitting $46,063 at auction.
A check signed by Steve Jobs (Courtesy: RR Auction)
RR Auction held its Fine Autograph and Artifacts auction from November 17 to December 6. It featured a Science and Technology sale with a signed check from Steve Jobs.
The check was expected to fetch around $25,000, but ended up closing at $46,063. The check was written for $4.01 for a purchase at RadioShack on July 23, 1976.
RadioShack played an important part in the pre-Apple days, as co-founder Steve Wozniak bought the TRS-80 Micro Computer System at the retailer, which he then used to build his "blue box" to make long-distance calls for free. In the early days of the partnership between Wozniak and Jobs, the pair made and sold around 200 of the boxes for about $150 apiece.
The check was written just four months after Apple was founded, showing how RadioShack remained an important resource even as Apple began.
In May, another auction for an Apple check signed by Jobs from July 1976 also went up for auction. However, that check to pay Crampton, Remke, and Miller, Inc $175 eventually sold for $106,985.
Apple memorabilia constantly shows up for auction and fetches lavishly high prices. A sealed first-generation iPhone fetched $10,456 at the same auction.
Read on AppleInsider
A check signed by Steve Jobs (Courtesy: RR Auction)
RR Auction held its Fine Autograph and Artifacts auction from November 17 to December 6. It featured a Science and Technology sale with a signed check from Steve Jobs.
The check was expected to fetch around $25,000, but ended up closing at $46,063. The check was written for $4.01 for a purchase at RadioShack on July 23, 1976.
RadioShack played an important part in the pre-Apple days, as co-founder Steve Wozniak bought the TRS-80 Micro Computer System at the retailer, which he then used to build his "blue box" to make long-distance calls for free. In the early days of the partnership between Wozniak and Jobs, the pair made and sold around 200 of the boxes for about $150 apiece.
The check was written just four months after Apple was founded, showing how RadioShack remained an important resource even as Apple began.
In May, another auction for an Apple check signed by Jobs from July 1976 also went up for auction. However, that check to pay Crampton, Remke, and Miller, Inc $175 eventually sold for $106,985.
Apple memorabilia constantly shows up for auction and fetches lavishly high prices. A sealed first-generation iPhone fetched $10,456 at the same auction.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
For that matter, for all we know this check could be a fake. After all, faking a Seventies-era check is undoubtedly easier than faking a Federal Reserve Note just due to the fact that very few remember what the original check looked like. And the paper stock for checks wasn't as tightly controlled as the paper stock for currency. Probably easier to find some reams of old check paper.
Anyhow, I hope the winning bidder enjoys it.
Without seeing the back I assume it's a cancelled check returned to Apple Computer Company and somebody thought to save it. Maybe it was discovered or it was dug up out of old company records. There may be more out there. Maybe we'll see another in a year or two.
Too bad there's not more info on who sold the check. Who had permission to have the check and sell it.
It's not like Wells Fargo went out of their way to design a custom check for a band of scruffy geeks. They probably issued the same check to nearly all of their customers with the same paper. And in 1976 you couldn't upload a photo of your dog or kids from your phone to have a custom design printed.
Most likely whoever set up the checking account picked a design that was the cheapest, a standard issue check. The dry cleaner a block away from the bank probably used the same check design.
Steve Jobs had very modern aesthetic sensibilities, he never would have picked such an old school, stodgy design if he had free reign. In fact, this check design probably represents everything Steve and Apple Computer were against from a design perspective.
It was available to personal accounts as well, from at least 1971-72, best I recall. Why that particular design was picked by Apple Computer Company from others in the same price tier is anybody's guess. Price wouldn't have been the tie-breaker. Not when several other designs were were the same price.
When you ordered a box of checks you picked the check style (side stub or top stub) the number you wanted the sequence to start from and the design. WF may have had a Surprise Me option but I don't recall seeing it.
Wells Fargo has been around for a long time (going back to the stage coach era). My Mom worked for a bank that was taken over by Wells Fargo. I believe she worked on a tabulating machine back in the early 1950s.