Apple Check Signed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak Sells for 4,800× Its Original Value

[CarAnalogy]

Despite the headline, I think the fact that it was signed by both Steves helped elevate its value.

Exactly, thank you. Came here to say this. Headline should be changed, it’s mildly insulting and misleading to leave him out.

 

[Philsy]

And all the young people reading this are saying “What’s a check?” (Or cheque for those of us in the UK) 😊

 

[Fallforward]

The story has a link to the auction site with a view of the back of check signed by Howard V Cantin and deposited at Bank of America. The check would have been returend to Wells Fargo and then to whoever managed the checkbook, probably Steve or Woz.

Adjusted for inflation, the March 1976 value is roughly $2,900 and bought for 828 times it's adjusted value.

 

[lovehateapple]

I think it would be kind of cool if apple started buying historical stuff like this and then put them on display in a museum at apple park. Maybe that is the case here?

 

[1037]

Looks like money laundering.

 

[KENESS]

Ah I see - so you'd keep the cheque afterwards in those days? When I used the handful of cheques I did early on you'd lose it when you cashed it in.

Thanks for the reminder of how old I am. 🙂

Back at this time, and I think even all the way into the 90's and probably close to 2000 in some instances, the bank sent ALL your deposited checks back to you every month. So you always got them back.

The sheer amount of paperwork and handling that used to go on for checks is insane by modern expectations...

 

[whitby]

It was interesting and sad that the heading for this article included Steve Jobs' name but not Steve Wozniak's name, who also signed the check. It must be sad to be sidelined by history (even though Wozniak is mentioned in the article) and a reflection of the fact that we should be careful to check historical records carefully.

 

[darkblu]

2.4 million. Pffft. I spend that much on aftershave.

May I suggest epilation?

 

[Joe Rossignol]

Exactly, thank you. Came here to say this. Headline should be changed, it’s mildly insulting and misleading to leave him out.

I added Steve Wozniak to the title now.

cc: @IronTek and @whitby

 

[riverguide]

1 December 2028.
RR Auction has announced that a personal check signed by the company's recently retired CEO Timothy Cook fetched a woeful $100 at auction this week. The check was for $1 million issued in late December of 2024 to the presidential inauguration committee, meaning that it sold for 1,000x less than its original value.

 

[coolfactor]

Yeah. I follow a lot of foster cat homes and they’re always asking for money to help with cat vet bills. Yet these people want to deify a guy who wrote a check for $500. It’s sad. 😢

People like Steve Jobs are a very rare breed. They can see beyond the realm of what the rest of us can see.

I agree that this seems like a waste of money in a world where many of us are struggling financially. However, we don't know what the money will be used for. It could get donated to worthy causes. We can choose to be hopeful, rather than cynical.

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

I don't want to sound complaining but, honestly, there are much better ways to spend 2.4 million dollars.

 

[tyranne201]

Another proof that there is too much disposable income sloshing around in a very small sector of the population.

yeah I mean. just a piece of paper to make people nostalgic about something that doesn't exist anymore.

 

[Crowbot]

Jobs famously never autographed, but Woz will sign anything put in front of him.

I still have my "Woz" Apple //gs. 🙂

 

[tgwaste]

You would think that Apple itself would want to buy this.

 

[dannys1]

Thanks for the reminder of how old I am. 🙂

Back at this time, and I think even all the way into the 90's and probably close to 2000 in some instances, the bank sent ALL your deposited checks back to you every month. So you always got them back.

The sheer amount of paperwork and handling that used to go on for checks is insane by modern expectations...

Wow crazy - they never did that in the UK. They just took them off you. I remember there was a ticket stub where you tore the cheque off that was supposed to give you a reminder of what you'd paid and to who.

 

[Fallforward]

Wow crazy - they never did that in the UK. They just took them off you. I remember there was a ticket stub where you tore the cheque off that was supposed to give you a reminder of what you'd paid and to who.

Perhaps you are not old enough. They returned cheques up to about 1985 when it started to fade. By 1995 it was dead. The US check payment system lagged the UK by 10-15 years.

I remember the IBM 3890s that could sort 30-40 per second. Just a blur. In San Francisco and LA the California big 5 banks had centralized sorting/data centers and meeting places where armored trucks would meet several times each night to trade checks. Some companies back then would pay bills from tiny banks in remote eastern time zone banks to increase their float. 😄

The rest of EU had giros, a very different system. The UK had a small giro system, too.

 

[Zenman12]

People like Steve Jobs are a very rare breed. They can see beyond the realm of what the rest of us can see.

I agree that this seems like a waste of money in a world where many of us are struggling financially. However, we don't know what the money will be used for. It could get donated to worthy causes. We can choose to be hopeful, rather than cynical.

It’s a check that he wrote bro.

 

[SanderEvers]

4800x... that is a lot of inflation.


Using an online inflation calculator it should've been around $2,829.02 now.

 

[svish]

Not at all surprising. Any collectors item will definitely fetch huge amounts at auction.

 

[zenmacx]

In a couple of documentaries I’ve seen, it was implied that Woz did the layout.

Woz contributed more to the success of the company than many give him credit for.

 

[sbuntin]

Ah I see - so you'd keep the cheque afterwards in those days? When I used the handful of cheques I did early on you'd lose it when you cashed it in.

No. You give it to the bank, they give you money, they send the check back to the person that wrote the check. So this was sent back to Steve or Steve.

 

[KilgoreTully]

If I were at an acquaintance's house and they showed this off, I'd ask if it was written to their dad or something. If they admitted they paid any amount of money for it I'd lose respect for them. If they bragged about spending millions on it I would immediately leave and never talk to them again.

Who the **** cares. Who the **** thinks owning this is more impressive than giving the same amount of money directly to feeding the hungry or paying off cancer bills.

Keep that ball your favorite athlete signed for you as a kid, sure. Spend a few hundred getting a custom lightsaber, whatever. Marvel at being in the same museum room as the first Mac, fine.

Spend money to add a ****ing used check to your personal collection, writhe in shame after being kicked somewhere sensitive.

 

[MacMan988]

cheque?

 

[bgillander]

If that $500 was invested in the S&P 500 and dividends reinvested, it would be worth about $125,000 today. If you adjust for inflation it's worth only about $22,000 in 1976 dollars.

If it was invested in AAPL in 1980 with the IPO, it would be worth about $1.5 million with dividends reinvested (which means the check outpaced AAPL performance).

If instead of $500 it was a hypothetical stake in Apple when it was founded in 1976, it could be worth hundreds of billions.

It was more than a hypothetical stake in Apple when it was founded, as it was Apple’s payment for the creation of the main part of Apple’s first product, which eventually led to the Apple we know now.

If this $500 was instead spent on some hypothetical investment in Apple, there would be no Apple I and hence no Apple.

This $500 was spent exactly the way it was needed to be spent. (…at least to get us to exactly where we are now on this forum.)