Apple Computer Check Signed by Steve Jobs Expected to Fetch More Than $25,000 at Auction

[MacRumors]

Steve Jobs memorabilia and remnants from Apple's early days tend to fetch high prices from collectors, and a check to RadioShack signed by Jobs is no exception. Up for auction this week, the check is expected to fetch more than $25,000.

The check, which is from Apple Computer Company, was filled out by Jobs on July 23, 1976. It is made out for $4.01 and signed "Steven Jobs." The address on the check is the answering service and mail drop off point that Steve Jobs used while Apple was being run out of his parents' garage.

A fascinating check related to one of the great unsung heroes of the early computer boom: RadioShack. The biggest tech innovations of the 20th century are all, in varying degrees, indebted to the Boston-based electronics store. Steve Wozniak, who spent hours roaming the aisles of RadioShack as a teenager, saved up enough money to purchase their pioneering TRS-80 Micro Computer System, which he used to build his notorious 'blue box,' an illegal device that could make free long-distance phone calls. The 'blue box' cemented the first business partnership between Wozniak and Jobs, a duo that managed to make and sell roughly 200 of the boxes for $150 each. Jobs later told his biographer that if it had not been for Wozniak's blue boxes, 'there wouldn't have been an Apple.' In other words: there wouldn't have been an Apple if it had not been for RadioShack.

When the check was written, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were working on the Apple-1 computer. 50 of the machines were manufactured and sold to The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, and approximately 200 Apple-1 computers were made in all.

At the time of writing, there have been 21 bids on the check, and the total is up to $22,444. The auction ends on December 6.

Article Link: Apple Computer Check Signed by Steve Jobs Expected to Fetch More Than $25,000 at Auction

 

[Legend of Ive]

If you use the account the number on the check, you can fetch all of Apple's 200 billion cash pile

 

[kukheart]

Why is he using a small j for Jobs?.... I love the guy.... but that's just weird.....

 

[mrat93]

A sealed original iPhone sold at auction for $190k recently. By comparison, shouldn’t something like this be worth way more? Am I missing something?

 

[zachz]

Why is he using a small j for Jobs?.... I love the guy.... but that's just weird.....

he used the small "s" too

 

[EightBitJoe]

The claim that Woz used a TRS-80 to help him build the blue box doesn’t gibe with history. The TRS-80 Model I came out the same year as the Apple II, well after the blue box adventure was over.

 

[jhonney1324]

wow i cant wait to spent 25000 dollars for 4 dollars

 

[maxfromdenmark]

I want buy a check made out for 25000$ and I’ll pay 4$. Anyone?

 

[Unity451]

If you use the account the number on the check, you can fetch all of Apple's 200 billion cash pile

...or deposit in it. But you can already do that at your friendly, neighborhood Apple Store.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Love it. Every single thing about this check is classic.

 

[Shirasaki]

Ah RadioShack.

I was not born in US but I can resonate with the sentiment, since in where I live similar stores did exist, albeit in a far smaller scale.

As for this cheque, uhh, ok, many many people definitely have more disposable income than sense.

 

[macduke]

there wouldn't have been an Apple if it had not been for RadioShack

There was nothing particularly special about Radio Shack. They were a parts vendor. Do they really think that if Radio Shack hadn't cornered the market, there wouldn't have been any alternatives available?

 

[KaliYoni]

Even though there probably isn't any way to know, it would be interesting to find out how Jobs and/or Woz chose that check pattern. Did they go with the free one? Or did the person who handled opening the account actually like the design? The faux-currency look doesn't jibe too well with Job's love of minimalism...

 

[WestonHarvey1]

TRS-80? What?

 

[Morky]

There was no TRS-80 in 1976, or any consumer PC you could buy other than an Altair.

 

[klasma]

Why is he using a small j for Jobs?.... I love the guy.... but that's just weird.....

He anticipated the trend of people not using their shift key anymore 40 years ahead of time. What a visionary!

 

[klasma]

wow i cant wait to spent 25000 dollars for 4 dollars

You have to adjust for inflation.

 

[toobravetosave]

A sealed original iPhone sold at auction for $190k recently. By comparison, shouldn’t something like this be worth way more? Am I missing something?

it should be worth nothing lmao

 

[klasma]

So… nobody was able to find out what you could buy for $4.01 at Radio Shack in 1976?

 

[PlainBelliedSneetch]

He anticipated the trend of people not using their shift key anymore 45 years ahead of time. What a visionary!

Apple IIs didn’t have a shift key.

edit: I misremembered the situation. They had the key, it just didn’t work as expected. You had to modify the computer.

https://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardware/io/II_II-Shift-Key_Modification.pdf

 

[klasma]

It’s funny that the number at the bottom right also shows 401.

 

[klasma]

Apple IIs didn’t have a shift key.

Even more visionary then!

 

[boss.king]

I can't imaging going through the hassle of writing a cheque for four dollars.

 

[PlainBelliedSneetch]

It’s funny that the number at the bottom right also shows 401.

I think that gets added when the check is processed by the banking system.

 

[GeoStructural]

wow i cant wait to spent 25000 dollars for 4 dollars

I will never understand why someone would pay for something like that, unless it is for some money laundering scheme.