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Check out his wiki signature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

Steve_Jobs_signature.svg
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its not very close
 
Wirelessly posted (This odd thing that I hold: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Re signatures: My CEO has at least 3 different signatures - a personal one
(private); a company signature; and a public signature for autographs. All 3 are very different.

He told me he was advised to do so by a security expert. You can probably see why. Thus I expect Jobs and other public figures might follow similar practices.
 
I can totally attest to Steve not liking to do autographs. Back a long time ago when I was in high school, I attempted to create the world's largest autograph collection (I lost interest as soon as I got into college), and one of the folks I requested an autograph from was Steve Jobs.

I got a nastygram back from one of his secretaries.

/Bill Gates obliged, though.

You think that's a nasty gram??
 
A lot of people did apparently. Last I saw it was just shy of $26 000 and that was about 20 minutes before I noticed the listing was taken down.

I looked at the list of bidders about an hour before it was taken down and a lot of them just had 1 or 2 feedback, but there was a guy with 76 feedback who bid about $20k :eek:
 
Hello. I thought I would join up and try dispel any rumors about this item, as I was the individual who listed it (yes, it's me... Hi!). There were several ideas as to why listing was ended and things basically froze. Some said because I received outside offers (which isn't entirely untrue, but that is not the reason), others said it was all a hoax, and heck, I even heard there were people claiming to be me and giving "their" side of the story. To keep it brief, individual(s) were able to obtain my information and the whereabouts of the item, and understanding that it was quite valuable, attempted to sabotage and "steal it" so to speak. We didn't want bidders, the auction or the item to become in jeopardy, so we froze things and action was taken. Ebay and the local authorities were contacted. The matter is under investigation, but at the recommendation of Ebay, the item was moved to a safety deposit box in an undisclosed location, which makes sense. This auction required constant babysitting. I received an average of 40-50+ msgs a day; some where legitimate questions and shipping quote requests, others mere praise for how cool the item was, and a few were people telling me to basically eat ***** and die for thinking this thing was worth any kind of money...but that's besides the point, they are entitled to their opinion. Because it is now nearing the holidays and vacation time, and understanding that this auction will need constant attention as it is now somewhat "high profile", I have opted to take time off to be with my family and de-stress. After some time off, the auction will resume in the new year (sometime in January).

As cheezy as this sounds, I was most concerned about the bidders being left in the dark about the item. I want them to know that it's still around, it is safe, and that I am committed to carrying out a secure auction. I will be discrete about who shows interest, and I will not reveal where the item ends up if purchased. I hope bidders will have the same level of confidence in me when it is relisted. I want to apologize to the bidders, I do appreciate ever bidder that showed interest, regardless of what their bid level was. I don't take the auction lightly.... as the bids have told me, this was serious.

To be candid, I literally had no idea this thing would bring so much attention and do as well as it was doing. I would have been happy to get my $995 starting bid....so needless to say, when I heard that it had passed $25k, and was nearing the $30k mark with no signs of slowing down, I almost threw up lol. Up until now, the few lists I've had have been comparatively... well ....tiny, but I was still proud of ever one of them and made sure that every transaction was a pleasant one. Thanks for listening. :)

Stay tuned.
 
I don't know man .. how should you get COA on an item that has Jobs' signature given on some casual occasion? It was not meant for sale or commercial purpose.

So .. please enlighten me, how can you get a COA for that kind of stuff? Call Mr Jobs again just to make a statement that it was indeed his signature?

If I happen to meet Steve Woz on my way home, I chatted around and asked for his signature, then I want to sell it years later, should I contact Woz again to warrant a statement and get myself a COA?
 
^ An amusing, yet valid question I suppose....if you really aren't aware how COAs work, here's how: The same rules apply with any autographed piece. For example: Keith Richards is signing posters and guitars after a show. With that said, he isn't going to also be hading out letters stating "hi, I'm Keith. This is my signature...and it's 100% authentic". That just doesn't make sense.

That's why we have "autograph authenticators". Their job is to study a piece, compare it to other similar examples, and make a judgment based on their educated opinion.

It makes sense after all. How else would any autographed piece ever be authenticated?? If the individual who signed the piece also signed and issued a COA, you would still need an educated authenticator to see if the COA signature is also authentic....follow me??

And thank you gkarris for suggesting Christies. I have been talking to a few parties, and there is definite interest in the item. An ebay spokesman said that they still would a stab at representing the item, and are currently looking at what is the best way to do so.
 
Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Another follower addressing doubters put it most eloquently: "over 60 educated, affluent bidders, all of whom have the means to access a professional second opinion, would disagree". The auction started small, I didn't expect it to go crazy, hence why the listing was a little sparse. Heck, I didn't even spring for the $.35 "gallery plus", bold titles or any fancy add-ons lol. I can't really say much more about it. Obviously as the auction went on, a few individuals contacted me for documentation to add provenance. Their demands were pleasantly met.

I'm normally an "I call BS" kind of guy, so I understand that doubters will doubt.....after all, we didn't land on the moon, right?

Side note: This matter aside, I really like this forum and am glad I found it. Just the right mix of advice, tech facts, and banter to keep you entertained.
 
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I don't know man .. how should you get COA on an item that has Jobs' signature given on some casual occasion? It was not meant for sale or commercial purpose.

So .. please enlighten me, how can you get a COA for that kind of stuff? Call Mr Jobs again just to make a statement that it was indeed his signature?

If I happen to meet Steve Woz on my way home, I chatted around and asked for his signature, then I want to sell it years later, should I contact Woz again to warrant a statement and get myself a COA?

The best "COA" for me would be an HD picture of both persons and the item signed on the same picture so it can be compared to the item at the moment of the sell. You can also get an expert to certify the signature to add more security to it.
 
Look at that signature, every signature I've ever seen is a sloppy mess, mine is just a wavy line, this is like textbook cursive...

Also notice that the forger waited until Christmas time after his death, so Steve himself can't shoot down this stupid story, and that way they can say they were selling it for presents.

The fact that the seller isn't having a signature verifier (Can't think of the right word, sorry.) certify this signaute is telling of it's authencity, the price it would cost would be made back easily. if it was a legit sale, the seller would've already done that.

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I don't know man .. how should you get COA on an item that has Jobs' signature given on some casual occasion? It was not meant for sale or commercial purpose.

So .. please enlighten me, how can you get a COA for that kind of stuff? Call Mr Jobs again just to make a statement that it was indeed his signature?

If I happen to meet Steve Woz on my way home, I chatted around and asked for his signature, then I want to sell it years later, should I contact Woz again to warrant a statement and get myself a COA?

I would say I didn't do it, just because of the doucheness.
 
Anyone who knows how Steve was knows he would have never said what was implied in the story. Nor would he have chosen to sign with "steve" over "steven"
 
To my knowledge, Steve usually signed "Steven" on documents (not always, but most of the time). There are plenty of examples of him signing "Steve". I can especially understand him doing this on a surface that isn't overly big, but I can only speculate, as he is obviously can't be asked and I'm not an expert.

And a "signature verifier" is normally called an Authenticator. I had an authenticator in my region look at it of course (he was comfortable issuing a COA), but I understand that there may be better qualified individuals that bidders trust. In those cases what they would do (and were doing) was bring HQ pics of the signature to someone they trust, for them to make a judgment. Even with a COA from a seller, you have to ask yourself "do I trust this COA??" if the answer is NO, then always get a second opinion. Also, some are saying "for the kind of money you were asking, you should have ________ <insert suggestion here here". Keep in mind, I wasn't asking anywhere near where the bid ended up. My starting bid wasn't even a thousands bucks.

And to marcusj0015, seriously...when is the "right time to sell"??? I was a Steve fan too, and with his untimely passing, should items like this never be sold?? Whether it is this x-mas, this summer, 10 years from now, unfortunately Steve won't be with us, so this changes nothing.

Im right here guys, you don't need to speculate....I'll address uncertainties. Maybe read my posts and your questions will be answered??
 
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