In March 1976, Apple cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both signed a $500 check weeks before the official creation of a California company that would transform personal computing and become a global powerhouse.
Now that historic Wells Fargo check could be sold for $500,000 at an auction that ends on Jan. 29. The sale, run by RR Auction, includes some of Apple’s early items and childhood belongings of Jobs, Apple’s cofounder and chief executive, who died in 2011 at 56, after battling pancreatic cancer.
Since its founding, the Cupertino tech giant has attracted millions of fans who buy its laptops, smartphones, headphones and smart watches. The auction gives the adoring public a chance to own part of the company’s history ahead of Apple’s 50th anniversary in April.
“Without a doubt, check number one is the most important piece of paper in Apple’s history,” said Corey Cohen, a computer historian and Apple-1 expert, in a video about the item. At the time, Apple’s cofounders, he added, were “putting everything on the line.”
Cohen said he’s known of a governor, entrepreneurs, award-winning filmmakers and musicians who own rare Apple collectibles. Jobs is a “cult of personality,” and people collect items tied to the tech mogul.
“This is a very important collection that’s being sold because there are a lot of personal items, a lot of things that weren’t generally available to the public before, because these things are coming right out of Jobs’ home,” he said in an interview.
RR Auction said it couldn’t share the names of the consignors on the check and some of the other auction items.
As of Monday, bids on the check surpassed $200,000. Jobs typically didn’t sign autographs, so owning a document bearing his signature is rare.
Other items up for auction include Apple’s March 1976 Wells Fargo account statement — the company’s first financial document — and an Apple-1 computer prototype board used to validate Apple’s first computer.
The auction features a variety of memorabilia, including vintage Apple posters, Apple rainbow glasses, letters, magazines, older Apple computers, and other historic items.
Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some of Jobs’ personal items came from his stepbrother, John Chovanec, who had preserved them for decades.
The items provide “a rare view” into Jobs’ “private world and formative years outside Apple’s corporate narrative,” a news release about the auction said.
Jobs’ bedroom desk from his family’s Los Altos home, which housed a garage where Apple-1 computers were put together, is also up for sale.
Papers from Jobs’ years before Apple are inside the desk and the highest bid on that item has surpassed $44,000.
Bids on an Apple business card on which Jobs writes “Hi, I’m back” in black ink to his father reached more than $22,200. The card features Apple’s colorful logo alongside Jobs’ title as chairman, a role he returned to in 2011, according to the auction site.
Other items include 8-track tapes that featured music from artists such as Bob Dylan. Bids on a 1977 vintage poster featuring a red Apple that hung in Jobs family’s living room top $16,600, the auction site shows.
While Jobs is known for donning a black turtleneck, he also wore bow ties during high school and at Apple’s early events.
Some of Jobs’ bow ties have sold for thousands of dollars at other auctions.
Last year, a pink-and-green striped bow tiehe wore when introducing the Macintosh computer in 1984 sold for more than $35,000 at a Julien’s Auctions event that highlighted technology and history.
The items on RR Auction feature colorful clip-on bow ties from Jobs’ bedroom closet.
“This brief fashion phase contrasted sharply with the minimalist black turtleneck and jeans that would later define his public image,” a description of the item states. “The shift reflected Jobs’ evolution from an ambitious young innovator to a visionary with a distinct and enduring personal brand.”
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