The payment was for just $4.01 and no-one’s really sure what it paid for. The cheque that paid for it is closing in on a $30,000 sale in an online sale. The reason? A very rare Steve Jobs signature from the early days of the Apple computer empire.
On July 23, 1976 Steve Jobs paid RadioShack $4.01.
Its likely that the electrical retailer played an important role in the development of Apple computers.
Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak used parts from RadioShack to build illicit phone-hacking boxes that helped to fund the early growth of what is now the world’s most valuable company.
Steve Jobs at highschool in 1972.
The date is important too. Jobs and Wozniak were in the throes of completing the Apple 1. The biggest innovation of the machine when it came to market was that it was a completed machine rather than a kit. It is possible that Jobs used this cheque – worth around $21 in 2023 dollars – to buy the kit that helped complete that transition.
Jobs wrote the cheque by hand and signed it. Something he was unwilling to do as he became a Silicon Valley celebrity.
His most famous autograph is the signed letter in which he declines to provide a signature for a fan. That sold for $479,939.
Cheques have also sold well. In May this year a cheque for $175 cheque raised $107,000. A cheque signed by both Jobs and Wozniak sold in July for $135,261.
The signed, dated cheque with Apple’s first address (a PO Box) is an important document in the history of our age.
With 12 hours before the sale closes, the price stands at $30,250.
