This Does Not Compute: Steve Jobs’ Signed Apple Business Card Sells for $181,183
An autographed 1983 business card from when Jobs was Apple’s Chairman of the Board shocks at auction, selling for 18 times its $10,000 presale estimate.
There’s no doubt about it: Steve Jobs remains the “Apple” of the tech collector’s eye. That was made clear once again during a recent sale by Boston-based RR Auction titled “Steve Jobs and the Apple Computer Revolution."
First, a Steve Jobs autographed 1983 business card with the rainbow version of Apple’s byte logo, sold for $181,183, crushing its modest $10,000 estimate during the March 21 event. And then a Wells Fargo check from 1976 to Elmar Electronics predates Apple’s official founding and likely funded Apple-1 prototypes, went for $176,850, more than triple its estimate.
“The sale of the Steve Jobs-signed Apple business card for over $180,000 sets a new standard in autographed business cards,” said Bobby Livingston, an executive vice president at RR Auction. “It’s a testament to the enduring legacy of Jobs and the profound impact of Apple on our modern world.”
Other lots with Jobs’s John Hancock included a Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ticket stub ($14,653), a $200 check to Pacific Telephone that used his Palo Alto garage as his address ($66,069), and a job offer to Caroline Rose, who served the company for 15 years as a writer and editor ($17,706). Above her signature, the letter reads, “I accept this insanely great offer !!!”— “insanely great” being a celebrated Jobs expression.
Besides items touched directly by Jobs, the auction featured lots that told the story of how Apple became America’s most valuable company. Chief among these was a fully functional Apple-1 board signed by co-founder Steve Wozniak. Tagged as computer number 100, the personal computer was one of the first that didn’t require the end user to solder. It sold for $323,789.
And if you thought new Apple iPhones are expensive, brace yourself for sticker shock of old ones. A rare, first generation sealed 4GB iPhone hammered at $147,286, while a sealed 8G first generation sold for $25,000. How do you like those apples?
