An Apple-1 advertisement that was written by Steve Jobs recently sold for $175,759 at an auction hosted by RR Auction. The ad is a rough draft with specifications for the Apple-1 machine, along with information on the details that Jobs wanted to include.
"Board only + manual, $75. A real deal" reads a part of the advertisement that Jobs wrote out. Jobs' signature is included, and the address listed is his parents' house, which is where Apple started out.
The handwritten draft matches the original advertisement for the Apple-1, with the first ad published in the July 1976 edition of Interface Magazine. The ad is accompanied by two Polaroid photos of Apple-1 machines taken at The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California. Jobs annotated one of the images, noting that it was "fuzzy because camera wiggled."
The ad copy was put up for sale by a close friend of Steve Jobs that was present during the Apple-1's developmental phase. He was gifted the items as cherished keepsakes.
Separately, an operational Apple-1 Computer signed by Steve Wozniak sold for $223,520, and a 1976 Apple Computer check signed by Jobs and Wozniak sold for $135,261.
Top Rated Comments
“You’re holding it wrong.”
I’d throw in a bid!
But will it hold value? 100 years from now, no one will be alive who remembers Steve Jobs. Jobs will be a historic figure, not a memory. Does this make the paper more or less valuable? The paper is an investment, but not one without risk. It might go up by a factor of ten or could lose most of its value.
How much would you pay today for a memo written and signed by Herman Hollerith? Herman Hollerith was arguably even more important in the history of founding computer companies than was Steve Jobs. Herman Hollerith invented the very idea of modern computing, Job only took an existing idea and run with it.
In 200 years, Jobs and Hollerith might be seen as peers and known only to historians.
BTW, Herman Hollerith, invented the punched card and data processing in the 1880s and founded a company called "IBM". He got his "big break" by winning a contact from the US Government to process US Census data and recalculate congressional districts, among other things. I think this was the 1890 census, Then 90 years later in 1981 his company released the "IBM PC" and invented personal computing. Today's tower PCs still look like the old 1980s PC turned to stand on one side.
Enjoy that $175,759 piece of paper!