A check filled out and signed by the late Steve Jobs is up for bid by Boston-based RRAuction. This historic artifact, dating back to July 23, 1976, marks an early financial transaction in the annals of Apple’s history, according to the auction house.
The check, bearing the iconic “Steven Jobs” signature, is payable to RadioShack for US$4.01. Dated during the summer of 1976, a mere four months after the founding of the Apple Computer Company, the check is linked to Apple’s first official address at “770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto.” At the time, this location served as an answering service and mail drop.
Here’s what RRAuction has to about the check: A fascinating check related to one of the great unsung heroes of the early computer boom: RadioShack. The biggest tech innovations of the 20th century are all, in varying degrees, indebted to the Boston-based electronics store. Steve Wozniak, who spent hours roaming the aisles of RadioShack as a teenager, saved up enough money to purchase their pioneering TRS-80 Micro Computer System, which he used to build his notorious’ blue box,’ an illegal device that could make free long-distance phone calls. The ‘blue box’ cemented the first business partnership between Wozniak and Jobs, a duo that managed to make and sell roughly 200 of the boxes for $150 each. Jobs later told his biographer that if it had not been for Wozniak’s blue boxes, ‘there wouldn’t have been an Apple.’ In other words: there wouldn’t have been an Apple if it had not been for RadioShack. A superb check signed by the innovative personal computing pioneer
Also up for bid is a sealed 8GB First Generation Apple iPhone and other items. The Fine Autograph and Artifacts featuring Science and Technology sale by RR Auction will conclude on December 6. For more information, visit www.rrauction.com.
