This $175 Steve Jobs check just sold for much more than you'd think

Check signed by Steve Jobs in 1976
(Image credit: RR Auction)

How much would you think that a $175 check would be worth? Now how much would it be worth if it was signed by Steve Jobs back in 1976?

Whatever number you're thinking of right now, we're willing to bet that it isn't as high as the number that someone just paid for it at auction. Because that number isn't just big, it's massive.

As of now, someone is the proud owner of that check having handed over a cool $106,985 for it.

That's a lot of money

The check itself was made out to Crampton, Remke & Miller, a management consulting firm out of Palo Alto that Apple had been using at the time. It was signed by Jobs and carried Apple's phone number and address — an address that happened to be the company's first official one.

"Jobs's hiring of such a firm during Apple's earliest stages demonstrates his eye toward long-term growth," the RR Auction entry for the check says. "During this period, the company had recently developed the Apple-1, secured its first big order, and set about trying to fulfill it. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had to secure parts and components on credit, build the computers, and deliver them to retailers and individuals."

The check was described as "essentially flawless" which might have helped push the price up somewhat. But it seems unlikely that many had expected it to fetch quite so much.

The check was originally expected to sell for around $20,000.

It isn't unusual for Apple memorabilia to sell for huge sums of course. An original iPhone sold for more than $60,000 recently, for example, and that's just the start. People are willing to pay big money for just about anything if it's related to Apple, especially if it's from the early days of the company.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

  • Ledsteplin
    Tell the buyer I have one I wrote in 1978 for $11.36, I'll let him have for only $2,000. I do Cash App or PayPal.
    Reply