December 05, 2023 – Rare 1970s Apple Inc. Check Signed by Steve Jobs Up for Auction
A rare 1970s Apple Inc. check signed by Steve Jobs is currently up for auction, set to conclude on December 7th. There are currently 21 bidders vying for this unique piece of history, with the current auction price sitting at $22,444 USD (approximately 160,000 RMB).
Dated July 23, 1976, the check bears Steve Jobs’ personal signature and is crafted on Apple Inc.’s distinctive 6×3 check design. The payable amount on the check is a mere $4.01 USD, made out to Radio Shack.
The check is titled “Apple Computer Company” and features the first official address of Apple, which reads as “770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto.”
Radio Shack, based in Boston, holds a significant place in the story of Apple’s success. It is said that Steve Wozniak, in his early teens, would often linger outside Radio Shack’s doors. He managed to save up enough money to purchase their groundbreaking TRS-80 microcomputer system, which he used to create the “Blue Box,” an illicit device for making free long-distance phone calls.
The “Blue Box” cemented the first business partnership between Wozniak and Jobs. Together, they managed to manufacture and sell around 200 of these boxes at $150 USD each. Jobs later told his biographer that without Wozniak’s “Blue Box,” there might not have been an Apple Inc.
