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Steve Jobs wrote a check to Radio Shack in 1976. Now it's up for auction
It's a pristine piece of Silicon Valley history—and it comes with a famous autograph.
A check that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs made out to Radio Shack on July 23, 1976, just months after the pioneering computer company was founded, has gone up for auction.
The latest bid tops $30,000, with less than a day remaining in the sale by RR Auction. Bidding will close Wednesday, Dec. 6, with any initial bids required by 3 p.m. PST.
The check is made out on an Apple Computer Company account opened at a Wells Fargo branch in Los Altos. Listed is Apple's first official address at 770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto—"the location of an answering service and mail drop that they used while still operating out of the famous Jobs family garage," the listing says.
RR Auction, a Boston-based specialist in Jobs and Apple memorabilia, calls Radio Shack an "unsung hero" of the personal computing revolution and notes that co-founder Steve Wozniak would spend hours roaming the aisles of the store.
According to an RR executive, the artifact comes from a private collector who has had it in his collection since the 1990s. The neatly penned check features Jobs' signature—with lowercase "s" and "j," as was his style, a handwriting expert for the auction house said.
In August, an Apple Computer check made out to Ramlor Inc. in 1976 and signed by both Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak sold at auction for $135,261.
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