A 4th gen iPod Shuffle seemingly autographed by Steve Jobs himself has gone up on eBay today, and even though the signature can’t be confirmed or certified, the auction is hitting some pretty incredible prices.
As of 12:30 PM MT, the auction (pointed out by Shrine of Apple) was up to $6100, and it still has over 5 days left. The seller offers the following story for how he obtained the signature:
As part of a “innovators of tomorrow” program, myself and a 3 of my colleagues were invited to attend an in-house Apple event. Before hand, we received complimentary Apple products, including an iPod Shuffle and iTunes credits […] After the conference, we were given the opportunity to talk with Steve himself about the shift in technology to more companion-oriented devices. As the discussion wrapped up, one person in our group asked if Steve would mind signing our iPods.
As the conversation went: “I hear you’re not really one to give autographs, but I just gotta ask….will you sign my iPod? It’s fine if you don’t want to. I’m not normally one to even ask for autographs”. Steve: *chuckling* “it’s quite alright. You heard that about me?? Well I wouldn’t say that I don’t like giving autographs, I guess I was never comfortable with the idea solely taking credit for something, which is to me what an autograph might imply. To be honest, I think I’m the last person who should sign something. A writer signing a book I can understand, but I think if anybody within our company should sign something, it should be members from our R&D team and all the others responsible for product innovation. It’s unfortunate that they all can’t receive the same level recognition. But I suppose it’s easier this way though??….you would need a pretty big iPod to fit all those signatures”.
He was very candid and very down to earth. To my knowledge, we were the only ones lucky enough to get Steve’s ever-so-rare signature.
Pretty awesome story. Check out the actual auction on eBay and see for yourself!
