A July 1976 “Apple Computer Company” check signed by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will be auctioned off for MUCH more than its $175.00 face value. At the time of this article, there have been 15 bids on the canceled check and the bid now sits at $21,962. The auction is set to end on May 11.
Lot 192 of RR Auctions’ “Fine Autograph and Artifacts Featuring Major Figures of Science and Technology” consists of a check from the “Apple Computer Company” signed by co-founder Steve Jobs.
Description
Pristine Apple Computer check signed by Steve Jobs in 1976—the year of the company’s founding
Choice Apple Computer Company business check, 6 x 3, filled out in type and signed by Jobs, “steven jobs,” payable to Crampton, Remke & Miller, Inc. for $175, July 8, 1976. Headed “Apple Computer Company,” the check uses 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. In fine to very fine condition.
Crampton, Remke & Miller was a management consulting firm in Palo Alto that provided business process consulting to a wide range of high tech companies in Northern California. In addition to the fledgling Apple Computer, the firm’s clients included Atari, Memorex, National Semiconductor, and Xerox. Jobs’s hiring of such a firm during Apple’s earliest stages demonstrates his eye toward long-term growth. 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. A highly desirable, essentially flawless check from a central moment in the history of modern tech.
Check number 168 is deemed by the auctioneer to be in “fine to very fine condition,” and has been pre-certified by PSA/DNA.