A $4 cheque signed by Steve Jobs in 1976 fetches more than $36,000 at auction

A $4 cheque from 1976 written by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to Radio Shack sold for over $36,000 at the Boston-based RR Auction on Wednesday.

The cheque joined the hot market for Steve Jobs' signature, who drew the cheque against the Apple Computer Company account at a Wells Fargo Bank in Los Altos, California.

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However, it is not the first time a Steve Jobs-signed item sold for such a high price. In 2022, a $9.18 Apple Computer cheque signed by Steve Jobs in 1976 sold for $55,000, and another cheque of $13.36 from the same year to Elmar sold for $37,654 in March 2023.

In 2018, Steve Jobs' signature on a job application for "electronics tech or designer engineer" from 1973 sold for $174,757. The auctioneer classified it as the Apple co-founder's earliest known signature.

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In December 2011, Sotheby's sold the signature that appeared on the original Apple founding contract signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronal Wayne in 1976, when Jobs was 21. They auctioned it for $1,594,500.

On Wednesday, the RR Auction sold the $4 cheque to Radio Shack for $36,850. RR Auction said, "The biggest tech innovations of the 20th century are all, in varying degrees, indebted to the Boston-based electronics store". They described the item on sale as "a superb cheque signed by the innovative persona."

Not only Steve Jobs' signatures but also his business cards have high value. In May 2015, a high school charity auction in California auctioned his three business cards from three companies for $10,050.

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Furthermore, it's not just Jobswhose signatures have increased in value. In a Julien's Auction in New York last year, Steve Jobs' old pair of brown suede Birkenstock sandals, which he wore during the early days of Apple, sold for $218,750. It was the highest price ever paid for a pair of sandals at an auction.

Apple's first official address at 770 Welch Rd, Ste 154, Palo Alto, will be next on the auction list. The auction house said it was "the location of an answering service and mail drop they used while operating out of the famous Jobs family garage." A private collector has had the artefact in his collection since the 1990s, according to an auction house, Mercury News reported.

(With inputs from agencies)