Retro 1983 Steve Jobs Signed Apple Business Card Fetches An Eye-Popping $180K
If you happen to own anything that's been signed by the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, it could bring in quite the haul at auction. We saw this a couple of years ago when an Apple computer check endorsed by both co-founders Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold for $163,929 (including buyer fees), and now a slightly more recent Apple business card that Jobs put his John Hancock on just sold for $181,181 (also including buyer fees).
That's a hefty sum for sure—Upper Deck sells various memorabilia autographed by NBA legend Michael Jordan, the most expensive which goes for $14,999.99 (various jerseys, a minor league baseball, and some other stuff). Jordan is still alive, of course, but you can also find items with Babe Ruth's autograph in the same general ballpark. It just depends on the item—a signed Babe Ruth rookie baseball card sold for $1.77 million last year, which is obviously in a way different ballpark.
As for the signed Apple business card, it commanded the eye-popping sum at RR Auctions. The card is from 1983 and is "perfectly graded" by PSA/DNA as "Gem MT 10," which denotes perfect corners all around and a lack of any staining (among other attributes). In short, it's in mint condition. It's also only the second such card from 1983 that the auction house has ever sold.
"Prior to this sale, RR Auction has offered a total of 10 Steve Jobs business cards, with just one dating to circa 1983. This offered Apple Computer business card represents our second from that elusive time frame, but it is made exponentially rarer by the presence of Jobs’s bold, neatly placed signature. Less than five Jobs-signed Apple Computer business cards—from any period—have successfully passed PSA/DNA authentication," RR Auctions states.
Looking at past listings at RR Auctions, non-signed Apple business cards have fetched between $6,188 on the low end to $15,344 on the high end. The auction house has also sold a whole bunch of other items autographed by Steve Jobs, the most expensive being a signed Apple II manual that brought in $787,484. The least expensive we could find was a Time magazine cover that sold for $13,125 in 2018, which seems like a comparative bargain.
We imagine that signed business cards hold special appeal because they're both a part of a company's history, and of course they bear an autograph of a notable figure. It also helps that this particular business card that RR Auctions sold for over $181K was is in such pristine condition.
If you missed out but still want to own a piece of computing history (and you have deep pockets), note that you can still get your hands on an ultra-rare Commodore C65 prototype (yes, C65, that's not a typo) that's up for auction on eBay.
