Bid On Steve Jobs' Bomber Jacket, Rare iPad 1 Prototype And More Apple Collectibles
These days, Apple has a firm grip on the tablet market with its iPad lineup accounting for more than a third of all tablet in the wild (35.8%), according to the latest audit by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). Apple didn't invent the tablet, of course, but it did play a significant role in popularizing the category. Now 14 years after the launch of its first generation iPad, which released on April 3, 2010, auction house RR Auctions is putting up for grabs a rare circa 2009 iPad prototype. It's one of a whole bunch of Apple collectibles that have hit the auction block.
"The iPad prototype measures approximately 9.5˝ x 7.5˝ x .5˝, and the caseback features only the Apple logo, with no FCC notice or model information as seen on the final product. The unit reports about 2GB of storage, compared to the minimum of 16GB shipped in the retail model," the auction listing states.
It also boots up Apple's Switchboard utility, which is an in-house launcher to run diagnostic and debugging tools. Not that whoever ends up winning the auction will be interesting in turning it on and running an programs—instead, this is a chance to own a piece of Apple history, and potentially at a comparatively bargain price. The high bid currently sits at $6,655 with the prototype iPad ending on August 22, 2024. That's not cheap, but other Apple collectibles have sold for way more.
Another unique item that's up for grabs (and considerably more expensive, at the time of this writing), is a bomber jacket that was once owned and worn by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Yes, Jobs was best known pairing a black turtleneck shirt with jeans and sandals, and these days it's NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang who rare misses a chance to don a leather jacket. But Jobs did it first.
What makes this especially iconic is a popular 1983 photo of Jobs wearing the jacket while flipping a middle finger at an IBM logo outside of an IBM building in New York.
"The famous image of Jobs surfaced in 2011, when it was posted online by Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Macintosh development team. He recalled: 'In December 1983, a few weeks before the Mac launch, we made a quick trip to New York City to meet with Newsweek, who was considering doing a cover story on the Mac. The photo was taken spontaneously as we walked around Manhattan by Jean Pigozzi, a wild French jet setter who was hanging out with us at the time.'," the auction states.
Currently, the high bid for the leather bomber jacket auction sits at $27,830, with the auction also ending on August 22.
These are just two of many pieces of Apple history that are up for auction. Some of the others include...
- Steve Jobs signed 1976 Apple computer check
- Steve Jobs signed 1997 Pixar annual report
- Steve Jobs Apple business card circa 1980
- Steve Jobs 1972 high school yearbook
- Tim Cook signed photograph
- Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne signed photograph
- Apple-1 computer
- Apple II pre-production logic board (revision 1)
- Apple II computer Breakout cassette tape for color demos
There is a wide range of auction bid amounts, depending on the item. In the past, we've seen an unsigned 2007 iPhone still in its sealed packaging sell for $190,372.80 at auction, and an original Apple-1 prototype that Woz hand-soldered for Jobs fetch $677,196.
If you interested in placing a bid or just want to window-shop what's up for grabs, you can hit up the main Apple auction pile at RR Auctions.
