Guess How Much the First-Ever Apple Check and His Boyhood Desk Are Fetching at 50 Years

Some of the rarest memorabilia from the early days of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and personal items belonging to co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs are up for auction to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary.

Just like other past Apple and Jobs memorabilia that has come up for sale, these rare pieces are generating strong interest and bids.

RR Auctions is hosting an auction with top Apple memorabilia items and like past auctions in recent years, early checks in the history of Apple are among the top promoted items.

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Here are some of the highlights in the “Steve Jobs & the Computer Revolution: The Apple 50th Anniversary Auction,” with most auctions ending on Jan. 29.

The first Apple Computer check from 1976, signed by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak is among the items in the auction. The check was to Howard Cantin, the designer of the Apple-1 printed circuit board. This signed check has been graded a PSA Mint 9, the second highest grading PSA gives out. The piece of Apple history was dated on March 16, 1976 and was for $500. This check is so old that it is actually from before the official founding date of Apple on April 1, 1976. Signed by both Jobs and Wozniak and bearing the number one for the checks, along with being for the design of Apple’s first product, this check is among the earliest and rarest pieces of memorabilia. The auction house had a pre-auction estimate of $500,000 and current bids are at $236,832.

Another check up for sale at the auction is what is labeled as the check to the company’s first seed investor Elmer Baum. The check is listed as number 181, dated July 13, 1976, from Apple Computer Company and is in the amount of $125 and includes Jobs signature. Baum provided a $5,000 investment in Apple to help finance the first run of Apple-1 computers. The check is likely for a 5% quarterly accrual fee for payments made after the original July 6, 1976 date for the payback of the $5,000 with $250 in interest. Baum’s son Allen was friends with Jobs and Wozniak. The Apple co-founders have credited Baum with helping the company survive. “Without that, we wouldn’t have made it,” Jobs once said of the loan.

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The March 1976 Wells Fargo account statement for Apple Computer Co. up for auction is listed as the first financial record for Apple. The statement is for the period ending March 31, 1976, pre-dating the official founding date of April 1, 1976. Viewable on the statement is the opening of the bank account, initial deposits totaling $840 and the amounts of the first six checks ever written. The current top bid for the item is $17,717 at the time of writing.

The earliest known fiberglass prototype used to validate Apple-1 Computer is also included in the auction items. This marks an important milestone in Apple history as one of the early prototypes needed to validate a bulk order for the company’s first product. Based on Apple history, the item is likely from March or April of 1976. The current top bid is $135,000 with RR Auctions listing a pre-auction estimate of $500,000.

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When it comes to historical items from the history of Steve Jobs, this may be one of the rarest and most unique pieces. This is the bedroom desk from the property that includes the famous “Apple Garage,” where the technology giant was started. The desk includes pre-Apple documents from Jobs, including Atari papers, HP manuals and a wage and tax statement for Jobs from 1971 for $1,080 in wages paid. The desk comes from the personal collection of Jobs’ stepbrother John Chovanec. The desk has a current high bid of $59,268 at the time of writing, beating a pre-auction estimate of $25,000.

There are nearly 200 items up for sale in the auction with varying price ranges. Other items include 8-track tapes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez that were previously owned by Jobs and Apple posters the co-founder also personally owned. Bow ties from Jobs’ boyhood home are also among the auction items.

Apple will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 1, 2026 and there could be a rush to acquire rare memorabilia of the company throughout the 2026 year.

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This article Steve Jobs’ 1976 Paper Trail: Guess How Much the First-Ever Apple Check and His Boyhood Desk Are Fetching at 50 Years originally appeared on Benzinga.com