Temporary Apple Computer Check #2 Signed by Jobs and Woz Goes Up For Auction

A temporary check for computer components, signed by both Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs has been put up for auction by RR Auctions. The check is being offered up alongside other rare Apple memorabilia, including a draft ad for the Apple I computer that was handwritten by Steve Jobs.

The instrument, which is a temporary check issued by banks to customers to use while they wait for their custom-printed ones to arrive, was written for components likely used to build the Apple I, the first computer sold by Apple after it was founded. The check is dated March 19, 1976, which predates the official founding of Apple by 13 days.

Apple was founded as Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976, by Wozniak, Jobs, and Ronald Wayne to create and sell the Apple I personal computer designed by Wozniak. The agreement the three parties signed required any expenditure of more than $100 to be approved by at least two of the partners. This could be why the check carries the signatures of both Jobs and Wozniak.

The check, which is being auctioned off by RR Auctions, is the second check ever written by the two legendary Apple co-founders.

The Wells Fargo temporary check is made out to Ramlor, Inc., a printed circuit board company in the amount of $116.97. (Oddly, on the line where the amount this written out, Jobs or Wozniak wrote “One Hundred Dollars and 97/100”). The check measures 7.5 inches by 3 inches and bears the same account and routing numbers as other early Apple Computer Company checks written on the account.

RR Auctions says the check was likely issued to Ramlor, Inc as payment for printed circuit boards to be used in the first Apple I computers.

The auction house estimates that the check will bring at least $50,000 at auction, and says:

“Between the exceptionally early date of this check, the payee as a PCB maker, and the fact that it is signed by the two figures that drove Apple’s initial success, this is an extraordinary, museum-quality piece of tech history.”

The auction runs until August 24, 2023, and the check is just one of more than 50 Apple-related items, which includes a handwritten draft ad for the Apple I computer created by Steve Jobs, as well as functional Apple computers, including an Apple Lisa and Apple I.

This is not the first Apple Computer Company check to be auctioned off online. In May 2023, RR Auctions auctioned off an Apple Computer Company check signed by Jobs, which sold for $106,985.

That check carried the first Apple address, which was 770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto. That address was actually that of an answering service Jobs and Wozniak used, while the pair were actually working out of Jobs’ family’s garage.

Another rare “Apple Computer Company” check, dated July 15, 1976, and signed by both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, was auctioned off in February 2022. The check, which brought more than $163,000, was made out to Kierulff Electronics for $3,430. The check was written the same month that Wozniak demonstrated the first Apple I prototype at the Palo Alto, California Homebrew Computer Club.

The reaction and interest from the membership at the demo spurred Woz and Jobs to pool their resources to pay to have printed circuit boards produced.