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Steve Jobs’ Inscribed and Signed Apple II Manual from 1980 Auctioned.
Jim Irsay, the owner of the American football team, bought the rare collectible.
Gadgets 360/ Web Desk:
According to Gadgets 360, the Apple II manual, a rare collectible inscribed and signed by late Apple founder Steve Jobs in 1980, has been auctioned for a whopping $787,484 on August 19. The buyer is Jim Irsay, the owner of the American football team Indianapolis Colts. Boston-based RR Auction sold the 41-year-old Apple II Reference Manual last week. The manual, which ran into 196 pages, was inscribed and signed opposite the ‘Table of Contents’ in blue ink by Jobs and Apple’s former angel investor and second CEO, Mike Mark Kula. The manual contains technical details of Apple II’s architecture and operation.
Jobs had written, “Julian, your generation is the first to grow up with computers. Go change the world! Steven Jobs, 1980.”
He referred to Julian Brewer, whose father Michael negotiated exclusive distribution rights for Apple in the UK in 1979.
In a note on its website, RR Auction stated that “Jobs’ inscription, penned in the year of Apple’s stock market flotation, powerfully conveys his grand ambition and vision for the future of Apple Computer, Inc. and personal computing as a whole”. It adds that when Jobs and Mark Kula signed the Apple II manual, they were in the UK to promote the company.
The note further states that the manual was “in fine condition, with a few small stains on the front cover”.
Brewer, who was a teenager when Jobs signed the manual, was quoted as saying by RR Auction, “I was sitting in my bedroom writing games on my Apple II when dad called me down to meet some guests. To my amazement, it was Steve Jobs and Mike Mark Kula. I had the manual with me and only later understood how rare it was for Jobs to sign anything, let alone to write an inscription like this. He got on well with dad, so I feel the inscription was made with care.”
While expressing what the Apple II manual meant for him, Irsay said in a statement provided to the auction house that Jobs was among the “most innovative minds of the past two centuries.”
