Apple's Founding Documents Pull $1.6 Million at Auction

[Phillip Swanson]

Apple’s founding documents netted $1.6 million at a Sotheby’s auction today. That’s just over $300,000 per sheet of paper for the collection of documents.

The papers in question outline the founding of Apple, including the responsibilities and shares of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Jobs and Wozniak each held a 45% stake in the company and Wayne held a 10% share. Wayne famously sold his 10% share two weeks after signing the document for $2,300. If Wayne had kept his share of the company it would be worth almost $40 billion today.

According to CNN the “sparsely attended” auction heated up quickly with the bidding reaching over $1 million in just 10 minutes. The winning bid was actually only $1.35 million, but the additional auction fee pushed the total to just under $1.6 million. Before the auction Sotheby’s estimated the documents would fetch $150,000 on the high-end. Nothing quite like beating the auction estimate by tenfold.

Wired’s John Abell made the point that “time will tell if this investment proves to be a better one than acquiring the more than 4,000 shares of Apple stock the winning bidder could have bought instead.” Very true. But, something tells me a person dropping $1.6 million on five sheets of paper really doesn’t concern themselves with their own investments anymore.

Source: Wired, CNN

[unison999]

Apple's self promotion is well known, not surprised if Apple bid against itself to bring it to rediculously high price.

[lighter]

Apple's self promotion is well known, not surprised if Apple bid against itself to bring it to rediculously high price.

Based on what self promotion?

[c14rlf]

Wayne famously sold his 10% share two weeks after signing the document for $2,300. If Wayne had kept his share of the company it would be worth almost $40 billion today.


Source: Wired, CNN

Doh!! Hahaha

[dz302]

uni,
Are you talking about self promotion like in advertising? Was that just puke or do you
have some dialog that can explain your comment. I think you could sneak up on any
company and catch them in the act of promoting their business...they should let someone
else do it right? Argh

dz

[unison999]

uni,
Are you talking about self promotion like in advertising? Was that just puke or do you
have some dialog that can explain your comment. I think you could sneak up on any
company and catch them in the act of promoting their business...they should let someone
else do it right? Argh

dz

Advertising ofcourse.
Just a current example: How life changing is Siri? How did Apple promote this? I recall something like "Siri will change everything". My god it is just a voice command program just about everyone has, granted it is more extensive than the ones that came before it but Apple made it out to be some huge invention nobody can live without.

[maddawg05]

You know Wayne's gotta be kicking himself in the ***** for his 40 billion dollar mistake. That sucks.

[dz302]

Advertising ofcourse.
Just a current example: How life changing is Siri? How did Apple promote this? I recall something like "Siri will change everything". My god it is just a voice command program just about everyone has, granted it is more extensive than the ones that came before it but Apple made it out to be some huge invention nobody can live without.

uni. I think I owe you an apology for my wording before... could have chosen better words.
Please try and look at it this way. Mr Jobs did say "Siri will change everything" however he said it in the same
context that Henry Ford said it. He never claimed to have invented it...he simply is developing it, and in the process
that constitutes reinvention...kinda like every Auto manufacture in the world has done since Henry.This is all he as
ever claimed to be achieving with any of his products. Siri is here to stay and it will be reinvented over and over and
over again and get better every time. Whether it's Apple or someone else just don't matter, what matters is it evolves.
What we should be watching are things like the fact that we are about to lose all our charging cables to remote charging
stations. Mr Jobs reinvented things with a vigilant attempt at reducing them to their purest form for function.
Visual impact, ease of use and avoiding problematic design were his goals. Remote charging has been all over the radar
for a long time but never been "reinvented" and therefore not applicable in everyday use. Lets see who's able to present
us all with the first step into the future of that technology. uni, why does everyone else's product renditions look so much like
the original Apple products? It's timing and product presentation, just like modmyi. I remember 4 years ago sitting at
a Cadillac store in Clearwater FL and young man dropped by and showed me his site modmyiphone. He said it was going
to be great...talk about product presentation I think he and Mr Jobs have provided us with a great way to stay current
and have a nice time don't you. Thanks uni, and Happy holidays

dz