California resident LN Varon admired Steve Jobs. In 1983, the executive was already deep in polishing the fringes that the original Macintosh lacked after the launch of the Apple Lisa. so masculine dared to ask for something simple by mail: an autograph.
At that time, snail mail was the norm, email didn’t even exist for the vast majority of people. Jobs was therefore not surprised when he saw the paper application for what was probably a mountain of mail lying on his desk. The answer couldn’t be more ironic.
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“I don’t sign autographs. Signed: Steve”
The Apple CEO and co-founder responded to Varon with a negative which you can see in the following image:
“Dear Mr. Varon, I’m honored that you wrote to me but I’m afraid I won’t be signing autographs. Sincerely, Steve Jobs”
Initially, this refusal by Jobs may have seemed disappointing for Varon, but here is the originality of the thing: the letter was signed. No, Jobs didn’t sign autographs, but that same signed response letter could, ironically, be an autograph.
Most likely, Jobs also saw the irony in the situation (necessarily, he had to), so we can classify this response letter as one of the most original autographs in history. Or at least curious. You could call it the autograph that isn’t an autograph. Schrödinger’s autograph.
We can laugh, but the paper of the signed response letter ended up being auctioned and sold for almost $480,000 in the summer of 2021. The letter is very anecdotal, but Like everything Jobs touched in life, he ended up gaining tremendous value.
Nor is it the only autograph by Steve Jobs that ended up at auction: his signature on objects such as Pixar posters or a simple bank check have also reached astronomical figures in auctions. Pieces of history that every Apple fan would love to have
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