Magazine signed by Steve Jobs sells for over $50K – CNET

A Newsweek magazine from 1988 signed by Steve Jobs has sold for $50,587, according to RR Auction. 

The magazine went up for auction last week, and was consigned by Diane Williams of Escondido, California. Williams met the Apple co-founder back in October 1988, while working as a senior buyer for software company Lotus Development Corp. (now Lotus Software). She attended the unveiling of Jobs’ NeXT computer at the Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and brought along a few magazines that featured him on the cover.

After the unveiling, she said, Jobs came down and sat on a table close to her. She asked if he would sign one, to which he responded, “I don’t do autographs.” Williams said she asked him to “write something from your heart then,” at which point he smiled, hesitated and then pulled the Newsweek and wrote “I love manufacturing.” After hesitating again, he underlined “love.” Then he looked at Williams and signed it.

“It was like time stood still,” Williams said in a previous interview with CNET. 

She’d kept the magazine in a safe deposit box at the bank before sending it to RR Auction.  

The starting bid for the magazine was $1,000, and it was estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $15,000, according to RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston. He says the auction house is thrilled about the final price — but not surprised at all. 

“This was a signed image of Jobs, which is almost impossible to find,” Livingston said.

He says there were 34 bids and 18 different qualified clients — each bid had to be 10 percent more than the previous one — during the auction.

In March, RR Auction sold a Jobs-signed poster promoting the 1992 NeXTWorld Expo in San Francisco for $19,600. And four years ago, it sold a signed contract from 1978 for $40,000.

The winning bidder of the signed Newsweek magazine is an anonymous collector from the Chicago area.

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