Sold For $828,569
*Includes Buyers Premium
Historic Wells Fargo Bank account statement prepared by the Los Altos Office for "Apple Computer Co.," one page, 8.5 x 14, for the period ending March 31, 1976. This represents Apple Computer's first financial record—pre-dating the official founding of the company itself—documenting the opening of the company's first bank account, its initial deposits, and the amounts of the first six checks ever drawn on the account.
The statement records deposits amounting to $840—beginning with a $500 deposit on March 16, 1976, with subsequent deposits of smaller amounts. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak each sold their most valuable possessions—Jobs his beloved Volkswagen Bus, and Woz his prized HP 65 calculator—to raise the initial working capital to fund the Apple Computer Company. In his autobiography iWoz, Wozniak recounts: 'To come up with the $1,000 we thought we'd need to built ready-made printed circuit boards, I sold my HP 65 calculator for $500. The guy who bought it only paid me half, though, and never paid me the rest...And Steve sold his VW van for another few hundred dollars. He figured he could ride around on his bicycle if he had to. That was it. We were in business.'
The statement also lists debits totaling $697.45. These included a $500 payment to Howard Cantin, designer of the Apple-1 printed circuit board layout; $116.97 to PCB maker Ramlor, Inc.; $13.86 to Elmar Electronics, an electronics distribution house with locations in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California; and $4.95 to Zack Electronics, another local electronics distributor; $13.25 to University Art Center; and $47.50 to Pacific Telephone. At the end of the month, Apple Computer was down to a meager $142.55.
Each of these checks was returned with the statement—it notes, "6 Items Enclosed"—and all but the very first have been sold by RR Auction; Apple Computer Company check #1 is offered in the present sale as Lot #6001.
In fine condition.
This early Wells Fargo account statement holds exceptional significance as the earliest financial record of the Apple Computer Company, created even before the company’s official founding on April 1, 1976. It chronicles, in real time, the transformation of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's garage startup into a functioning business, documenting the company's very first deposits and its earliest expenditures—spending that fueled the manufacture of the Apple-1 computer. Itemizing payments to the PCB designer, board fabricators, electronics suppliers, and even the modest telephone bill that kept the founders connected, the statement offers a tangible snapshot of Apple at its moment of inception.
