Apple's Founder's Home Turns Auction Block: Steve Jobs’ Personal Items Set for Record-Breaking Prices

In 1990, John Chovanec’s mother, Marilyn, married Paul Jobs, making Chovanec the step‑brother of a future tech icon. Although the two seldom spoke, Steve Jobs showed a rare affection for Chovanec’s family by inviting him into his childhood bedroom in the iconic garage where the first Apple computers were assembled. In that visit, Jobs let Chovanec witness a running Macintosh, offering a personal diary of the machine’s development. Several decades later, Chovanec discovered that the house he once occupied was in fact saturated with relics of Jobs’ formative years. He has now placed a selection of these items on auction through RR Auction, including the actual desk where Jobs worked, the drawers filled with Reed College notebooks, a stack of Atari‑era work, and an 8‑track library that featured frequent Bob Dylan and Joan Baez recordings. The collection also contains a handwritten horoscope annotated by Jobs on an Atari computer, his copy of *How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive*, an early Apple poster that once hung in the house’s living room, and a dozen bow ties that Jobs wore in high school. In addition to the personal artefacts, the auction catalogue highlights several historic documents that date back to Apple’s inception. The centerpiece is the first check issued by Apple Computer Inc. on March 16, 1976—a $500 payment to circuit‑board designer Howard Cantin, dated 18 days before the official partnership agreement. This check, co‑signed by Jobs and Steve Wozniak, predates the company’s formal birth and represents the earliest cash transaction that financed the engineering of the Apple 1. The document’s provenance is clear: Jobs and Wozniak paid Cantin through a Wells Fargo account funded by the sale of Jobs’ Volkswagen and Wozniak’s HP calculator. Auctioneer Bobby Livingston of RR explains that the check is expected to fetch a price in the $500,000 range, a dramatic increase from the $135,261 that the second Apple check (to Ramlor Inc.) sold for in an August 2023 auction. This escalation reflects the growing appetite for Apple memorabilia and the rarity of Jobs‑signed items—any piece bearing his signature can reach six‑figure prices. Parallel to the RR auction is Christie’s sale of the 1976 partnership agreement that formally united Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Though Wayne sold his 10 % share for a modest $800 shortly after signing, the document itself is positioned in Christie’s “We the People: America at 250” collection and is expected to sell between $2 million and $4 million. While the historical documents command astronomical bids, Chovanec’s collection evokes a more intimate side of Jobs’ life. He explains that after Paul Jobs’s death, he was permitted to stay in the house “until you drop.” When Mr. Jobs declined to take possession of the desk and its contents, Chovanec was instructed to keep them. After retiring from Apple in 2025—having worked there for 16 years in supply‑chain and retail roles—Chovanec now sees the auction as a way to honor the legacy of the Apple story. Despite initial hesitation about selling deeply personal items—bow ties, 8‑track tapes, and even a bomber jacket noted in a prior auction—Chovanec finds no qualms, noting that Steve did not cherish these items. He states: “It’s just sitting here gathering dust and I want other people to enjoy it…there are collectors who would appreciate those types of things.” Industry observers note that the convergence of personal artifacts and institutional documents gives collectors a unique perspective on Apple’s lineage. While the 8‑track recordings may be silent relics, the desks, notebooks, and checks carry the weight of history and are poised to attract significant bids at upcoming liquidation events. For those tracking Apple memorabilia, the auction calendar of early Apple documents and personal items signals a new era of digital heritage stewardship—a chance not only to acquire historic items but also to preserve the narrative of a company that reshaped technology.