A pair of Birkenstock sandals owned and worn by Apple Inc Founder Steve Jobs' have been sold by Julien's in New York for an astonishing $218,750.
Even more astonishing is that the sandals, with an estimate of $60,000 - $80,000, had previously been sold for just $2,000 in 2016, so showed the owner a 10,837.50% return on their investment in just 6 years.
"Better than Bitcoin" as we like to say. Better than any investment in reality.
The sandals had previously been owned by Mark Sheff, Jobs' house manager at his Californian estate, who stated that Jobs "kept very few things".
"We kept some, shared some with the landscapers and friends and brought some to Goodwill. The collection we ended up with is quite random."
Surprisingly the sandals have been central to many museum exhibits in recent years including at the Salone del Mobile in Milano, Italy in 2017, at the Birkenstock Headquarters in Rahms, Germany in 2017, at Birkenstock's first United States store in SoHo, New York, and the History Museum Wurttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany.
Chrisann Brennan, Jobs' ex-partner and mother of his first child, once said of Jobs' Birkenstocks:
"in Birkenstocks he didn't feel like a businessman, so he had the freedom to think creatively."
2022 is the year when Tech memorabilia has made it's mark and Steve Jobs' and Apple memorabilia especially.
In June a Steve Jobs signed cheque sold for $55,000 at RR auctions.
The cheque, written for $9.08, and dated July 23rd 1976, was used to pay a company called Tektronix who manufactured test and measurement devices used by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when building and testing the original Apple-1 computer.
Whereas, the Holy Grail of Apple Memorabilia, Jobs’ original Apple Computer A proto-type sold at RR Auction for $677,196 in August.
Further reading:
Steve Jobs and Apple memorabilia auctions.
About your Author:
Adrian Roose has over 30 years’ experience covering all aspects of the rare stamp & memorabilia industry during which he has sold over £50m of unique items, helping build collections for Royalty, household name celebrities and 1,000s of collectors around the world.
Adrian was previously a Director at Stanley Gibbons, a Board Member of Stampex, and Executive Director of Paul Fraser Collectibles, PFC Auctions and JustCollecting, prior to founding The Memorabilia Club.