Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair Project Fetches $34,375 at Auction

A rare piece of computing history has been sold at auction: a hand-wired electronic science fair project created by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1968 when he was an 8th-grade student in Homestead High School's feeder district. Bidding closed at RR Auction with a final price of $34,375.

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Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair: what actually changed

Read 9to5Mac's account next to the product docs, not instead of them. Names and figures in the lede are the ones we can stand behind; everything else below is how teams usually absorb a story like this. If a number, ship date, or quote is not in the source excerpt, it is not in this briefing. That is deliberate — day-one coverage is where invented specifics do the most damage.

A rare piece of computing history has been sold at auction: a hand-wired electronic science fair project created by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1968 when he was an 8th-grade student in Homestead High School's feeder district. Join 45,000+ engineers, founders, and tech leaders receiving our 5-minute daily breakdown of AI, hardware, and tech policy.

Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair: how it works

Under the hood this is a systems change, not a press-release adjective. Ask what surface area moved — API, policy, hardware, model behavior, or go-to-market — and which of those you actually ship against. A useful working question: if you had to draw the before/after on a whiteboard, which box would you erase? That is the mechanism. Everything else is packaging.

AAPL Company Steve Jobs Steve Jobs’ 1968 science fair project fetches $34,375 at auction Marcus Mendes | Aug 28 2026 - 2:35 pm PT 1 Comment RR Auction’s bidding for Steve Jobs’ 1968 science fair project has now closed, with the hand-built exhibit selling for $34,375. ’In overall very good to fine condition’ A few days ago, we covered the auction of an 8th-grade science fair project built by Steve Jobs in 1968.

Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair: why it matters now

If you build on or compete with the parties named in Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair Project Fetches $34,375 at Auction, the practical hit is on roadmap sequencing and risk reviews this quarter, not on a vague 'future of the industry'. Put one owner on the story, give them a day to read the primary material, and decide whether this is a this-sprint item, a this-quarter item, or noise.

The project, which focused on the silicon-controlled rectifier and included two demonstration circuits alongside a 10-page report, had been sitting below $3,000 in online bidding at the time. Part of the Steve Jobs & the Computer Revolution: The Apple 50th Anniversary Auction Part Two auction, bidding for the item has now closed, with the winning bid reaching $34,375, as spotted by MacRumors.

Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair: who is affected

Incumbents, customers, and adjacent open-source projects do not feel this equally. Map the change to your own stack: what you operate, what you buy, and what you will have to explain to a security, legal, or finance review. Partners and resellers often feel it before the end user does — check those contracts before you assume nothing moved.

According to RR Auction, the project “remained at the famed ‘Apple Garage’ property for decades,” after being preserved by Jobs’ family. His stepbrother, John Chovanec, said Jobs repeatedly declined to take the project back, eventually allowing Chovanec to keep it.

Steve Jobs’ Hand-Built 1968 Science Fair: what to watch

Treat the next two weeks as a verification window. Watch the vendor's own changelog, any regulator or standards follow-up, and whether a competitor ships a matching capability. Do not change production on day-one coverage alone. If nothing new is published in that window, the story was smaller than the headline.

The highest-priced item, however, was a fully functional Apple-1 computer from the second batch of 50 units produced, which sold for $499,363. Worth checking out on Amazon Geoffrey Cain – ‘Steve Jobs in Exile’ David Pogue – ’Apple: The First 50 Years’ MacBook Neo Logitech MX Master 4 AirPods Pro 3 AirTag (2nd Generation) – 4 Pack Apple Watch Series 11 Wireless CarPlay adapter FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.