He buys a very rare one at auction for $42,660 Apple-1 manualbut later discovers that it’s not original. In between is the reputation of RR Auction, an auction house that has established itself over the years as a respectable benchmark for the world of Apple memorabilia and fetish collectors.
The lot was part of a larger collection of auctioned items called Steve Jobs Revolution. Not only was the manual not original, it was paid for – for its condition unusual impeccable – a record figure. More than four times the average selling price: normally a Apple-1 original manualSteve Jobs’ first semi-finished product sells for between $10,000 and $15,000.
Curiously, the inauthenticity of the manual was discovered thanks to the providential intervention of the person who had reproduced it: Armin Hierstetter, an Apple enthusiast who had previously ordered a series of perfect replicas of certain memorabilia. Hierstetter had read the news of the record auction at the time, but he hadn’t paused too much.
More recently, perhaps seeking material for a new run of iterations, Hierstetter had downloaded the manual’s high-definition images that had been uploaded to the auction house’s website. It didn’t take long for him to make 2 + 2: except exemplary in perfect condition, it was one of his copies. So Hierstetter immediately contacts RR Auction: “I have no doubt, you sold a replica for over $40,000”.
The auction house decides to investigate and opens and closes an investigation in just 48 hours. “Ensuring the authenticity of objects is our priority,” reads a press release from RR Autcion. “We concluded that the item in question is indeed a replica, so we immediately contacted the buyer to offer them a full refund.”
Proposal accepted, but only partially. The collector claimed to keep the replica in exchange for a few thousand dollars.
Source: Lega Nerd
