It's not clear what Apple was buying from RadioShack on July 23, 1976 for a mere four bucks and some change, and adjusting for inflation doesn't make it much clearer. According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, Jobs would have been cutting a check for $21.61 were he to make the same purchase in 2023.

Regardless, the check was cut around the same time the Apple-1 went on sale at Paul Terrell's Byte Shop in Mountain View, CA, for $666.66, meaning it was probably for something important. For those unfamiliar with the saga of Apple's early days, Terrell offered to buy 50 of the machines for $500 a pop, but only if they came fully assembled. Other hobbyist computers of the era typically came as unassembled kits. So solder, perhaps?

"That was the biggest single episode in all of the company's history. Nothing in subsequent years was so great and so unexpected," Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak later said of Terrell's order.

Interestingly enough, this is the second Jobs-signed check from the early days of Apple to be auctioned by RR this year - the auction house sold a $175 check from Apple to managing consultant firm Cramptom, Remke & Miller in May for $106,985.

Anything signed by Jobs, who was famously averse to autographs, can go for a small fortune to the right collector. A 1983 letter from Jobs to a fan asking for an autograph, in which Jobs both declined the request for an autograph and signed the letter, was sold at auction by RR in 2021 for a whopping $479,939.

To read the complete article, see:
Steve Jobs' $4.01 RadioShack check set to fetch small fortune at auction(https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/steve-jobs-4-01-radioshack-check-set-to-fetch-small-fortune-at-auction/ar-AA1l2VWF)

To read the complete lot description, see:
Steve Jobs Signed 'Apple Computer Company' Check to RadioShack (July 23, 1976)(https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/348161106800099-steve-jobs-signed-apple-computer-company-check-to-radioshack-july-23-1976/?cat=0)