The history of Pixar is a long and winding road leading up to the release of the now-classic, Toy Story, in 1995. Leaving out the specifics for the purposes of this article, what is important to note is that Steve Jobs purchased the graphics group from George Lucas’, Lucasfilm, in 1986 and officially formed Pixar.
[UPDATED] — The poster closed at auction for $31,250 — Read additional details below.
Purchased on February 3, 1986 for $5 Million (and a promise of another $5 Million in cash invested over time) Steve envisioned Pixar to be a high-end computer manufacturer, an imaging company, and ultimately an animation company (with some convincing).
Ed Catmull (Pixar’s now-retired President) has stated on several occasions that Pixar wouldn’t exist today had Steve not put millions and millions of his own money into Pixar (well beyond the initially promised $10 Million) to keep it going. This was partly because Steve didn’t want another public embarrassment (getting ousted from Apple Computer or the troubles of NeXT Computer) and partly because he believed in Pixar and where they were headed.
TOY STORY POSTER AUCTION
We wanted to share those high-level details to set the stage for the importance and rarity of this autographed Toy Story poster being auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions. The auction bidding starts at $25,000 USD (whew) and ends on August 29, 2019 at 5:00 PM PST — so, if you’re a Pixar and/or Steve Jobs fan and have the means, this would be an amazing piece to include in your collection.
The official description of the auction is listed below.
Extraordinarily scarce Pixar Animation Studios poster signed by its co-founder Steve Jobs, sometime after 1995 when ”Toy Story”, the first computer-animated feature film, debuted. Jobs’ legendary vision is evident in his backing of Pixar, whose potential was immediately realized in the success of ”Toy Story”, earning three Academy Award nominations, breaking box office records and securing its reputation as one of the finest animated movies of all time. Poster measures 24” x 36”, signed by Jobs in black fiber-tip marker. In near fine condition. With JSA COA.
UPDATED – August 30
The auction has closed and the winning bid was $31,250. AppleInsider has expanded on why Steve’s autograph can draw the premium price that it does.
“Earlier auctions for items featuring Jobs’ signature include a newspaper clipping that sold for $27,000, a first-issue of Macworld for over $47,000 and a job application for over $174,000. The high price is partially linked to the reluctance of Jobs to hand out his signature, with there believed to be fewer than 10 autographed items in existence.”
Of course, his signature is included in plenty of contracts and business agreements, but the rarity of it being tied to memorabilia is what really excited us about the Toy Story poster.
Pixar Post — T.J.
