The booming alternative assets market space added yet another heavyweight genre this week as the world record for a business card was smashed twice today by both Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and the auction still has four days to run.
As we publish, a signed Steve Jobs business card has already been bid to four times the world record, and an Elon Musk business card has also broken the previous world record mark for a business card, as well as becoming the most expensive business card ever sold while the person is still living.
Musk turns 53 years-old in June 2024, hence it's a strong indication that his memorabilia is going to become very valuable at auction with time.
Steve Jobs is to business cards as Babe Ruth is to baseball bats, in that he dominates this rapidly emerging marketplace like no other. With today's prices achieved so far, Steve Jobs business cards hold six of the 10 highest prices ever fetched for business cards, and 12 of the top 20.
With Musk and Microsoft founder Bill Gates also among the top prices, it seems that when it comes to business cards, technology entrepreneurs rule the roost. Microsoft is the world's largest company with a market cap in excess of $3.0 trillion, and Apple is the second largest, with a market cap of $2.8 trillion, so apart from recognizing the world's most successful businesspeople, the investors are also backing Elon Musk to play a starring role in technological history. Having a spot on this list, open to anyone who ever had a business card, while he is still alive and very active (and hence still handing out business cards), is quite astonishing.
Albert Einstein memorabilia at auction is extremely valuable. We've been writing about the extraordinary prices fetched by any Einstein memorabilia for 20 years, and regularly noting that the eccentric and lovable genius has an auction multiplication factor up there with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and the Beatles. It's perhaps surprising that he isn't higher on the list, though we're also witnessing Steve Jobs elevated to similar levels over the last few years.
Former American Presidents also appear prominently on our listing, with Barack Obama formerly holding the record for the most expensive business card sold during the subject's lifetime at $7,871 and Lyndon B. Johnson appearing twice in the top 20.
We'll bring you the full listing and the exact magnitude of the new world records once the bidding is done with.
In the meantime, you can watch the live bidding on the blockbuster Steve Jobs and Elon Musk cards in real time.
