Cabel Sasser (previously) spotted an early Apple employee's ID card on sale on eBay—a fantastic find for anyone interested in computer history. But he noticed something off about it—the crispness of the typewritten details—and then a few other things, too. He set about proving it was fake—with some help from another early Apple legend, now its longest-serving employee, Chris Espinosa:
That's not Sherry Livingston.
That wasn't taken with a Polaroid with a flash.
The laminate dimensions are all wrong.
That's a computer font, not an IBM Selectric Orator type ball.
That's not my original sketch, which was on a National engineering pad.
Cabel, in summary:
…yes, the item sold before I could finish this post. So, my sincere apologies to whoever out there just spent $946.00 on a total (but interesting!) work of fiction.
Here are the key takeaways from our meeting today:
Beware of fraudulent pieces of Apple history
Don't buy anything from this particular seller
When in doubt, Engage The Internet®
Previously: Interview with early Apple employee Daniel Kottke
