Document signed by Steve Jobs, Robert Friedland earns $40K at auction

There's something new that you can add to the list of ridiculously priced Apple-themed items that you didn't win at auction: a 1978 legal agreement between Steve Jobs and Robert Friedland, creating a business partnership. The agreement, bearing the signatures of both men, sold for US$40,000 to Tristar Productions CEO Jeff Rosenberg.

Jobs and Friedland both attended Reed College together, and Jobs worked and lived at Friedland's communal farm and apple orchard near McMinville, Ore. The agreement outlines a partnership to "engage in the business of investments, including particularly but not being limited to real estate investments." Jobs was already somewhat wealthy at this point in the early history of Apple, so there is conjecture that the agreement may have been a way for Jobs to invest in his friend's venture.

What did Friedland go on to do? He became a mining tycoon, owns a Canadian mining company, lives in Singapore and has a net worth estimated at more than $1.3 billion.