Make Something Wonderful printed books on eBay – and rapidly being removed

When we learned that a limited run of Make Something Wonderful printed books had been produced by the Steve Jobs Archive to gift to a number of Apple and Disney employees, it was only a matter of time before some of them ended up on eBay.

We weren’t expecting it to happen quite this soon, however, nor in such numbers. However, it appears that the auction site may now be removing these listings …

The official Steve Jobs Archive publication was made available as a free ebook earlier this week. It wasn’t initially clear whether there would be a print edition.

The Steve Jobs Archive today released a free ebook memorializing Jobs’s life and career in his own words, collating emails, speeches and interviews with the Apple founder.

The ebook can be read in Apple Books on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. It can also be read in the browser, or downloadable as an ePub to import into your Kindle, Nook or other e-reader device.

The book includes a lot of never-before-seen material, including photos, emails, and transcripts from internal meetings.

Make Something Wonderful printed books

We subsequently learned that there was also a limited-edition print run for physical copies of the book, which were gifted to selected Apple and Disney employees.

It seemed clear at the time that some of these would end up being sold on eBay, but it happened even faster than expected, as John Gruber spotted.

Print copies of the Steve Jobs Archive’s Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words — presumably copies given to folks at Apple and Disney — have hit eBay. Prices are really high — $500–1,000 […]

I’ve lucked my way into a copy, and it’s as nice an object as you’d expect. Books can be such lovely artifacts in hand, tactile experiences, and this is one.

When I started writing this piece, there were more than 50 of these for sale on eBay. This suggests that the limited run was likely larger than expected, with a less-selective recipient list than we would have guessed.

Starting prices range from $99, to one optimist trying a Buy it Now price of $25,000.

However, many of the listings – including that $25K one – are no longer available. It appears that if you want to snag one, you might need to act fast, though it’s likely you’ll be able to do so later at a (probably) lower price.

This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated