Armstrong check draws record price

AMHERST – A check signed by Neil Armstrong hours before he took off for the moon has been sold for $27,350, 40 years to the day after it was written.

An engineer in California bought it in an online auction run by RR Auction of Amherst. The company said Armstrong – about to become the first man to walk on the moon – wrote the check to NASA manager Harold Collins just in case something went wrong, but assured Collins he would return.

The $10.50 check was sold around 8 a.m. Thursday, ending the 17-day auction.

Anthony Pizzitola of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club said the price is a record for a single Armstrong autograph.

Jack Staub, an engineer and business owner from Newport Beach, Calif., bought the check.