Armstrong Check Auctioned for Over $27,000

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, N.H. The company says 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 Thursday morning, ending the 17-day auction.

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

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