Super-rare Commodore 65 is on sale at eBay

Super-rare Commodore 65 is on sale at eBay
Most of the computer fans know - if not remember personally - the legendary Commodore 64 computer, best-selling single model computer of all times. However, very few people actually know that the c=64 also had a successor, Commodore 65 that never made it to the markets.

Commodore, noticing that during the era of 16-bit computers, their old cashcow, Commodore 64 was quickly losing its sales, set up a team to milk the last pennies out of the decade-old Commodore 64. They built a backwards compatible Commodore 65 that added features similar to Commodore's other computer line, Amiga.



C=65 had a built in 3.5" disk drive, high-resolution graphics and CPU at 3.54MHz (C=64 ran at 1MHz) with 128kB of memory (expandable to 1MB) - and most importantly, a C=64 mode, allowing the computer to run C=64's massive software and game selection.

Company managed to build appx. 50 - 200 prototype units, but nothing more. After Commodore went bankrupt in 1994, its assets were liquidated and the prototypes were sold all across the world.

Commodore 65 on sale at eBay, September 2017

Now, there's one of those prototypes on sale at eBay. Currently the price is appx $3'300 (appx €3'000), but as there's 6 days left in auction, it is highly likely to reach much, much higher levels. In the past, Commodore 65 units have been sold within $15'000 - $20'000 range.

The unit on sale has one major nag: it is missing the VIC-III graphics chip, so the buyer needs to get the gfx chip from other sources in order to actually get the device working, too.

So, if you had your payday and somehow still don't own C=65 in your computer collection, this might be the right time to fix that.

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 1 Sep 2017 5:41
Tags
Commodore Commodore 64 Commodore 65
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  • 11 comments
  • ivymike

    Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fork
    over $3500.00+
    for that piece of shit???

    1.9.2017 06:13 #1

  • dRD

    Originally posted by ivymike: Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fork
    over $3500.00+
    for that piece of shit???
    Haha :-) Considering how much people are willing to pay for stuff they collect, yes, I assume some people are more than willing to cough up that kind of money. Last C65 that was on sale at eBay was sold for more than $15'000..

    1.9.2017 06:31 #2

  • ivymike

    With $3500.00, I can build my own Intel Core i9 computer with a top of the line motherboard and GPU card(s) and still have money left over.

    1.9.2017 06:57 #3

  • dRD

    Originally posted by ivymike: With $3500.00, I can build my own Intel Core i9 computer with a top of the line motherboard and GPU card(s) and still have money left over. Well, it is one of those things. People pay happily more than million dollars for rare, old cars - when you can simply buy a new, much better one for $25'000. Collecting stuff doesn't always follow "normal people's" logic :-)

    1.9.2017 07:04 #4

  • treyjazz

    I wonder if installing the graphics chip would actually hurt its value since it would no longer be original.

    1.9.2017 09:45 #5

  • hearme0

    There's nostalgia and then there's idiocy.

    This is the latter. While I can certainly appreciate the desire for a "classic", this is tantamount to holding on to your first security blanket or pacifier from when being a kid.

    The C65 is essentially useless, won't challenge even in the slightest, the minds of today. It's a novelty, a 20k dollar one at that seemingly and anyone buying this will sure as shit, kick this to the side later on and be like "Hmmm.......haven't seen this in 15 yrs since I bought it for the price of my new car, guess I'll take this out and play with it..............for 6 minutes"

    The "Old car" analogy doesn't apply as old cars are cool, highly useful, rather practical (albeit not fuel efficient)


    I laugh at all the stupid 2-legged creatures that hoard and crap grab everything in life like it'll ward off cancer later down the road.

    People are just non-sensical and bad decision-makers in general. Not me though.

    1.9.2017 11:13 #6

  • ren97

    C64 was one of the best parts of my childhood. Bonding with my mom and brother over Kings Quest puzzles. Being at the forfront of FPS's with wolfenstein.

    Her teaching me DOS commands that launched my interest in computers and eventually my career. Then playing Doom 2 with the neighbors.

    Amazing piece of technology at the time.

    "History cannot repeat itself if we refuese to allow it" ~veo

    1.9.2017 11:18 #7

  • adre02

    Originally posted by hearme0: There's nostalgia and then there's idiocy.

    This is the latter. While I can certainly appreciate the desire for a "classic", this is tantamount to holding on to your first security blanket or pacifier from when being a kid.

    The C65 is essentially useless, won't challenge even in the slightest, the minds of today. It's a novelty, a 20k dollar one at that seemingly and anyone buying this will sure as shit, kick this to the side later on and be like "Hmmm.......haven't seen this in 15 yrs since I bought it for the price of my new car, guess I'll take this out and play with it..............for 6 minutes"

    The "Old car" analogy doesn't apply as old cars are cool, highly useful, rather practical (albeit not fuel efficient)


    I laugh at all the stupid 2-legged creatures that hoard and crap grab everything in life like it'll ward off cancer later down the road.

    People are just non-sensical and bad decision-makers in general. Not me though.
    Your statement means what? People have free will to do with their own money as they wish. Its rather feminine to complain about another person's finances and what they do with them.

    Its even more lame to cast your opinion on how you feel towards someone spending their money on something completely legal.

    However you do that quite a bit around here so what should I have expected?

    This is superman

    1.9.2017 14:25 #8

  • cart0181

    In this case I think it's a lot less about what the device can do, and more about owning a piece of computing history. But then, I just watched a documentary about the history of the internet so maybe I'm being nostalgic.

    3.9.2017 01:01 #9

  • hebbedeh

    Originally posted by ivymike: Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fork
    over $3500.00+
    for that piece of shit???
    Okay it's one thing to admit you're stupid

    ..but if you just don't have the money there's no point advertising it is there, sheesh :P

    3.9.2017 21:05 #10

  • monkeylove

    Originally posted by ivymike: With $3500.00, I can build my own Intel Core i9 computer with a top of the line motherboard and GPU card(s) and still have money left over. I think collectors buy them not to replace their work or home desktop.

    7.9.2017 06:47 #11

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