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Commodore B128 sells for ...?

billdeg

billdeg

Technician
Joined
Nov 18, 2003
Messages
3,885
Location
Landenberg, PA USA
Ebay auction for a untested Commodore B-128. $1275! 25 bids!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280892114975

About time these started getting their due, they're excellent computers. Very rare you never see them on Ebay anymore.

I have an alternative ROM/OS project that I have on the back burner that uses the B128. Hopefully I will have it ready for the Chicago VCF next fall. If it works I will have 1MB RAM. No promises, I am not too far along yet.

Bill
 
Wow. And to think, it took what, four years for Protecto to liquidate the B-128 inventory?

I remember my local Commodore users group bought one of the Protecto B-128 packages, mostly to get the disk drives. After a few years they sold the B-128 and the printer for a pittance and kept the drives.
 
billdeg said:
The B128's are harder to find. They sold more 610s in Europe.
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Hey Bil, I'm not so sure about that. The evidence that Steve collected on his web page would suggest that there were more B128's than 610's. (around 10,000 B128's vs. 3,000 C610's). Whatever the reality, they're identical bar the PSU and a jumper on the motherboard, so I would still contend that it was over priced.

Then again, if you look at who the seller was, I think they possibly thought they were buying a bit of Commodore history. :)

Rob

btw - how do I get a C= poster from you? I forgot to catch up before I left VCF for the airport...

rob
 
I will have to take a look at the evidence Steve has on his web site with an open mind. I suppose 10,000 vs. 3,000 is still pretty small quantities anyway, when you compare with the VIC 20 and C64. Steve is probably more right than I. I can add this though...From my conversations with Bruce Fierson before he died (he was the last president of CBUG before it was disbanded) he was told that ALL B series (all models including the B-128) sales in the entire USA were 10,000, the worldwide total was 15,000. B-128's made up at least 40% of these, but I have no formal numbers so I am just passing along folklore stuff not hard numbers ...

anyway...

I hung out a bit with Bil Herd at VCF East last month, he really liked the poster. I saw him walking around with it actually so we (MARCH) gave him our framed museum copy. Mostly he and I talked about the band Genesis however. My ring tone is "Looking for Someone" off Trespass. ... get it?

The posters can be bought here:
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/poster_detail.cfm
There are still, a-hem, a few left..

Bill
 
I'm with you that they are great machines. I've been really lucky living in Switzerland in that the local auction sites regularly have old Commodore equipment but the market is so much smaller and less competitive. In the last 2 years I picked up a C720, a C710 and two C610's for a total outlay of < $700.

I hung out a bit with Bil Herd at VCF East last month, he really liked the poster. I saw him walking around with it actually so we (MARCH) gave him our framed museum copy.
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I know, we had it standing at the front of the room while we did our presentation. That's where I first saw it. :)

The posters can be bought here:
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/poster_detail.cfm
There are still, a-hem, a few left..
Click to expand...
Thx, order en route...

Rob
 
crock said:
Hey Bil, I'm not so sure about that. The evidence that Steve collected on his web page would suggest that there were more B128's than 610's. (around 10,000 B128's vs. 3,000 C610's). Whatever the reality, they're identical bar the PSU and a jumper on the motherboard, so I would still contend that it was over priced.

Then again, if you look at who the seller was, I think they possibly thought they were buying a bit of Commodore history. :)

Rob

btw - how do I get a C= poster from you? I forgot to catch up before I left VCF for the airport...

rob
Click to expand...


I have been collecting serial numbers from the web and ebay for a while. I also talked to edward shockley who actually has them all in a database. Edward says there were 15,000 of the various models made for north america but he has no european numbers, which motivated me to track them. Of couse, im assuming a few things, like serials starting at one.

Anyway, we may never know the true number.

Steve
 
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I've had one of these in my collection for about 15 years. I've never done anything with it, but this crazy price made me decide to put it up on Ebay. We're in a bit of a financial crunch, so I figured I could afford to see this one go. So I get it out, clean it off, and take some good pics of it. Turned it on and everything looks great!

So I've got the Ebay listing mostly written, and then get the bright idea to plug in my 4040 and show a picture of it listing a disk. I don't actually have any B128 programs, but I thought a directory listing would demonstrate the IEEE-488 bus was working properly. So, naturally I get a DEVICE NOT PRESENT error, and now it's a project!

I admit, I had that brief moment when I thought to myself that it would be better if I hadn't known and just listed it without finding out about the drive not working!

A day and a half later, I've got it fixed. But the price was extremely high. It turned out to be a bad 6525A at U2. It turns out this is a very hard-to-find chip. I sacrificed the one from my B500, which is arguably even more rare than the B128-80. It was socketed on the B500, so easy to test. It is now socketed in the B128-80 as well. <Sigh> Anybody got a 6525A they want to part with? :D

I have learned from http://www.insectria.org/b128/dusk.html that the 6525A was used in a very few other machines:

"On the 6525A there are several, though still rare, sources: another B series computer, the C64 magic voice cartridge, the 1551 disk drive, the B series 8088 coprocessor board, Amiga A570 CD-ROM drive, Amiga A690 CD-ROM drive, Commodore CDTV."

Yikes! Most of those things are also rare as hens teeth!
 
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KevinO said:
...the price was extremely high. It turned out to be a bad 6525A at U2. It turns out this is a very hard-to-find chip. I sacrificed the one from my B500, which is arguably even more rare than the B128-80. It was socketed on the B500, so easy to test. It is now socketed in the B128-80 as well. <Sigh> Anybody got a 6525A they want to part with? :D
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As it happens there was a discussion just recently on the CBM hackers list about duplicating a 6525 in an FPGA or equivalent; you might want to follow that and see if it goes anywhere.
 
I have a parts supplier in Shenzen, China who claims to be able to source 10 x 6525's and 10 x 6523A's for around $10 each. Although I was initially skeptical, they have come through with the goods twice now, including 20 x 8501's. They also refunded me the cost of ones that I could demonstrate did not work.

Nevertheless, with a minimum order of $200 plus shipping, it's a fair outlay to be making. If I decide to bear the initial cost and order, would anyone else be willing to chip in (pun intended) and buy some if they test as good? I haven't had a shipping quote yet but it'll probably add around $2 per chip, so around $12 each.

Rob
 
billdeg said:
What are the original chips going for now-a-day? Does anyone recall the last time a 6525 appeared on Ebay?
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Two came up about 6 weeks ago and I've seen 1 or two others over the last year. I think a few people have saved searches out there as buy-it-now auctions seem to be gone by the time I look. Here's a couple that were found on the cbm-hackers list going from anything between $15 and $30.


http://www.ebay.de/itm/IC-BAUSTEIN-COMMODORE-6525A-17505-129-/130590031236?pt=Bauteile&hash=item1e67c5bd84

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6525A-Manu-MOS-Encapsulation-DIP-40-/120901266100?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2646eab4

Rob
 
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