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Commodore PET 2001-8 value?

Yes, some people do refer to them as such, but do you think they should? It's not a name you will ever find on any Commodore literature.

IMHO at best it's misleading and at worst, dishonest and fraudulent. You can find a couple of examples on evilbay where the description is "Porsche designed PET". I also think it's disrespectful to Ira's legacy (he died in 2000 coming back from the CES) of innovational designs for Commodore and Atari. The patent that he registered for his CBM-II designs can be viewed via the link below, and you can click through to the images to see the drawings.

Patent D277,857

If you do a free-text search for Ira Velinsky you can also see he filed patents for the low-profile CBM-II cases, the Max Machine, and even the one for the ubiquitous C64/MAX machine cases.

Maybe I should start a campaign to refer to them as the "Velinsky PET" instead.
 
There's an awful lot of things that are called the wrong thing. An awful lot of people who are slighted by that. The amount of lies that are propagated as unquestionable truth these days is utterly insurmountable. I would hope Mr. Velinsky would proudly say he was the designer of the famous Porsche PET.

If someone is gullible enough to believe that whatever an eBay seller says raises the value of the product, who's fault is that?

I guess I'm not much of an activist.

I got a lot of flak recently for telling someone that the Pontiac 151 is not the Iron Duke. It's true. I'm right, and I can prove it, the Iron Duke was a Chevy. But you know what? For the last thirty years, the people with the louder voices have been getting it wrong, and even Wikipedia says I'm wrong. So even though I'm right, arguing about it doesn't serve any other end than to make me look a fool.
 
KC9UDX said:
I got a lot of flak recently for telling someone that the Pontiac 151 is not the Iron Duke. It's true. I'm right, and I can prove it, the Iron Duke was a Chevy. But you know what? For the last thirty years, the people with the louder voices have been getting it wrong, and even Wikipedia says I'm wrong. So even though I'm right, arguing about it doesn't serve any other end than to make me look a fool.
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According to my 15 minutes of Google searching that now qualifies me as a GM engine histortion, it seems that Chevrolet used the nickname "Iron Duke" unofficially on the 153 cu.in. Chevy II/Nova engine, to differentiate it from the notoriously unreliable albuminum-block Chevy Vega engine. The 151 cu.in. Pontiac engine was designed to replace the Chevy II engine, except this time Pontiac took the name "Iron Duke" and used it officially in their advertising, both to again differentiate it from the aluminum-block engine and also to carry over the good reputation of the very similar Chevy engine. This led to lots of confusion (some of which still persists today) that the two engines were largely identical and were easily interchangable, when in fact they were not.

So you are right... and wrong. You're right that the Chevy II engine was referred to as the Iron Duke (albeit only unofficially), but you're wrong that this somehow makes the similar-but-not-identical Pontiac engine an illegitimate recipient of the Iron Duke name. You lost that argument 40 years ago -- and given the Pontiac engine's wide use across GM's lineup (and even in some AMCs and Jeeps) from the 1970s to the 1990s, whereas the Chevy engine was only used on a single U.S. car model before being discontinued in 1970, it's no wonder that the Pontiac engine is the only "Iron Duke" that most people know.
 
falter said:
Well.. here's one of those really early PETs..

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=272202974341&alt=web

Blue PCB??
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Wow that is an impressively tidy and low serial @ 631, I've not seen many blue PCB version. The Sanyo cassette deck looks really clean too. If that had been in the UK for that price I would have snapped it up! The metal faceplate looks like it even has some of it's shine left, unlike mine which has dulled down... but I'm just glad to have one at all given that so few made it to the UK.
 
circuit said:
Wow that is an impressively tidy and low serial @ 631, I've not seen many blue PCB version. The Sanyo cassette deck looks really clean too. If that had been in the UK for that price I would have snapped it up! The metal faceplate looks like it even has some of it's shine left, unlike mine which has dulled down... but I'm just glad to have one at all given that so few made it to the UK.
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That price is disturbing considering the lousy condition some of the ones that sold for more were in.
 
Ya...

Ya...

mac512 said:
Hi guys.
I have the opportunity to acquire an extremely low serial number PET 2001-8. It's a Blue label and screen trim model in very decent shape. However, it's not working and the screen only displays that classic non-working-PET garbage.
How much do you think it is worth?
Thanks.
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Well I guess no one ever answered the question, and I also suppose it's really just an opinion. I find thst the most common answer to the "what is it worth" question is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. An inexperienced collector without much background knowledge who really wants one might pay a rediculous amount. As of 2016, the number of these machines appearing is dwindling rapidly, and most are now I believe in private collections/museums. The price of these machines will continue to rise over time, so really whatever you paid for it, youll eventually get your money back if it is an investment.

My valuation, and I should stress that it is my personal opinion, is that a working, clean museum quality blue badge pet is worth 1500-1800, and you might on a good day get away with 2500, but it would be way out of the ballpark. Like say someone who randomly saw it and went OOOO I want it right now! Trust and believe it wont sell fast at a higher price...but it will eventually. A working one with average wear and tear, 1000-1500. A non functional, but cosmetically very decent one, maybe 400-700. A "barn find" one that doesnt work, is filthy and will take a lot of work, 300-500.

Lastly one that is physically damaged(missing keys, doesnt work, severe rust, major dents, crt is trashed) depending on the extent of such damage should be priced as junk because only a very serious and skilled collector could bang the dents out, repair rust damage, spend oodles of spare time looking for chips, tracking down a suitable replacement crt\repairing damaged crt circuit. Some things are easier to find like replacement pet key stickers...but i repaired one with a broken 6520 uart. It took 3 months for me to find some. Memory is another issue. It is possible to make some "mod"ware and use a 2114 sram, but it requires some know how. 6550 memory is simply extinct.

So simply bare in mind these things when considering your purchase. If it just going to be eye candy? Buy a junk one and bang the dents out, fill and sand as needed, repaint. I myself however love vintage computing and a broken computer nags at my conscience every day until it is fixed and completely restored to new condition. Id never sell my PETs though, they are worth more than money.
 
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Forbidden64 said:
Well I guess no one ever answered the question, and I also suppose it's really just an opinion. I find thst the most common answer to the "what is it worth" question is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. An inexperienced collector without much background knowledge who really wants one might pay a rediculous amount. As of 2016, the number of these machines appearing is dwindling rapidly, and most are now I believe in private collections/museums. The price of these machines will continue to rise over time, so really whatever you paid for it, youll eventually get your money back if it is an investment.

My valuation, and I should stress that it is my personal opinion, is that a working, clean museum quality blue badge pet is worth 1500-1800, and you might on a good day get away with 2500, but it would be way out of the ballpark. Like say someone who randomly saw it and went OOOO I want it right now! Trust and believe it wont sell fast at a higher price...but it will eventually. A working one with average wear and tear, 1000-1500. A non functional, but cosmetically very decent one, maybe 400-700. A "barn find" one that doesnt work, is filthy and will take a lot of work, 300-500.

Lastly one that is physically damaged(missing keys, doesnt work, severe rust, major dents, crt is trashed) depending on the extent of such damage should be priced as junk because only a very serious and skilled collector could bang the dents out, repair rust damage, spend oodles of spare time looking for chips, tracking down a suitable replacement crt\repairing damaged crt circuit. Some things are easier to find like replacement pet key stickers...but i repaired one with a broken 6520 uart. It took 3 months for me to find some. Memory is another issue. It is possible to make some "mod"ware and use a 2114 sram, but it requires some know how. 6550 memory is simply extinct.

So simply bare in mind these things when considering your purchase. If it just going to be eye candy? Buy a junk one and bang the dents out, fill and sand as needed, repaint. I myself however love vintage computing and a broken computer nags at my conscience every day until it is fixed and completely restored to new condition. Id never sell my PETs though, they are worth more than money.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with all of the above especially the last part!
 
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