Commodore(-usa) 64 spotted on craigslist $600

Threw me for a loop of course seeing someone offering a Commodore 64 for $600. New in box the ad says and the box didn't quite look like any I remember. Took me a sec before I realized oh.. this is one of those new clones with the Atom chipset. Interesting although not personally $600 interesting.
Commodore 64 (2011) - $600 (Leander,TX)

bartythrin said

Interesting although not personally $600 interesting.

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That's why we have Goodwill, Big Lots, etc.

I sometimes get the impression that people think if you started out with something like a C64, that now you're just a dummy, and will take any swill ladled inside a "retro" case, and line up to by it. Booring.
But see, if they took the Atom & put the system inside a CBM coffee mug, with a projector to throw a virtual C64 against the wall/ceiling, and then hack in Microsoft Kinect to interact with it, now that would be properly geeky to find someone to by it for me.
A xxx inside a non-original yyy, well, after it's been done once, go boil your head.
patscc

Hipsters.
If its retro they'll invest in it at any cost because they have no clue just how badly they are being swindled.

To me, the case design of the original "breadbin" C64 was the least appealing part of it. It was chunky, not ergonomic to type on, used drab shades of beige and brown, and was really rather homely-looking. I highly prefer the sleeker, more modern design of the C-64C. So to have a new "retro" computer which reproduces the look of the breadbin C64 but none of its hardware is really rather pointless to me. (And as Chris Pirillo pointed out, it doesn't have the graphics character symbols printed on the side of the keys, which was one of the C64's trademarks!)

vwestlife said

To me, the case design of the original "breadbin" C64 was the least appealing part of it.

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Ain't that the truth. As a kid I desperately wanted a computer, and by the time I had the money, the Sinclair QL ( at least in Europe ) was on the scene, which let me program a 3-D spline fitter, so I kinda went with that. Of course, while I'm proudly displaying my splined surface, my non-friends are busy being cool with a C64...
I always hated clacky keyboards, because as a kid, that meant your parents knew what you were up to.
patscc

The fact that the owner is trying to recoup all of what he paid for it is a bit telling.

Yeah, I have no idea what the retail price was actually. I'm sure it's probably someone who realized it wasn't what they thought or a wife selling something lol. It quite possible is much cheaper than the brand new one but who knows. I still wish I had tried harder to get Curtis' commodore-usa laptop but unfortunately the owner prior to him had already wiped out the original linux with the commodore software/demo it had.