The Sketchy C64c

A while ago (actually, pre-COVID) Grant from NEON Retrofest and I went on a ride up to New Hampshire so he could buy some MSX machines. He had been talking to a guy online who was trying to slim down his collection before moving. I ended up buying a few things from him that I wanted for my collection, including this C64c.

So, there is definitely a story here.

Grant and I were driving up to New Hampshire to meet this guy. I drove because well, Grant doesn’t drive. But he does pay for the gas so that’s ok with me.
They had been chatting about selling some MSX machines that he had. There had been some chat of Commodores, but that’s not Grant’s passion like it is mine. When we got there, it already started to feel a bit weird. The house looked empty and dark, there was no vehicle in the driveway, and no garage. However, we were greeted by the guy when we drove up the driveway.
Looking around, it was clear he was getting ready to move, boxes all over, baren walls. But nowhere did it look like he was a collector of anything in that state. He lead us down a narrow stairwell into the basement. This was where the collection was.
There were computers and parts strewn everywhere. Boxes of parts, we stepped over and around all sorts of things. He lead us around the corner and we saw a rack of synthesizer modules. Beyond that was a large room with a workbench built into the wall all the way around. What once may have been workstations for each kind of computer were overrun with wires, boxes, papers. It wasn’t far from what you might see in an episode of Hoarders.
Off from that room there was a storage room which was absolutely impeccably organized. I saw so many things that I would have walked out with; if I had enough cash on hand. A wall of just Apple ][ variants. I wanted that ][gs Woz Edition that I saw, but there was only one. And that’s where it started to get difficult. The guy would only part with things he had multiples of. I get it. I wouldn’t want to give away my only Apple ][ as well. But it wasn’t. It was just one of a wall. But each was just slightly unique. There were different variants, or had slightly different revisions of motherboards. The guy wouldn’t actually part with anything.

There were two MSX machines that Grant really wanted. They negotiated for almost an hour, to no avail. The things Grant wanted he wasn’t willing to part with for a reasonable amount of money because he couldn’t ever replace them. Which was the whole point. They were collectors items.

After a bit of listening to Grant laugh for a bit, which I knew meant that there was an obviously bad deal for him being offered, I stepped in to ask about the CBM machines. He was willing to part with the C16 because it didn’t work. He assumes the processor is dead and doesn’t want to bother to find a replacement. Score, I totally lowballed him for that. I asked about a Plus/4. Again he was willing to sell a parts machine; after scavenging what he needed from it to fix the one on his bench. I saw the C64c on the bench. It was working, it was on. I pointed out that he had several boxes for them in the storage room. He said most of them were actually empty, waiting for him to restore others and refill them to sell on eBay. I seemed confused. This guy wouldn’t part with anything that worked, why would he sell on eBay?

I let Grant negotiate for a MSX2 machine, that we discussed the he paid too much for, but didn’t want to walk away empty handed. He ended up making another trip up a few weeks later when the guy really needed to clear stuff out before moving.

Back to the C64c, there seemed to be some confusion in this guys face. He brought out two boxes for a 64c. One was an early one that was in good condition, and one was a bit later one that offered GEOS and educational software. I guess this was worth less for him. He took the working one off the desk and put it in the good box. Took that machine out of that box and set it up. It would boot up, but the image was all messed up (thinking back now, I think it was PAL and he didn’t realize it). Frustrated from having to deal with Grant’s negotiations, he put it back in its box and put the one that had been on the bench in the GEOS box. Neither had a power supply, so he dug around until he found one. Remember this is the hoarders-esque room. About 5 boxes and 20 minutes later he dug out a power supply and a RF switch. Roughly threw the parts into the box, which had no packing materials so everything just moved around within it. And I didn’t take it out of the box again until I went to make this video.

Of course he gave me a bad power supply. But I could salvage the parts from it to make the universal power supply!