When Commodore expanded to Europe in 1978 Jack doubled the price for the same machine (with a 220 watt power supply) under the Commodore PET 3008 3016 and 3032 badges.
This information is out, by a year and some details!
In 1977, I bought one of the first PETs to reach the UK - and it had the original 'chicklet' keyboard version. Serial 000167.
It cost £695.... which was a LOT!
And incidentally, I still have the original Commodore advertising/ order flyer, with a little picture of the Commodore!
- duncan
Last edited by administrator on Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Those "original" PET's sold in the UK were actually grey market boxes brought in by non-Commodore channels. Also, at that time the exchange rate was $2.50 / Pound (today it is still about $2/Pound)
There was a great story (from Chuck Peddle, I think) I could not squeeze into my PET article about a company that was selling a large volume of PET's in New York. They had gone through the regular channels to acquire their PET's which was odd given their volume. Out of curiosity, the regional rep for C= dropped into this basement location and was shocked to find only Apples for sale. Upon investigation, it turned out that this company was buying PET's, swapping out the power supplies, and shipping them to an associated company in London! C= cut them off.
We would LOVE to have a copy (or the original) advert, if you are willing to part with it.
C= was well established in the UK in 1977 but it was primarily for their worldwide calculator operations.
They no doubt demo'd PET's and sold KIM 1's but they had no PET production or official PET importation at that time. Remeber that in the summer of 1977 they were producing as few as 30 PET's per day. They could not keep up with US demand at the start.
The Brit's (and Germans, and the rest of Europe) quickly surpased the US / Canada in sales and importance to Commodore, but it took a few years.
C= was well established in the UK in 1977 but it was primarily for their worldwide calculator operations.
They no doubt demo'd PET's and sold KIM 1's but they had no PET production or official PET importation at that time. Remeber that in the summer of 1977 they were producing as few as 30 PET's per day....
That may well be; but my experience was different. C= distributed an official flyer which incorporated an order form - astonishingly, nearly 30 years later I still have it. And I used that form to buy my PET directly from Commodore. Also, I frequently visited their London HQ, where they demo'd and sold PETs. I even sold them some software (anyone ever seen 'DeepSpacer' or 'Trees'?).
- duncan
So: from the perspective of a UK buyer in 1977, PET sales in the UK were organised by Commodore, and offically supported by them, too!
I confirmed our information with several C= insiders who were in mgt at the time, so perhaps you were one of a very few people who were able to successfully order a UK PET in 1977.
Did you have the chance to locate that flyer? If you do, please email it to us will post it with credit to you.
