Commodore Trade-In Promotion

[jhd]

I recently learned that for a time in 1983(?), Commodore ran a promotion where they offered $100 towards a new C-64 when someone traded-in another home computer. 

 

Does anyone know what happened to the systems that were traded-in? Were they sent to landfill/recycling, or were they resold on the secondary market?

 

I can only assume that Commodore lost money on this promotion as much of the hardware traded-in would be worth less than $100 (e.g. the TI-99 4/A that was then selling new for $50), but I would expect that there was an attempt to recoup at least some money.

 

 

[The Usotsuki]

I heard a rumor some were used as doorstops at Commodore offices.

[carlsson]

Yes, at least the Timex Sinclair 1000:s people would trade in. Dunno about the TI-99/4A:s, I believe the topic was up for discussion before elsewhere but I don't remember what was the conclusion.

[bluejay]

Why would they chuck it into the landfill if they bought it for $100? They could have used it for spare parts if necessary, although I highly doubt that would have happened. Probably sold it to some generic computer store somewhere for $101.

[carlsson]

Commodore probably had very little use of traded in Timex Sinclair 1000 and Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Landfill would be in order to do write-offs, as goods need to be "disarmed" in order to do so. Giving it away to people in need, schools, third world etc would give goodwill but I don't know if it qualifies for write-offs as the stuff still would be in circulation. Also putting it for sale again at $50 would require some identification that the customer could not buy it to use again for a trade-in discount. I'm sure there is some company report or internal memo that mentions the aftermath and which volumes Commodore really traded in, perhaps the numbers are exaggerated.

[shoestring]

I remember Bil Herd saying that they had a warehouse full of those machines but it's unclear where their final destination was.

 

[carlsson]

I just checked the annual report for fiscal 1984 (i.e. the year starting in July 1983 and ending in June 1984). While it mentions the price cuts in the previous fiscal year (June 1983) and how sales had grown a lot since then, I didn't see any mention of trade in, nor any figures indicating they would have put it towards stock.

[awhite2600]

On 3/31/2020 at 5:57 AM, carlsson said:

I just checked the annual report for fiscal 1984 (i.e. the year starting in July 1983 and ending in June 1984). While it mentions the price cuts in the previous fiscal year (June 1983) and how sales had grown a lot since then, I didn't see any mention of trade in, nor any figures indicating they would have put it towards stock.

Any costs associated with the promotion such as the $100 discount, storage and disposal fees would likely be rolled up under something like Promotions or Advertising when reporting financials publicly.  I can't see any detail being reported other than internally.  

[+OLD CS1]

I remember reading somewhere that trade-in computers were seen around the Commodore offices as door-stops.

[Ed in SoDak]

Given Tramiel's cut-throat mindset, I'm sure he figured any "Not-A-Commodore" computer taken off the streets was one less machine supporting his competitors. So of course that meant not putting them back into the market at any price. All the while his marketbase increased, his competition lost the same amount. Double Win! Stored long enough to take the writeoff, then landfilled, I'm sure. No proof, of course, but is any really needed? Does this look like the kind of guy who would help the man his horse just kicked to the curb?