Charity Auction for 1982 Commodore 64 “Silver Label” with KU-14194HB Mainboard

In a few days’ time, I will be auctioning off this early and collectible Commodore 64 “silver label” from Christmas 1982, just before the release of the Commodore 64 in Europe in early 1983, with 50% of the proceeds going to charity. UK delivery will be in time for Christmas 2025, forty-three years after this one was made.

The Commodore 64 “silver label” was a limited edition of the C64, which is popular with collectors due to its rarity – these machines are very early examples of the Commodore 64, featuring silver case labels as seen on the C64 box artwork (hence their nickname).

Silver case labels were typically fitted to early Commodore 64s manufactured between early 1982 and early 1983 – in the US these labels were made from metal, and in the UK these were plastic (which lifts up with age).

These early machines were typically fitted with the first C64 board revision, the rare ASSY 326298 “buggy” board – this had all kinds of manufacturing problems and was usually replaced with the later ASSY 250407 board under warranty, then scrapped. In Europe, some machines were fitted with the rare ASSY KU-14194HB transition board.

Due to their limited availability for the time, “silver label” machines can be tricky to find, but not impossible – there are usually a couple up on eBay at any one time, but they often command high sale prices even in poor condition.

This one is so early that the serial number (WGB28406) is only five digits long, as though they expected to produce less than 99999 units per factory – the C64 is rumoured to have sold between 12,500,000 and 17,000,000 units whilst it was in production between 1983 and 1994. It also has the rare Europe-only KU-14194HB transition mainboard.

I picked this machine up sold-as-seen on Facebook marketplace, and since then I have carefully cleaned, restored, and tested it whilst keeping its original patina.

Early machines like this can be quite unreliable and a lot of work to get going again, so I wasn’t particularly surprised when I tested it out and it didn’t work – it powered up to a garbage screen with flashing cursor, so the core system was mostly working, it just couldn’t display text properly.

I diagnosed the U2 6526 CIA as being at fault – all the major ICs are socketed on these mainboards so I didn’t have to do any soldering to change it out, which is good because I wanted to touch this system as little as possible, the value in silver label C64s is primarily in their originality. The C64 Pictorial Fault Guide is excellent for debugging C64s.

With this replaced, the board seemed to work OK, with some minor graphical flickering – the aluminium electrolytic capacitors on these mainboards are prone to physical leakage, so I carefully replaced all of the smaller value parts (10uF / 100uF) with modern parts similar in appearance to the originals, and the video output is now perfect.

The unit is in very good physical condition albeit with a noticeable yellowed patina from UV exposure over the years, but I wouldn’t want to change this because that’s part of its story. It even has fully intact rear case clips, which is quite rare in any breadbin C64, let alone a silver label.

All of the ICs seem to be original apart from the U1 CIA (which I have replaced) and the VIC-II which is a 6569R3 dated 2583, it’s possible that this is a factory part but it is quite a lot later than the other ICs and could be a warranty repair, however the crack that the screws gave when I opened the case feels like it was actually the first time it has ever been opened up, so I’m not sure – it could be that the early board was made in late 1982 but only paired with a VIC-II and installed into a unit in 1983.

Aside from the repair work, I’ve thoroughly cleaned the unit including dismantling & cleaning the keyboard and cleaning the mainboard; I also cleaned the power switch, IC sockets, & all ports using contact cleaner, then applied new thermal paste on the VIC-II.

I try and test my systems as thoroughly as possible:

• The computer boots as expected with flashing cursor.
• All keyboard keys register correctly and the shift-lock mechanism works OK.
• The power LED works OK.
• Both the luma/chroma and composite video outputs work OK (RF is untested).
• The dedicated audio output works OK, tested with Andrew Challis’ “SID Tester” software – early SID ICs like this one are quite unreliable and this one seems to have intermittent filters (some sounds are the wrong pitch), analogue input tests also fail when the system is cold (blaming the 4066 @U28) but work OK when the system is warmed up so I think this is also just a temperamental early SID. I’m reluctant to change it though, as it is original to the machine.
• All VIC-II sprites work OK, tested with the “64-Doctor87” software.
• All tests pass with diagnostic cartridge and harness, soak tested for two hours.

This machine could make a very nice Christmas present for a loved one, or for yourself! I would be grateful if you could share the auction link with anyone who might be interested, and help me to raise some money for charity.

The auction is no-reserve with 50% automatically taken via eBay for Cancer Research UK, who are doing incredible work to improve lives – I’ve selected this amount to try and cover my own costs because it’s not protected by a reserve price.

The eBay listing for the auction is available here – this goes live at 18:00 GMT on Thursday 4th December 2025 and is due to finish at 18:00 GMT on Sunday 14th December 2025. Silver label machines don’t come up for sale all that often, so I’m hoping that we’ll be able to raise a decent bit of money together. Thank you!