Popular Science Reviews the Commodore PET 2001 in 1977

The World’s First Personal Computer.  The PET prototype shown at the January 1977 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had a chassis made of wood and painted yellow so they would look like metal.  The monitors were stripped from Zenith TV’s bought at a local retailer on sale for US$89.95 ($340 in 2018 dollars) each.

The original Commodore 2001 ‘Chiclet keyboard’ PET was advertised and sold by mail order (with an up to six month delay) for US$495, which was quickly increased to US$595 ($2500 in 2018 dollars).  These 4K models were discouraged and Commodore pushed the US$795 ($3100 in 2018 dollrs) 8K models.  When Commodore moved into the European market founder and CEO Jack Tramiel doubled that price and found that Commodore still could not keep up with demand.