But the good news is that BBC Micro's and the like, costing around £ 400 back in 1983 (what would that be now?) now change hands for around £ 20 to £ 30. Still perfectly adequate for word processing and the like. How many do you want?
PS: there is an unused BBC Model B (still in original packing
etc.) currently on eBay that looks like it might reach £ 200 ... but that is a rare, collector's item (I would love to own it, but needless to say, I won't be bidding)!
PPS: I'm still looking for the Inter-Base ROM from Computer Concepts. You could "flick" from Inter-Word to Inter-Chart to Inter-Base to Inter-Sheet (all in ROM) and "cut and paste" between them.
Gonzo fast task switching (as in
instant), plus a spell-checker in sideways RAM ... all on a 32 K 6502 8-bit machine. To my mind that's better than what I'm using right now (MS Office "suite", and all the rest).
PPPS: Also looking for C in a ROM for the BBC Micro (and other 6502 machines). Does such a beautiful thing exist at all, I wonder?