Why is NTSC Amiga 500+ so hard to find?

[Matt_H]

I read in and old magazine that the 500+ was never actually released to the North American market. I guess that's not quite the case reading the other posts in this thread ;-)

I think very late A500s over here were actually re-badged A500+s. Or something pretty damn close. My 500 has a full label like a 500+ (though it only says A-500) and the same LEDs as a 500+.

I've never actually opened it up though (still has the warranty seal!) so I don't know what exactly is under the hood. Still only have 1MB of Chip RAM with the trapdoor expansion installed...

[Matt_H]

I also have one of these (luckily found NOS) with the 500+ style label minus the "plus". I never opened it because of the intact warranty seal, and also thought they hadn't sold Rev 8 motherboards in the US market. It would sure be a downer if there's a leaking battery in there. Knowing C=, they probably would have shipped them sans battery but I suppose it's worth a look.

-edit-

If the BBOAH is correct, US Rev 8 boards were likely all OCS without batteries.

In the intervening years since I posted about my A-500, I did open it up. Turns out to have a rev 6 board inside.