Is it just me, or are Commodore 64's built like crap?

A buddy of mine pulled his C-64 out of storage and wanted me to see if I could get it running so he could show his kid.  Hooked it up and nothing.  Reseated all of the chips, tried a different PSU and still nada.    So I found one on shop goodwill.com for a decent price.  That one actually turned on but had nothing but funky characters all over the display.  Tried to reseat all of those chips to no avail as well.

So I saw a local dude selling one on Craigslist.  Tried that one and that one doesn't work either.  Thankfully the guy refunded my cash.

Am I just really unlucky, or do they suck that bad?

I've had an occasional issue with an Atari, but nothing like this.

Pete