So many distinctions and distractions..
Has This thread has been about profit (theirs or ours) or who do you love?
At first AOTL and it%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;s need to show it%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;s anger when that was threatened???
And as the threads continued to show that love in
%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8220;As the Amiga World Turned%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8221;.
First, for your consideration..
Is and has AmigaKit been a %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8220;retail%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8221; store selling various products? Yes.
Has AmigaKit been based in England? Yes.
Has it been a problem for Amigans in the U.S.? Yes.
Has it done a perfect job. No. Not bad but not perfect.
Over all, Matthew was considered a saving grace for most Amigans after ALL the amiga stores closed.
At that time we loved Matthew as the owner of AmigaKit.
But now, AmigaKit is perceived as a distributor (and other things), by selling to other retail stores.
By luck and intent, Matthew is an owner of a store, AmigaKit. He also became a distributor as well as a partner in a manufacturing company A-Eon. Why? He was one of the few willing to risk his money!
But, as these companies all are different legal entities.
With the advent of the Internet, we are offered items to buy from the manufactures, distributors and the retail stores, even individuals.
So%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8230;
AmigaKit gets to sell to us.
A-Eon gets to choose to have AmigaKit distribute.
If you don%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;t like this close arrangement, just buy out Matthew (or Trevor)
One of the reasons we love AOTL was that Aaron (good cust service) but his prices weren%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;t great.
I know I wanted to support him as a new dealer so I bought a video card and other stuff. Another reason, the extra cost of freight might be lower (Iggy/Jim likes the fact he could drive to the store and save freight and return broken things without the hassle of return freight etc.) That%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;s why he loves AOTL, at this time) Might not be the case if AOTL was in CA.
But Consider freight, which we don%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8217;t love, it cost money to get things (people too) somewhere..trucks, trains, planes, fuel, drivers etc. Still have to pay.. even if it says free shipping
Next thing to consider is this business AOTL stating %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8220;in any way, shape or form%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8221; WOW!
I remember the days when the discounters lobbied to change the keystone retail prices here in CA.
The retailers hated it undercutting their prices. Then the law changed, then it was the discounters hating other dealers undercutting their profit. And so forth%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!8230;
A-Eon (Trevor) paid what was needed to make brand new custom boards,
AmigaKit (Matthew) has to manage his costs to be able to sell those boards.
AOTL (Aaron) has to manage his business.
Trevor, just Thanks. I love my X5000!!!