Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: redrumloa on August 24, 2004, 01:27:47 PM
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It's no secret that the Amiga market is very weak. It is also no secret that my primary business partner Cybereye never wanted to enter the market in the first place. As many of you will recall we actually exited the market before we were to launch, and ended up reversing it and going forward anyhow. Despite growth, albeit extremely slow growth, we've yet to hit profitability after 1 year.
For love of the platform, I'd love to march forward continuing to add products. But honestly it probably end ripping the company apart. How can I justify investing so much time and resources to CE when we KNOW profitability of other ventures?
Anyhow I'm not here to whine, just being open as I think I always have been. We are considering ceasing all classic products, we'll see. In the meantime I'm willing to take inquiries on a full stock buyout. We are a brick and mortar company, but this market is more suited for a bedroom operation. I'll take serious inquiries from either established companies or individuals in the US. Only serious inquiries though, for full or near full buyout inquiries only. Prices will be discussed at a later time but please don't bother unless you actually have money (in multiple thousands) in the bank;-)
PS. No worries to our current customers. We will continue support as needed if we do pull out.
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Hi Red, sorry to hear that you've decided to call it a day. It must have been hard with such a small market to try and operate a business with overheads.
I'm sure many users on this board are grateful for the support you've given the Amiga community, particularly in the US.
All the best,
Regards
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Red,
Sorry to see you go. I just want to say thanks again for the quick delievery and professional service for the OS 3.5 cd I purchased from your eBay Store. Good luck in your business, I hope you find someone to buy your stock at a good price.
Ed King
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Oh well, I expect many other Amiga dealers close their doors soon... especially those selling classic Amiga stuff...
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Thats a shame, but I think its a good decision as well. The classic market has been at a stand still for a long time. Its only getting smaller as people systems go down and with all the shamefull ebay sellers taking advantage of others its only a matter of time before everyone pulls out.
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It is a shame when people who have served the Amiga community and market for a while have to call it a day.
The market is small, but there still is a classic market and with the next generation machines coming, there will be demand in the future.
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@Acill:
I know that by your comments you are really thinking of me, however did you know that Red is also selling stuff on eBay? Should he be ashamed too, when scoring a good deal here and there? Anyway, my point is, please stop with nonsense. Why do you think he is selling stuff on eBay? Because just by having a software hut like webshop would not even remotely bring him enough profits to continue with his business, and make a success of it, however as you can see, sometimes even eBay is not enough.
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Sad. :-(
On the other hand. Less competition means better buisness for the remaining dealers! :-D
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I tend to agree w/Acill.
For some reason I want a A4000D/040 or 060 though.. Dunno what I'd use it for though.
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Despite growth, albeit extremely slow growth, we've yet to hit profitability after 1 year.
You cant run a business without making a profit so the desision is a sensible one .with the age of some of the classic amigas it can make it hard to justify spending loads on . :-)
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@Red
What about maintaining Amiga products but also including stuff for other platforms. It's been the way many internet Amiga stores managed to keep being alive.
Also, maybe (or probably) there won't a night/day difference but the Amiga market is expected to grow as AmigaOS4 consumer version is launched and more PPC native apps are ported.
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Hey Red!! You don't have any dead SID chips do you?
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Sorry to see you exit the Amiga market, but I share your pain. I don't see much viability left in the US Amiga market.
Dammy
Black Troll Technology Corporation (http://www.blacktroll.com)
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It's still possible to make a buck, but yes as a bedroom operation more likely than a genuine store, but beware of the secret Amiga Communist society out to get you.
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@x56h34 - Just to put this to rest, I am not bitter about this at all. The more I thought about it, the easier the decision it was for me to buy it. On a side note, I'll probably continue to buy more and more Amiga stuff as I go. Next on my list a Flicker Fixer, then a CD-Rom or PCMCIA Card, then an OS upgrade. The cost? I don't care :-)
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I will continue to sell items for the Classic Amiga and Atari ST computers. Red, I would be interested in buying all of your Classic Amiga stock. Email me. :-D
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@redrumloa
Really quite awful news. So few places to get quality Amiga stuff. I personally would hate to see you go. Wish I had more cash to buy more stuff. Everything has been top drawer, imho.
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@red
Oh dear - sorry to hear this, but glad you have other ventures in mind.
I expect most people who have Classic systems are waiting for the MicroA1 to materialise and see how it stacks up, or watching the Peg's progress?
Maybe the Amiga market will revive some once the MicroA1 is here and you could consider a re-entry then? In any case I hope the experience has not been a TOTALLY negative one and proves useful for any future endeavours.
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Well, I'm sorry to see you leave the Amiga market, Red. I totally understand the decision, though... You've been one of the few "good guys" in what is basically only a crook's market, nowadays.
Best of luck in your future ventures. :-)
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For love of the platform, I'd love to march forward continuing to add products. But honestly it probably end ripping the company apart. How can I justify investing so much time and resources to CE when we KNOW profitability of other ventures?
Well, for one thing, you do seem to be doing it better then others have been.. IMHO, if it wasn't for you (= your shop) a lot of hard to find hardware would be impossible to get for normal users.
That said, most Amiga users are moving on to either a Pegasos, AmigaONE or WinUAE, so interest in classic hardware in the form of Zorro, PCMCIA and clockports are going to get less.. In the end, people are going to use standard Amiga's (unexpanded) to play classic games, and use the newer hardware to use productivity programs.
You either move along with them or stay behind or quit now.
Anyway, you've been a great help keeping the classic line alive. :-)
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You mean all those big purchases you've been making haven't resulted in big sales? It was looking like you were selling old stuff like gangbusters. Do you really still have loads of olde stock just sitting around?
We are a brick and mortar company, but this market is more suited for a bedroom operation.
You have an actual store? Neat. I thought it was just YOUR bedroom. :-)
You're still going to be in business, just not for the classic Amiga market, right? Where does the "anachronism" come into play if you abandon the retro-ware. Maybe in a Phillip J. Fry sort of way?
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x56h34 wrote:
@Acill:
I know that by your comments you are really thinking of me, however did you know that Red is also selling stuff on eBay? Should he be ashamed too, when scoring a good deal here and there? Anyway, my point is, please stop with nonsense. Why do you think he is selling stuff on eBay? Because just by having a software hut like webshop would not even remotely bring him enough profits to continue with his business, and make a success of it, however as you can see, sometimes even eBay is not enough.
Dude I wasnt thinking of you at all, enough of that. I was thinking of the people that steal money for CSPPC cards ect. Grow up will ya.
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Red,
I can't express how sad it is for me to see you considering leaving the market. I completely understand, as you and I have had dozens of conversations regarding the matter, and I've said for a long, long time that the current Amiga market is simply too small to fully support an "amiga-only" company.
I had somehow hoped that you would have been able to continue indefinitely, or at least as long as needed, with the Amiga aspect of your business as a secondary part of your company, but again, even that's too much to ask when everyone here pretty much already HAS every classic component lying about, or knows someone who does.
I would love to have had the opportunity to discuss deals for selling off your current stock for you. Alas, thanks in large part to personal circumstances -- mostly caused by my ill-chosen employment decisions and the current technical job market here in Huntsville -- my finances are currently at about at the same level as the dearly departed Amiga Inc.
I doubt you have any use whatsoever for the only asset that I have left (Amiga.org itself), so there's not really much I could offer.. That is to say, except to offer my best wishes for the future. If I, or Amiga.org can be of any assistance whatsoever, please let me know.
Wayne
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Greetings red,
Realiy bites, Red. :-( It breaks my heart another one bites the dust. I did not even know you own a shop. Now I knew it too late. Anyway, Good luck to your future endeavor.
Regards,
Gizz
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BouncingAyatollah wrote:
I expect most people who have Classic systems are waiting for the MicroA1 to materialise and see how it stacks up
yeah, I'm looking at that myself. the A1 towers i've seen look really nice and seem to work great.
hey, Red: i told Kurt to contact you when I saw your post this morning. he's busy, but hopefully, he'll have a chance to email you.
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It's really a shame, but I understand as well. Thanks for the great deal on OS 3.5 btw :-) Wish I could afford to support Amiga shops more than I have already, but everything is just so damn expensive. I've had an Amiga since I was 15, and as I grew older and got a job working with PCs all the time (building and repairing) I drifted away and got spoiled by the speed and inexpensive hardware. But I do have to say that nothing touched me as a computer more than the classic Amiga and I doubt anything ever will again.
I had no idea where this was going but it's all good anyway!
Good luck with any future ventures, and thank you for your support!
-Jamie
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I don't blame you, Red. I'd considered launching in to a project with a friend of mine to build (yet another) Coldfire CPU card for all Amigas, complete with connector for an external PCI box. Imagine that! An A1000 at 500mhz and a set of PCI slots. Network, USB, video, sound, SATA card, etc. Drivers would've been built as we went.
At any rate, the number of active, in-use Amigas in the world (forget the U.S.; that number is perhaps a hundred, maybe two hundred) dwindles by the day. No point in pursuing it, when at it's cheapest the whole shebang would've cost $400-$500.
So I totally understand this move.
Hey, sell A1 and Pegasus stuff...
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Sorry for the slow follow up, been crazy busy:-o
You know what? You guys are great. The kind words from Wayne and all the users here are very much appreciated. That's one thing about the Amiga market, overall it's very reasonable and appreciative. Selling ANYTHING else on eBay has been a potentially hazardous experience, with the notable exception of Amiga items. I only have been burned by one Amiga customer in recent memory.
We havn't pulled the plug yet BTW. We've discussed it, but honestly we havn't had a single serious inquiry about our inventory. At very least we'll continue with a zombie march for a while. Our stock on certain items is quite large, so at least until we thin our stock out a bit we'll be around. :-)
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Red is not a rip off b@stard, so i hope he does well in future projects etc.
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Paul_Gadd wrote:
Red is not a rip off bstard, so i hope he does well in future projects etc.
Maybe he should put that quote on the main page of his website. :-)
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You have the most absolutely strange way of stating things.
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I say it as i see it. Jim and that guy behind AmigaKit deserve to do well, while the rest can rot.
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I like your eBay webshop, it's very user-friendly and so many people use eBay. You have a lot of vintage items. Maybe you could offer more items of current software like Hollywood or Knights & Merchants or a TCP/IP stack package or Pagestream or AmIRC or Papyrus Office or the more recent games etc. from Hyperion and Epic and Titan and IOSpirit?
You could try to sell some PPC boards for Genesi or Eyetech. Maybe there is a way to do this without expending a lot of capital to get in the boards, I don't know.
I think you are right that there is not much money to be made right now. I think we'll be lucky to see more of a market anytime soon. The above suggestions might help you, but if you are doing this as anything but a fun sideline or because you love it, it is probably not a winning proposition anythime soon.
I see you post here on amiga.org often but haven't noticed you on the other boards. Maybe you could spread the word a bit more about your nice webshop? I think the oweners of those boardswould not mind to much if you said "hey, come and check out our great merchandise like..."
Good luck!
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I can't believe that I actually missed this thread :-o
Sorry to hear the news red, you were one of the good guys. Just a pity that I've never had the chance to buy anything from your store (lack of money, overseas and all). It's a shame it had to happen, but the Amiga market is small and the classic market is a bit smaller still.
Mind you, think about all the extra time you'll have once the shop is closed. You'll be able to spend it all on here :-D
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@Velcro_SP
You've actually hit on a very key point here.
I see you post here on amiga.org often but haven't noticed you on the other boards.
Well yes and no. As far as just posts go, my posts to ANN and Mob have tapered off lately, but AFAIK I'm still in the top 20 posters on ANN. AO is my favorite site for a few reasons, mainly because it's the last stronghold for classic users. Other sites seem to have gone quite on classic talk. Shame. I post news and the odd forum post to other sites, but i don't want to over do it just for free advertising.
Posts are just one thing though, that in and of itself is usually not advertising. Banners OTOH are. Wayne, bless his heart, has made banner advertising easy and afforable on Amiga.org. AW.NET has an exclusive deal with Hyperion, no other companies may buy banners. ANN is not accepting any more banners. MOOB AFAIK doesn't do it at all. I thought I had a major deal with EAB that was going to be far reaching, but oddly they stopped responding to my emails altogether. Where does this leave me? Pretty much Amiga.org only for my advertising.
While I'm at it a few people asked this question..
You could try to sell some PPC boards for Genesi or Eyetech. Maybe there is a way to do this without expending a lot of capital to get in the boards, I don't know.
I'm not going to get into the why, but I refuse to carry either solution at this time. I have gotten very close to approaching one of them, but I'm still reluctant. One is tempting, the other has pretty much lost all interest to me as it seems to be commercial suicide. I've not closed the door completely on it.. We'll see..
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Vincent wrote:
Mind you, think about all the extra time you'll have once the shop is closed. You'll be able to spend it all on here :-D
Oh I'll be here for quite a while:-) Well, uh.. not this weekend coming up..
[color=FF0000]OZZFEST DUDE!![/color][/b]
Final show!! It's gonna kick major a&&!! :evil: I forsee whiplash in my future :lol:
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Oh yeah i forgot..
Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer
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Lucky git :-P
redrumloa wrote:
I forsee whiplash in my future :lol:
Here onstage the Marshall noise
Is piercing through your ears
It kicks your ass, kicks your face,
Exploding feeling nears
Now's the time to let it rip,
To let it f***ing loose
We're gathered here to be with you
'Cause this is what we choose
Adrenaline starts to flow
You're thrashing all around
Acting like a maniac
Whiplash
:-D :-D :-D
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Oh yeah i forgot..
Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer Slayer
We've got a nickname for Kerry King just now - whenever we see him it's Baldy Beardy :-P
Not to be confused with Scott Iain who's Baldy Pointy Beardy.
Not that we'd ever say that to their faces of course ;-)
Enjoy the show! :-D (and because Slayer are playing don't expect to hear again for a few weeks :-P)