Great thread! I've been into commercial coin-op restoration most my life for the private sector. Pinball, shuffle alley bowler, video and electro-mechanical arcade sales and service. Have dabbled in professional photography and music as a drummer for a 50's-80's themed cover band too. Still drum, do it for fun, but currently no longer part of a band. Will get back to making money at it someday for sure.
Was in "love" with the Amiga since day one and have owned several each of EVERY model except the A3000. Used them back in the day for sequencing/digitising various music projects and genlock'd wedding videos for cash on the side. Oh, how could I forget... used 'em lots for gaming too :-) I still have a massive magazine collection and it's fun to look through them, see what things cost and reminisce about better times.
For a large percentage of my adult life, sold computers & electronics at various stores too. At Montgomery Ward's (being married to a VP's daughter), I helped convince our computer buyer to sell Amiga's as part of a test in their latest and greatest 'Electric Avenue' store. Sadly, in the buyers finite wisdom, the A500, 501 expansion, 1011 and 1084 were about the only lines we "stocked" or could get. This would have been late 80's, when the term multimedia was being defined. PERFECT opportunity for Commodore to have a large presence in a serious consumer electronic store. Even though i was on 100% commission, did my damndest to sell A500 packages for $1k vs. PeeCee clones w/ CD-ROMS for $4k. I have always been that passionate and enthusiastic about Amiga! lol It didn't matter. Between Ward's and Commodores replenishment/support system - was completely botched anyway. I've witnessed first hand how a superior concept and product could give way to inferior concepts and products thanks to inept companies and managers. Perhaps if we sold A2000's with CD-ROMS, HD's and accelerators... things *might* have been different. Oh, and people would return their A500's before too long anyway, since software was "hard" to find.
Anyway, now that I've got my Miggy systems pretty much tweaked out, looking forward to actually using and enjoying them again!! VERY easy to get caught up in the hardware aspect of modding, adding on, tweaking, etc. As most others know... 'because we can' :-)