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Author Topic: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors  (Read 1460 times)

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Offline RyuTopic starter

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IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« on: June 16, 2004, 03:20:39 AM »
IntuitionBase continues to evolve, we are now able to bring you a shop where you can purchase items for your Amiga and help support us at the same time.

Currently your able to buy 2 rather nice case badges from us at a reasonable price, so why not check the shop out and do a spot of shopping :-)

Still more to come, so stay tuned!
Yours
Darren aka Ryu
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www.IntuitionBase.com
My Amiga 1200 webserver
 

Offline bhoggett

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2004, 11:36:10 PM »
Is that fully licensed merchandise, or is it bootleg?

If it's licensed, do Amiga Inc get their fee for use of their trademark?
Bill Hoggett
 

Offline Bodie

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2004, 02:53:24 AM »
Nice work Ryu :pint:
 

Offline mikeymike

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2004, 11:26:53 AM »
bhoggett, it's not polite to imply that Ryu is peddling bootlegged goods.  I think you would feel equally insulted if you were trying to run a business.

Please use a little more subtlety and tact in future.
 

Offline bhoggett

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2004, 12:18:45 PM »
@mikeymike

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it."
Bill Hoggett
 

Offline mikeymike

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2004, 01:11:31 PM »
bhoggett.  Something is broken at your end.  Fix it.
 

Offline System

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2004, 02:43:42 PM »
First off, to get it out of the way, I'm not sure whether or not Ryu is, or is not legally licensed.  Don't care.  None of my business really.

I can tell you of my experiences with Amiga Inc regarding licensing, why Amiga.org doesn't have a store any longer, and why Amiga Inc have desperately failed in that regards.

In 2000, in McEwen's first speech as CEO of Amiga Incorporated, we were all told that their business plan was to "license, license, license!".  "Get as many people building and making Amiga stuff as possible to get the name out there". As a webmaster with our own unique logo, I was thinking "very cool, they actually `get it`".

Later, in 2001 when we decided to open up a store selling goods through cafepress (and Bill and I were still on speaking terms), I wrote asking what it would take to become officially licensed.  You know... do things right while helping to support Amiga Inc.

What I was told was nothing less than mind-boggling.  Referring to the document we had been given in (I believe) 1999 at one of the shows, Amiga Incorporated expected absolutely no less than 30% of the SALES PRICE (as opposed to 30% of the PROFIT, which would have been acceptable).  I called Bill McEwen on the phone personally to verify that this was still what they expected, only to be told "yep".

That killed the store, or any idea of selling things right then, right there, and I'm sure it's stopped hundreds of would-be licensees in their tracks.

To explain the problem, if you haven't been able to keep up, let me provide an example.  Those of you who went to Amiwest last year remember that I purchased 8 very well done, black, embroidered polo shirts with the Amiga.org logo for myself and Amiga.org staff (not for resale).  For those 8 shirts, I gave $34.00 each to get them physically made.  I took 3, Tigger took 2, Lee Stanford (ltstanfo) took 1 (I believe) I gave one to Joe Torre and one to RedRumloa.

I had played around with the idea of getting these mass-made for resale to you guys, but with Amiga Inc's demands, I would have had to raise the price of the shirt to $50 in order to even make $1.00 profit on each shirt.

recap.  Shirts COST $34 to make, AI wanted 30% of SALES PRICE;
$50 x .30 is $15.00
$34 + $15 is $49.00
$50 - $49 is $1.00

Not many people would have purchased these shirts at $50 (no puns intended whatsoever regarding Amiga Inc's $50 t-shirt deal) whereas at $40.00, I could have sold them pretty much by the truck-load.  That would have been $6.00 total profit, $2.00 each to Amiga Inc, as opposed to the $15.00 they demanded per shirt had I sold them.

I figured I could have sold roughly 100 shirts of varying sizes and colors every quarter, 400 per year, and while $800 to Amiga Inc might not have paid the rent, but it's much better than the zero they got instead.  

However, for Amiga.org, the $1600 per year from the profit of such sales would have been enough for us to permanently secure a dedicated server of our very own without the constant need to rely on a dwindling base of advertisers as we currently do.  It would also have allowed us to offer free hosting to Amiga user groups, the UGN, and everyone else, helping to keep the Amiga community completely alive.

In short, I don't know how the guys who are licensed and selling things on AI's website ("Extreme?") do it.  They've obviously gotten a better deal than the rest of us, but in the case of dozens of people like me who would like to run an Amiga-based business, Amiga Incorporated really did shoot themselves in the proverbial foot.
 

Offline Naeem

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2004, 03:12:37 PM »
Hi Ryu,

Ur website seems to be tad slow.  What kind of bandwidth is it hosted on?
 

Offline itix

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Re: IntuitionBase.com shop opens its doors
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2004, 05:03:02 PM »
Well, people don't want waste their money on pirate stuff. Clear indication badges are genuine would help :-)
My Amigas: A500, Mac Mini and PowerBook