Just registered this....

[giZmo350]

Amigamagic.com
It's gonna be great! Amiga classic only.
Not being a Troll!

Rog.....

[Franko]

Amigamagic.com
It's gonna be great! Amiga classic only.
Not being a Troll!

Rog.....

Oi you... are you trying to challenge my CommodoreScotland.com site... :madashell:

Nah... only kidding mate, best of luck to you and your new site, look forward to seeing what you do with it...

[giZmo350]

Thenk ye (uncoly)! Franko....!

I would never challenge a Scot! You guys are too good with darts!

Since I already own a fairly successful computer store & repair center I have aspirations
of becoming an authorized Amiga delaer in the U.S. That would be cool.
I've thrown that idea out on A.O before hoping to get some kind of support
but that didn't really fly. Ha! I certainly didn't start a store by surfing forums
so this may take some sort of personal contact with the Amiga gods!

I'd like it to have a forum and e-commerce + service Amiga hardware.
Also, How to's... with pictures.  Oh, and FAQs!
Knowledgable community involvement would be great too!
Been in the computer biz for over 30 years! Oi!

[Franko]

Good with darts... I don't have the strength these days to even throw one..

Sounds like a nice idea you have, though not too sure just how profitable such a business would be these days. Still I wish you the very best of luck with everything and look forward to seeing your new site and how things turn out...

Keep us posted...

[giZmo350]

Finally bought a digital camera too! It utilizes all the lenses from my old Pentax Super Program too!

http://www.abesofmaine.com/item.do?item=PNKXB1855K&id=PNKXB1855K&&kbid=%2a

I gotta catch up on my A1200 project with Runrequestor! hahahahaha!

By the way Franco....  ever play this game?

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2722

[Franko]

@ gizmo350

Nice camera...

Hmmm... I reckon whomever wrote that game must know me and have wandered down my street at some point...

[runequester]

Finally bought a digital camera too! It utilizes all the lenses from my old Pentax Super Program too!

http://www.abesofmaine.com/item.do?item=PNKXB1855K&id=PNKXB1855K&&kbid=%2a

I gotta catch up on my A1200 project with Runrequestor! hahahahaha!

By the way Franco....  ever play this game?

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2722

Looking forward to it mate

I think there'd be some room for a skilled amiga repair guy at least, state side. Give some life support and extension to the poor girls.

[persia]

@gizmo350

Oh, oh, C=USA would be in charge of authorising Amiga repair shops.....

[giZmo350]

@gizmo350

Oh, oh, C=USA would be in charge of authorising Amiga repair shops.....

You know, that's a really good point. My first thought on that was that Altman doesn't actually own the rights to the "Amiga" name or Amiga, Inc. I think that Bill McEwen still does. My guess is that Altman simply holds the right to legally license the name. Unless I missed something in the Uncle Bill lawsuit saga (from 5 years ago), I can't even remotely see McEwen selling the name. That's how he does business. Just look at the whole Seattle debacle! He duped an entire development authority without a single penny changing hands. I already read in another thread where Altman has a 3 year contract to the rights and that it is hinged on profitability and return on investment. I'm thinking that only Uncle Bill can determine who can and can't use the Amiga name.

I think that we might have heard some sort of scuttlebutt by now from AmigaKit and the likes if there was a problem with using the Amiga name for profit. If Altman actually owned the name, he could feasibly extort licensing fees from every company that makes a profit off the name. That's scary. If (and I think he does) Bill still holds the exclusive rights, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a dime to file a baker's dozen lawsuits to stop companies from using the name. That's not to say that someone like Altman couldn't slowly and methodically start coming down on the use of the name as long as he has "exclusive rights use". I'm no lawyer though.

As far as repairing and selling classic Amiga, my goal would be to have a stateside outlet to accomplish that. (Thanks Run!) My goal here is to integrate amigamagic.com with prolaptopshop.com as more of a business model to help the amiga community and increase my cash flow. I'm not saying that it would be all that profitable but any extra income would help. I'm envisioning possibly being a "like AmigaKit" here in the states. Acquiring product competitively might be difficult without some sort of agreement with suppliers though.

But to reiterate, persia's point, it could get real ugly for resellers (or even websites using the word Amiga in a stand alone vernacular) if Altman and McEwen decide to nuke the existence of anyone doing business related to classic Amiga. My use of the word Amiga is appended to the word magic so I shouldn't have a problem there (although lawsuits can be filed for damn near any reason).

Please correct me if my thoughts on Uncle Bill still owning the Amiga name and Amiga, Inc. are incorrect.

Rog................

[runequester]

I wouldn't worry about authorized. Nobody who has any claim to the name today has any sort of interest financially in 68K machines.
 
Individual Computers aren't an "authorized" amiga dealer but they sold me a brand new ACA1230 just the same, through amigakit.

[persia]

Yeah my point was there is no one, absolutely no one, to authorise a Classic Amiga repair shop.  You want to set it up you can, but if you want an authorised Amiga repair shop you are about a decade and a half late.

The flip side is that there's no one to "unauthorise" one either.  If you find one of the many that went out of business, you could buy their authorisation....

But the Classic Amiga world is small enough that it really relies on reputation more than anything.

[runequester]

exactly. Fix up a few amigas, and wait until the people tell others on forums about your good work.
 
I'd love a reliable place to get stuff like cap's and other things fixed up, for sure, as I don't have any soldering skills any more. Even if its out of someones basement or back office

[giZmo350]

I wouldn't worry about authorized. Nobody who has any claim to the name today has any sort of interest financially in 68K machines.
 
Individual Computers aren't an "authorized" amiga dealer but they sold me a brand new ACA1230 just the same, through amigakit.

I guess my point is that even if a company like Altman's were leglly restricted in what he could market under the Amiga name due to the Hyperion vs Amiga, Inc lawsuit, the legal holder of the Amiga name could demand a fee for everything, say AmigaKit, sells at a profit that had the Amiga name on it. That's not to say that I couldn't legally repair Amiga 68k computers on my own. I just wouldn't be able to market the service using the Amiga name and logo without paying McEwn and/or Altman a licensing fee. For instance, AmigaKit sells a mouse with the boing ball logo on it. If say, somehow the legal owner of that wanted a license fee for marketing and selling that item, he could certainly demand it (bad example). That would certainly be a kick in the nuts!

This is going to get interesting...    that's not going to stop the amigamagic.com website development though!

[runequester]

Selling items is different from repair/service work though. I'd start with the latter and work from there.

[giZmo350]

exactly. Fix up a few amigas, and wait until the people tell others on forums about your good work.
 
I'd love a reliable place to get stuff like cap's and other things fixed up, for sure, as I don't have any soldering skills any more. Even if its out of someones basement or back office

Exactly! I think I could pull in a lot of Amiga business doing the same thing I do now with laptops and PCs! Repair the boards, replace defective parts, install upgrades, load OS ver X, etc.... I get a LOT of repeat business through word of mouth and the unique and straight forward way I approach laptop repair and OS problems.
Thanks for your support Run!
BTW, I have a REAL store!
http://www.prolaptopshop.com
It was kind funny, at Christmas time I offered to buy 25 units of BOH software from the creator to sell at my store here in the states and he completely ignored me!? Let alone the the lost sale of 25 units for him. Strange. Anyway, I'm stoked!