Mellotronists

You know what puzzles me every time one of these debates starts?

NOBODY can really be making enough money from Mellotron manufacture and 
restoration to justify all of the rancor that oozes out occasionally.  I 
could understand it if we were talking about 
country-manor-with-a-Bentley-and-a-Feadship-and-a-LearJet-as-well-as-a-vacation-home-on-the-Riviera 
kind of money, but that didn't happen back when Mellotrons were a big dog in 
the keyboard world, and seems far less likely to happen today.  It seems 
more like a Stradivarius labor-of-love kind of business than a crank-'em-out 
Korg Triton kind of a business and even if there was only ONE source for 
Mellotron development, manufacture, and life-support it would still be 
difficult to make a financially rewarding living at it.  These things aren't 
exactly amenable to assembly-line business models, and with as 
labor-intensive as I would imagine their construction to be, it will always 
be a cottage industry with a real boutique kind of cachet.  I have utmost 
respect for everybody that contributes to the continued legacy of these 
noble instruments and it is a shame that there is so much baggage that has 
the potential to damage their continuing story.

Sincerely,
Rodney King