Anyone ever made a PC and sold it on ebay?

[Akumos]

Hi all,

I once put a price list of hardware to build a good gaming PC and added £300 and listed it on ebay with a note saying PC's are build to order, allow 20 days for delivery.

Anyways, I had loads of interest. Has anyone ever done this? It sounds quite risky in the sense that people may want to return the system and I would have spent their money buying it.

just wanted thoughts... good idea? bad idea?

 

[Altered]

I cant say for anyone else but I wouldn't do it. But I cannot stand to deal with certain people. My first sale I would run into the guy that wanted to tell me how to build it even though he couldn't build one himself. Or it would be the guy that wanted to watch porn 24hrs a day and junk it out with every spam/virus known and then bitch because it was slow saying it was my fault. No thanks on that headache for me.

 

[alexp999]

I cant say for anyone else but I wouldn't do it. But I cannot stand to deal with certain people. My first sale I would run into the guy that wanted to tell me how to build it even though he couldn't build one himself. Or it would be the guy that wanted to watch porn 24hrs a day and junk it out with every spam/virus known and then bitch because it was slow saying it was my fault. No thanks on that headache for me.

+1, I have thought about doing something like this before, and I cant be doing with the after service, cus the only people that woud do it, are people who dont know what they are doing.

 

[MRCL]

I would do it. But not on eBay. I'd start locally first. I anyway use eBay as a last resort for selling something.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Providiing you remain a private seller and not a business, there is no need for "after service" each component has a warranty, you just make sure the customer gets a copy of all component receipts. Obviously that would mean low turnover and wouldnt be pratical for higher volume stuff where you would want the benefits of the business account (VAT exemption for example).

 

[stuartpb]

I tried selling PC's on Ebay a few years ago, as another income generator for my business. I didn't do it long though. It was more hassle than it was worth to be honest. By the time Ebay and Paypal took their cut, plus the postage costs etc, the profits weren't worth it. I could have gone for a bigger profit margin, but it doesn't take people long to realise they are being ripped off, and that would have been much worse for my business.

I sell PC's for a living, and have never made £300 on one rig yet. If you are serious about selling PC's, don't expect a massive profit per unit like that. People are switched on to prices nowadays, and it doesnt take long to be sniffed out for rip off prices. Best thing you could do would be to see what sort of prices your local competitors are charging, and if you can't beat their prices, offer something that would entice the customer. I give free installs, and an hour walkthrough with the new rig and any bundled software on new rigs. It seems to be pretty popular, and it gives me an edge over the likes of PC World. You need to be seen as being professional when selling PC's, because you are going up against every other PC retailer out there.

 

[Akumos]

It does sound like easy money, and if you do what Tatty_One says... you could make alot. Offer no after sales service because your a private seller.

 

[Akumos]

I tried selling PC's on Ebay a few years ago, as another income generator for my business. I didn't do it long though. It was more hassle than it was worth to be honest. By the time Ebay and Paypal took their cut, plus the postage costs etc, the profits weren't worth it. I could have gone for a bigger profit margin, but it doesn't take people long to realise they are being ripped off, and that would have been much worse for my business.

I sell PC's for a living, and have never made £300 on one rig yet. If you are serious about selling PC's, don't expect a massive profit per unit like that. People are switched on to prices nowadays, and it doesnt take long to be sniffed out for rip off prices. Best thing you could do would be to see what sort of prices your local competitors are charging, and if you can't beat their prices, offer something that would entice the customer. I give free installs, and an hour walkthrough with the new rig and any bundled software on new rigs. It seems to be pretty popular, and it gives me an edge over the likes of PC World. You need to be seen as being professional when selling PC's, because you are going up against every other PC retailer out there.

thats true, never took them kinds of costs form ebay into account. Thanks.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Yes a "sold as is, no warranty excluding manu" is great but you can not stop the stupid person that loaded his PC with Porn/Spyware from posting reviews about the seller. Guess how many of those people there are vs. people that will post a positive reponse.

 

[ghost28]

i have sold a couple of PCs that were supposedly DOA from family members, friends, neighbors....most of only needed clean windows installs and one or two needed a PSU....made a few bucks doing it but as most have mentioned People are STUPID and expect YOU to Warranty the damn thing FOREVER....i mean i was selling these things for $100.00-$150.00 for decent stuff and people expected 3 year warranty with em....

i have my current rig for sale locally and have a few people interested and if i sell close to my asking price i stand to make a decent amount of Money but when i consider the time i have involved in it its nothing special....
i would only turn around and build another anyhow so it really doesnt matter if i sell it....i just really like the Building part more than the using part LOL.....

 

[BroBQ]

I build 3-4 new pcs a week. I've been doing this for about 13 years... When I first started out I was placing ads in local newspapers, and dealing with friends and co-workers. After the internet started to take off back in the early 90's... I started selling to local users via craigslist.com

I have sold a few on ebay and it has worked out just fine.

 

[phanbuey]

not a bad idea. Install some free antivirus and spyware blockers that auto-update just in case. If you enjoy doing it... and its some money on the side, then go for it.

I wouldn't quit my day job over that though, just as some spare money to support the addiction lol.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

What kind of software are you adding to those?

 

[BroBQ]

The OS is either 64-Bit XP or Vista... I install AVG Anti-Virus and Spyware Doctor starter edition. I also install open office, CdburnerXP, and a few other free utilities.

Dont worry about the price, hardware or anything else. Its the way you market the system you are building. When I meet with clients in my local area... what sells the PC is the fact that it can be upgraded very cheaply. Unlike mass manufactured pcs, they are pretty much useless after 2 years.

I sell many media center PCs. What I do is have a system that I can take with me to meet clients at their home or office, and show them a demo of a Media Center PC.

 

[twilyth]

This is a generalization, but I would say that the vast majority of people who could tell you precisely what they wanted and why, are going to be able to do the build themselves. The only real exception might be water cooled rigs, but that is a very specialized market segment.

Everybody loves the idea of a custom built anything though and for the average buyer, it's going to be mainly about appearance and bragging rights. So go heavy on the custom look - like a made to order tattoo - a work of art as much as a computer. There are so many case styles out there now, and many on the low end, that look cool out of the box. Then you can add some custom art (which they provide) and what's inside will be an after thought.

I know that sounds like heresy to the true believers, but most people are all about the packaging. Things like some artwork you laminate on or some cheap decals or LED fans and colored cathodes will let you charge more for a very basic rig.

So present it as a consultation service. Say you'll charge a flat fee of say 50BP to tell them what components they need to build the best rig for their needs. Then you dazzle them with your extensive knowledge and once you hear them drooling, offer to built if for them for cost + xxx.

 

[BroBQ]

I wouldnt worry about what it looks like... Research has suggested that cosumers do not buy becuase of what it looks like. You can use the cheapest case/uglyest case, they will still buy. What the cosumer is looking for is speed/support & upgradeablity.

 

[EnglishLion]

I wouldnt worry about what it looks like... Research has suggested that cosumers do not buy becuase of what it looks like. You can use the cheapest case/uglyest case, they will still buy. What the cosumer is looking for is speed/support & upgradeablity.

I think that depends on who the 'customer' is. The majority of PC users don't care about what the PC looks like but there's another sub-set of users who do, it's just a small market.

I think building/selling PCs to home users must be more difficult these days because everyone seems to want laptops. Especially if they have a wireless LAN and can use from their sofa etc...

 

[Sir_Real]

I've been buying & selling pc's & pc parts on ebay for years. Theres hardly any money in building pcs & selling them on ebay. If you build a high spec pc people dont seem to realize the amount of expensive parts that went into building the thing. Theres always a similar spec pc going really cheap & to compete & get sales you almost av to sell at a loss ! The real money is made from buying local second hand pcs & stripping them & shifting the bits on ebay.
Wot i do is keep doing local searches on ebay & check for pcs for sale in local papers. You'll be amazed just how cheap some second user pcs sell for ! Put it this way i recently bought a custom built pc for £60 stripped it & got: £30 cpu , £10 mobo , £13 case , £8 psu , £12 dvd rewriter , £22 graphics card , £13 60gb hd , £18 2gb ddr & £6 fan speed controller.
Its not hard to double your money ! You just av to be prepared to put the time into selling many items on ebay.