Can I make money by selling PC's I build?

Jimbobjoeyman

Phonicks wrote: »

What about you buy a pallet of identical old i5 desktops of ebay, and make sure they are working perfectly, sell them on 1 at a time on adverts (keep a few for spare parts)

You can then offer a 1 or 2 year warranty as you have spares ready, you will have legit licenses, and they will have a known brand

Only way people seem to make money on old hardware is selling refurb Lenovo workstations as those laptops are built like tanks.
And the hardware generally holds up for casual use today aslong as the machine isn't too old

Maybe setting up an old pc as a media center and selling that may be an option.
But Android boxes are much smaller and more power efficient

killanena

Its not worth it at all. I mean even if someone does want a custom build there is online retailers that sell components that will build it for the customer for a small few. Usually 15-20 euro. Unless you were buying parts in big bulk off the manufacturer you won't see profits and as mentioned before customers will want a warranty. It's a great skill to have. To be able to build your own PC but I see many young people think they can start a business of it. It really isn't that hard these days to build a PC unless your doing a complete custom build with a case you designed yourself and water cooling.

ZeroThreat

killanena wrote: »

Its not worth it at all. I mean even if someone does want a custom build there is online retailers that sell components that will build it for the customer for a small few. Usually 15-20 euro. Unless you were buying parts in big bulk off the manufactory you won't see profits and as mentioned before customers will want a warranty. It's a great skill to have. To be able to build your own PC but I see many young people think they can start a business of it. It really isn't that hard these days unless your doing a complete custom build with a case you designed yourself and water cooling.

Best avoided unless you're a skinny Canadian with a high pitched voice with lots of subscribers on youtube & sponsorships from big name hardware manufacturers.

Graham

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Best avoided unless you're a skinny Canadian with a high pitched voice with lots of subscribers on youtube & sponsorships for big name hardware manufacturers.

Bizarrely that actually sounds like a much more viable business model in todays market.

HPT

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

I have a copy of windows 10 pro and the activation key ( my uncle gave it to me)

:eek::eek:


You might as well factor in a 100% return-rate for when that key is cancelled by Microsoft.

It's one thing to use pirated software yourself, but Microsoft actively pursue people/companies who illegally distribute their software. They even have section of their site to facilitate reporting of counterfeit software when it shows up unexpectedly on one of your customer's PCs.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/howtotell/cfr/report.aspx

"What information is collected?
Within this report, you will be asked for information about the suspect counterfeit software you are reporting, including details about where it was purchased or offered and some optional personal information."

Do you think your customers would hesitate to pass on your details if they thought you ripped them off?

They also tell people what to look out for to ensure their copy of Windows is genuine here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/howtotell/Hardware.aspx?tab=PCPurchase

So unless your uncle also has a stack of "Genuine Microsoft Labels" this will only work until you get caught.

You could instead put a legit free OS on it, problem solved.

manonboard

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

@wildcard7 I have a copy of windows 10 pro and the activation key ( my uncle gave it to me) and the reason I compared my pc to yours is because in opinion the are for the same purpose.

Hi OP, I mean this in the kindest possible way. I really liked your enthusiasm, and it seems you are quite set on giving this idea a try. However most of the feedback is quite negative from people with experience in this area. It is very wise to heed this. Given your low income potential, the risks involved with wiping out meager profits, the upfront costs involved, your lack of client base, your client base being likely able to do some of this themselves, and your general level of questions indicates a lack of expertise and know how in this area. I would strongly suggest you do not pursue this avenue.
I really do admire your passion for it, and i support you in trying to make better changes for yourself. If you apply the same passion in most areas you get into, you will excel. However, its very wise to listen to the negatives from the people who have walked the journey already.
If you are into software/repair. There is far more chance of you making good money. Even offering to format/reinstall peoples computers after a few years of crap built up on them will be a stable income with very little risk involved.
Learning to fix the issues is easy enough. Back up and reinstall in the event of not being able to, or if the fix takes several hours and the client just wants a working computer.
I'd like to suggest to you to try this route first. If you are interested in doing software programming, there are many online portals now allowing jobs to be handed out online and worked at home. Small jobs for small sole traders etc.

Hope it works out well for you.

TerrorFirmer

Jesus, though crowd! I think a lot of people were a bit sensationalist - at one point someone was meaning CE certification and EU regulations! The guy is asking about essentially selling a few PC's from his bedroom, he's not looking to open a manufacturing plant in India!

To answer your question - unlike virtually every other poster here so far, I would say absolutely, yes you can make money doing this. However, not so much by building new gaming machines. You will outprice Dell/Currys easily on Gaming PC's (I was in Curry's earlier in fact - €1k for an i3-7100 and GTX1050 system, which would cost about €500-550 to build new), but it is a very tough market and you would end up sitting on stuff that would start dropping value very quickly and could very easily end up costing you money in the end.

The market in Ireland for brand new machines from anywhere other than a retailer is almost non existent so trying to sell these machines on Adverts or DoneDeal or whatever would just be a source of grief. The only way it really works is if you build to order - I've done this a few times but generally I stay away from new builds as it's more hassle than it's worth unless you are an actual shop/business.

Speaking of, you don't have to register as a shop/business, nor do you have to offer a warranty like a shop would (most reasonable sellers offer a goodwill warranty of month or two), but if you're serious about it you do need to keep records of all of your purchases and sales for the taxman. I wouldn't worry about it right away if you're just testing out the waters obviously as Revenue aren't going to smash down your door over a few PC's but if you do plan getting into it seriously you need to keep it in mind though.

People want value really. The cost is somewhat irrelevant - whether it's a €200 or €2000 gaming PC, people want to feel like they're getting a good deal versus if they built new (notwithstanding that most people don't want to build, but they often still base prices on the components of a new build). 2nd hand is where the market is somewhat viable and where there is profit to be had. You just need to be wise to the market and know where to look, what to buy, and most importantly, know how PC's work - not just on a basic level or in terms of building, but have a good understanding of balance and what components suit other components. EG someone could list off any one of about 100 different processors or 100 different graphics cards in any random combination and I will know instantly how it would perform in various games like Battlefield 1, Fallout 4, etc.

Geography also plays a part - like if you're living in Dublin, let's say, there are already quite a few established sellers there on DoneDeal/Adverts with a lot of feedback and you would be competing with them which makes it more difficult. Whereas say, you were living in Cork, as far as I'm aware there is no-one on Adverts in that area who sells in any sort of volume. It takes a while to build up good feedback but once you get the ball rolling reputation does carry a lot of weight and will get you more business.

So yeah it's completely viable you just need to do a lot of research and ideally it would be great if you could a thousand or two to get the ball properly rolling and build a nice base of fundamental parts (few cases, few power supplies, thermal paste, cpu cleaner, case fans, etc - I appreciate this might not exactly be viable if you are 14 as people are saying (not sure if you actually stated that?) but just ideally. After that, just shop smart on Ebay, Adverts, Donedeal - the best value is in buying 2nd hand full machines, buying component by component is never as good value.

Just to give you an example, I bought a Dell 990 recently with an i7 and 16GB Ram for €130. Take out the motherboard and hard drive and re-build the machine in a new case (50), new PSU (40) and add a 2nd hand GTX970 (150). Result - €370 for a PC in a nice looking case, with an i7-2600, 16GB ram and a GTX970 which will run games like Battlefield 1 at 1080p ultra. You would have to spend about €750 on a new build to match the performance (say, a Ryzen 1500 with GTX1060).

Now there was a bit more work to it than that - the Optiplex is not wired like a standard board so you have to do a fair bit of messing to get it working with the wiring from a normal case, and to get all the front panel connectors working also as they are also non-standard. Then, you also have issues like not all Dell's have standard power connectors on the board so transplanting to a new case is not always possible. I know from memory which ones are OK and which aren't but this is stuff you would have to learn. Also, some brands (like some HP models) of home PC's have bios locks which make it impossible to install modern graphics cards. I could go on for hours but the important thing is that a lot of it is trial and error. Believe me I learned a lot of things the hard way and you would have to as well! Stuff will break. Stuff will not do what it should. People will return stuff. You will lose money sometimes or make bad investments. That's all part of it.

The reason I mentioned Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc is that these base machines are the best value as there is always a ton of ex-office stock available - it's not difficult to buy ex office stock in bulk for extremely reasonable prices with i3, i5 or i7 CPU's which are perfect for gaming with the addition of a graphics card. (either new or second hand, just depends really). Buying purpose built gaming PC's or regular 'home' PC's 2nd hand will cost significantly more even if they have identical specs.

Anyway, you get the fundamental idea of what I'm getting at and should give you an idea of how you could be thinking about the whole thing. You need to research the 2nd hand market - there's a lot to get to grips with but it is a viable venture if you're willing to put the work in. In fact really I would say even to anyone reading here, there are certain geographical areas in Ireland where this would be particularly viable just using Adverts and/or DoneDeal.

Graham

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Jesus, though crowd! I think a lot of people were a bit sensationalist - at one point someone was meaning CE certification and EU regulations! The guy is asking about essentially selling a few PC's from his bedroom, he's not looking to open a manufacturing plant in India!

<EPIC SNIP>

So in summary, don't sell new machines, sell reconditioned ones.

Trojan

EPIC SNIP indeed

fouro

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

Well how can i compete with big brands in low and high end pc markets.

Aodham good on you for thinking about doing your own thing. When Michael Dell started building PCs in his dorm room while at college he faced many of the same issues you do. All entrepreneurs need to find ways of doing things differently, better or faster. Its good people are sharing their own personal experiences openly here. If you want to try the new build route then you need to start thinking differently about how you provide your bespoke PC service.

Start off by offering to spec PCs to meet peoples individual needs for free. All you need to do this is a simple website. Once you have agreed the spec get them to order the parts themselves (guarantees remain in their name and no cashflow issues for you) and you assemble the PC when the parts arrive. Start with Amazon as your sole supplier for simplicity as they are easy to deal with RMAs from here. Setup an affiliate account with Amazon and your links will build your rep with them. Charge a flat e50 fee for builds under e600 and a flat fee of e100 for builds over e600. This fee will offer support for 12 months. You will be able to show how much better value your builds are over big brand offerings.

Your first customers will be friends and family. Get the word out that you are offering the service and it will start to spread. As someone who started messing around with electronics at 10 and repairing / building PCs at 12 for friends and family use your age to your advantage. Be upfront that your 14 and only getting started. Your best budget build above is a good calling card for a first product offering. Educate people on the benefits if building your own over buying from big brands. Once you've gotten a couple of customers under your belt then try and get some local radio or press coverage. You will learn alot by starting this way (small steps first) and with time will figure out if its what you enjoy doing.

Cuddlesworth

Been there, done that. Waste of time and money. Its not the building and selling, its the problems during and after. Support and repair becomes a nightmare, the more you do the worse it becomes. We might all laugh at the Indians in the call center asking to plug/unplug the device, but they field a lot of **** for the big players that your not aware of.

Problems you will encounter.
When that mobo arrives DOA and you have to delay a person computer by two weeks while you get a RMA.
Having to keep spare inventory around for diagnosis and repair. Because you can't hold onto machines for weeks to fix them.
And if a prox/mobo dies, you have to find out what part it is to RMA it correctly. Which means for every new socket you sell, you need a new cpu and mobo spare.
The stupid phone calls, everything that goes wrong with the machine will be your problem. Every stupid app, virus and scam website that took the old persons money are your fault because you built the damm thing. You can try offset this with call-out charges but it tends to sour relationships and word of mouth drops.
Plus legally, you offer none of the consumer protections that a real company would.

And when you combine it all and work out how much you make a hour, you realise that stacking shelves makes more money.

Specialised niche systems used to make money, super passive builds with tight insulated cases for sound engineers, unusual configurations of procs/boards/graphics/drive arrangement. But companys like overclockers/puget have those covered now as well. Plus they were damm expensive to make/sell, so low volume at best.

Refurbed office systems with the full peripheral combo can make money, but that to me would be more sales then actual pc work.

Samuel T. Cogley

You can't be sued as you're a minor, as such no one can enter into a contract with you so you can't really do this above board anyway. Having done this off and on for almost twenty years very few make any meaningful money doing it. I've personally helped people for free from this forum, so your competing against that even.

Billy86

Wildcard7 wrote: »

Except I won't buy it, because for less money than your self assembled PC costs, I can buy a brand new one from a major retailer:

http://www.komplett.ie/paradigit-home-and-office-basic/80046915/details.aspx

While I absolutely agree with your overall point and post, that system would cost less than €400 to build (Windows, wifi and optical included) as opposed to €450.

Ferm001

Hi Aodhan5000, great to see a young lad trying to come up with ways to make money. Take on board all that is said on here, and apply to your next idea.

I see a few have given you other ideas to consider, so I will throw in mine as well. How about looking into selling deconstructed computers, marketed towards hobbyists who want to build their own computer. Supply all the components, a tool kit, instruction sheets / you tube video, etc. Can be very basic units to start and offer more advanced or upgrade packs down the line.

challengemaster

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

My solution to question 1 is customize the computer to the person's needs and/or make my PC's different such as redesigning cases, spray painting certain parts of components and offering PC's at lower prices then manufacturors.

The second you do either of these you'll void the manufacturers warranty so when something does break, it comes directly out of your pocket. No RMA.