New Business Idea

[RyanMacRocks]

So yesterday I found a fully working i5 2400 PC sitting in an e-waste pile and I started thinking about all of the perfectly working PC's that go to recycling centers where they are often just sent overseas or trashed, all because large companies upgrade their PCs every 3-4 years. Anyways, I started thinking, what if someone were to buy those computers off of companies that would gladly get rid of them (for around $10-50 per PC depending on the specs) and bulk order a ton of GTX 1050s/RX 460s and sell budget gaming PCs for console prices at a trustworthy store with a warranty for those that don't want to build a PC themselves or don't want to take the risk or buying used from Craigslist.

 

Not saying its entirely original, and I know there are stores like Free Geek, but what is your take on this? I see it as a win-win-win:
Profitable for companies, profitable for the middleman who fixes up the PCs (reinstalling Windows and installing new graphics card/cleaning out dust, etc.), and cheap gaming PCs for the buyer (much cheaper than Alienware and other prebuilts).

[Shreyas1]

what about testing the pc's? that should take some time.

[RyanMacRocks]

Just now, Shreyas1 said:

what about testing the pc's? that should take some time.

I would probably set up a large benchmarking table and test like 10-20 PCs at once for 24 hours or so at a time running Unigine Heaven or something similar (although hopefully something that puts more stress on the CPU too).

[Daniel Z.]

It's a pretty cool idea. Margins would be nice.

[gibbsy81]

I would have the machines set to pxe boot into a environment where it automatically runs the benchmarks for a predetermined period of time then you could test 50 machines at once then as they fail dig down specifically onto that machine as to what happened and why.

Cool idea through definatly sounds profitable.

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, gibbsy81 said:

I would have the machines set to pxe boot into a environment where it automatically runs the benchmarks for a predetermined period of time then you could test 50 machines at once then as they fail dig down specifically onto that machine as to what happened and why.

Cool idea through definatly sounds profitable.

PXE is fiddly, but a decent idea. I'd rather a bunch of flash drives with WindowsToGo on them, boot - bench - pull. 

[GDRRiley]

have thought about it before. max 20$ system, 100-200$ upgrades (gpu, ram maybe bigger hard drive) and sell for 300$-400$ yeah 

[GDRRiley]

15 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

I would probably set up a large benchmarking table and test like 10-20 PCs at once for 24 hours or so at a time running Unigine Heaven or something similar (although hopefully something that puts more stress on the CPU too).

asusreal bench. is both a cpu and a gpu test but more cpu than gpu. 

[RyanMacRocks]

8 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

It's a pretty cool idea. Margins would be nice.

For sure! I figure probably $100-$150 per computer.

6 minutes ago, gibbsy81 said:

I would have the machines set to pxe boot into a environment where it automatically runs the benchmarks for a predetermined period of time then you could test 50 machines at once then as they fail dig down specifically onto that machine as to what happened and why.

Cool idea through definatly sounds profitable.

 

3 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

PXE is fiddly, but a decent idea. I'd rather a bunch of flash drives with WindowsToGo on them, boot - bench - pull. 

Both good ideas, thanks guys for the feedback! I'm going to try flipping a few Craigslist PCs for profit over the next month or so and see how it goes, if it goes well then I might try to scale things up a bit and contact businesses. It seems completely possible, biggest issue would be the amount of time and money it takes to be able to buy dozens of computers and GPUs when you start with less than $1000.

[RyanMacRocks]

Just now, GDRRiley said:

asusreal bench. is both a cpu and a gpu test but more cpu than gpu. 

Never heard of it but I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

[GDRRiley]

2 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

For sure! I figure probably $100-$150 per computer.

 

Both good ideas, thanks guys for the feedback! I'm going to try flipping a few Craigslist PCs for profit over the next month or so and see how it goes, if it goes well then I might try to scale things up a bit and contact businesses. It seems completely possible, biggest issue would be the amount of time and money it takes to be able to buy dozens of computers and GPUs when you start with less than $1000.

the trick is to see if you got family that would loan you a few thousand to get started. hell I can go to my local e recycler and pick up sandy and ivy bridge i5s with 4-8gb of ram for 50-60$.

hey where in calli are you?

Edited May 31, 2017 by GDRRiley

[KuJoe]

Large corporations would not be willing to sell or give you their old PCs. It is much safer for them to recycle the PCs than it would be to sell or give them away. The company I work for used to sell old, out of warranty desktops and laptops to employees but they had to stop doing that because they weren't collecting taxes and paying taxes on what they were selling.

 

Another reason is for PR and legal reasons, I was told that they had to give the PCs to a specific company that was licensed with the state and had legal contracts on file because if they just gave the PCs to some company they found online and one of those PCs was found in a landfill not only would it hurt the company's image but the company would be fined for illegal dumping even though somebody else did it down the road. If the PC can be traced back to the company in any way (i.e. serial number) then the company could be liable for whatever happens with that PC after it leaves the building.

Edited May 31, 2017 by KuJoe
I used the term "for legal reasons" a lot, cleaned it up.

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

the trick is to see if you got family that would loan you a few thousand to get started. hell I can go to my local e recycler and pick up sandy and ivy bridge i5s with 4-8gb of ram for 50-60$. could grab 8 and then some gt 1030s and 1050s LP and new 1tb hard drives.

Yeah that's a pretty good idea. I'd probably buy SSHD's since they do provide a noticeable difference for not too much more and make the computer that much faster (easier sale/happier customer). I've been trying to find a e-waste shop somewhere by me but I've had no luck (I live in Sacramento, CA). All of the used PC stores near me sell overpriced C2D laptops for ~$150 and I haven't found any with a significant amount of desktops.

[Droidbot]

8 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

For sure! I figure probably $100-$150 per computer.

 

Both good ideas, thanks guys for the feedback! I'm going to try flipping a few Craigslist PCs for profit over the next month or so and see how it goes, if it goes well then I might try to scale things up a bit and contact businesses. It seems completely possible, biggest issue would be the amount of time and money it takes to be able to buy dozens of computers and GPUs when you start with less than $1000.

Protip: businesses auction off their old computers in batches. Get ahold of one batch, and you're golden. Get cheap 1050/Ti/560/460 and you'll be even more golden 

[RyanMacRocks]

2 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Large corporations would not be willing to sell or give you their old PCs. It is much safer for them to recycle the PCs than it would be to sell or give them away. The company I work for used to sell old, out of warranty desktops and laptops to employees but they had to stop doing that because they weren't collecting taxes and paying taxes on what they were selling.

 

Another reason is for PR and legal reasons, I was told that they had to give the PCs to a specific company that was licensed with the state and had legal contracts on file because if they just gave the PCs to some company they found online and one of those PCs was found in a landfill not only would it hurt the company's image but the company would be fined for illegal dumping even though somebody else did it down the road. If the PC can be traced back to the company in any way (i.e. serial number) then the company could be liable for whatever happens with that PC after it leaves the building.

I see. So I am left with either A) Obtaining a state license/legal contract where I assume I would have to agree to safely destroy hard drives and the like (unlikely) or B) Buy the PCs from a middleman recycling company for significantly more ($50-$200 per PC instead of $10-$50).

 

Thanks for the input, I figured there might have been some kind of roadblock and that's why I haven't seen anyone do anything similar. I'll probably still try the second option though.

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

Protip: businesses auction off their old computers in batches. Get ahold of one batch, and you're golden. Get cheap 1050/Ti/560/460 and you'll be even more golden 

Do you know where I could find information about the auctions? Is there like a big auction event or is it separately per business and I just have to get lucky to find out about it?

[Droidbot]

Just now, RyanMacRocks said:

Do you know where I could find information about the auctions? Is there like a big auction event or is it separately per business and I just have to get lucky to find out about it?

Seperate per business. And Universities and other institutions sell them off quite cheap, I've seen i7 950 systems for $50 on a deal site (someone snapped it up)

[KuJoe]

4 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

I see. So I am left with either A) Obtaining a state license/legal contract where I assume I would have to agree to safely destroy hard drives and the like (unlikely) or B) Buy the PCs from a middleman recycling company for significantly more ($50-$200 per PC instead of $10-$50).

 

Thanks for the input, I figured there might have been some kind of roadblock and that's why I haven't seen anyone do anything similar. I'll probably still try the second option though.

Depending on the business you will never see a hard drive. My company had a contract with Iron Mountain to shred all of our hard drives so depending on the types of companies in your area be sure to factor in the cost of a hard drive into your business plan.

 

It might be worth reaching out to any businesses with less government restrictions to see what they do with their old hardware (i.e. anything not financial, medical, or government funded).

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

Seperate per business. And Universities and other institutions sell them off quite cheap, I've seen i7 950 systems for $50 on a deal site (someone snapped it up)

OK, I'll have to keep my eye open then. Ideally I'd find a lot of 10 or so to start out with. I don't want to buy too many just to find out that I can't sell them. If they sell really well then I would even consider renting out a small little shop or something.

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

Depending on the business you will never see a hard drive. My company had a contract with Iron Mountain to shred all of our hard drives so depending on the types of companies in your area be sure to factor in the cost of a hard drive into your business plan.

 

It might be worth reaching out to any businesses with less government restrictions to see what they do with their old hardware (i.e. anything not financial, medical, or government funded).

I'll definitely give that a try. I figured that hard drives would be something I would need, but I can get some 320 GB hard drives for around $20 each and I could even offer 1 TB HDDs or SSHDs as an upgrade option. Those are much more expensive though, usually around $50 for a TB HDD and $70 for a TB SSHD.

[KuJoe]

14 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

OK, I'll have to keep my eye open then. Ideally I'd find a lot of 10 or so to start out with. I don't want to buy too many just to find out that I can't sell them. If they sell really well then I would even consider renting out a small little shop or something.

An online presence might be best for you. I don't know where you live but I can't think of many people who buy their PCs or hardware at brick and mortar stores these days. Here are the first steps I would take if I were you:

 

1. Research where you can get a steady stream of hardware to resell.
2. Go register and LLC in your state. I don't know how much it costs in CA but I paid less than $150 for my LLC and the renewal is about $120 a year in Florida.
3. Go setup a UPS and FedEx shipping account for your business. I believe setting up the account is free and the savings adds up when shipping computers (we ship large servers).
4. Setup a website where you can sell your products (this is fairly easy to do).
5. Setup business accounts with payment processors to handle payments (I recommend PayPal, Stripe, and BitPay).

Once you have your online business setup, you're ready to go. For local customers you can process the sales locally (don't forget sales tax) and input them into your online billing system manually so at the end of the year you have one place to pull your finances from when it's time to deal with taxes.

 

[KuJoe]

5 minutes ago, RyanMacRocks said:

I'll definitely give that a try. I figured that hard drives would be something I would need, but I can get some 320 GB hard drives for around $20 each and I could even offer 1 TB HDDs or SSHDs as an upgrade option. Those are much more expensive though, usually around $50 for a TB HDD and $70 for a TB SSHD.

For a PC under $200, I don't think the buyer would be expecting a 1TB drive so I would go with the cheapest drive you can find. You can even look for bulk hard drives on sites like CDW or even eBay where you can get a pallet of old SATA II drives for cheap.

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

An only presence might be best for you. I don't know where you live but I can't think of many people who buy their PCs or hardware at brick and mortar stores these days. Here are the first steps I would take if I were you:

 

1. Research where you can get a steady stream of hardware to resell.
2. Go register and LLC in your state. I don't know how much it costs in CA but I paid less than $150 for my LLC and the renewal is about $120 a year in Florida.
3. Go setup a UPS and FedEx shipping account for your business. I believe setting up the account is free and the savings adds up when shipping computers (we ship large servers).
4. Setup a website where you can sell your products (this is fairly easy to do).
5. Setup business accounts with payment processors to handle payments (I recommend PayPal, Stripe, and BitPay).

Once you have your online business setup, you're ready to go. For local customers you can process the sales locally (don't forget sales tax) and input them into your online billing system manually so at the end of the year you have one place to pull your finances from when it's time to deal with taxes.

 

That's a fair point, my only worry is that the shipping prices might begin to get kind of absurd relative to the cost of the computer.

[RyanMacRocks]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

For a PC under $200, I don't think the buyer would be expecting a 1TB drive so I would go with the cheapest drive you can find. You can even look for bulk hard drives on sites like CDW or even eBay where you can get a pallet of old SATA II drives for cheap.

I was going to have a couple of different tiers of PCs, probably the lowest end one with a 1st or 2nd gen i5 and an RX 460 for around $250 and then a higher end option for something like an i7, larger capacity hdd and a 1050 or 1050 Ti.

[RyanMacRocks]

The lowest end one would have a $15-$20 320 GB drive.