Gaming PC Values and the Market

[CryoZen]

Hello everyone. I'm reaching out because I want to verify whether or not I am insane. I bought a bunch of new parts during the Black Friday sales with the intent of building PCs and selling them on my local market. I have been receiving a lot of criticism about how my rigs are now "used" and that the big companies can sell for far more because of their reputation and warranties. I posted a PC for a price that was lower than the big system builders by about $300-$400. That was also often times before tax and shipping was calculated, and most of the PCs had things like lower end and wattage power supplies, slower memory, half the storage, a lower end GPU, etc. Yet I get told that the PC I built is worth half the price because now it's "used" by booting it up and testing it, and the local nerds value it at the prices of used components alone. I completely disagree. Any thoughts? Thanks

[jaslion]

16 minutes ago, CryoZen said:

I have been receiving a lot of criticism about how my rigs are now "used" and that the big companies can sell for far more because of their reputation and warranties

They are unless you are an official business. You used them to build a pc to then sell instead of you used these to create a new product to sell from your store.

 

People looking for used pcs on local marketplaces are looking for deals. If its too close to new value it will NEVER sell. The moment you go above 1k asking price good luck that will basically not be touched unless it has like a 3090ti, 12900k and such for 1000$ total.

 

Your aim is the lowest budget people here NOT the higher end crowd.

 

The moment someone can make a decent pc new they'll do that worst case grab a used gpu or something but thats it.

[FlappyBoobs]

For a start, you refer to your potential customers as "the local nerds" stop that. Next you bought multiple limited offers meaning that those same "local nerds" missed out on the deal. Lastly the "local nerds" know what they are buying and who they are buing from, they will not pay more than $20-$50 over what you paid for the parts because that's what most shops charge for assembly...without warranty.

 

Either offer a warranty though a legit business you setup or suck up the fact that you didn't do your research before jumping in with both feet. Honestly it sounds like you have a bad attitude and I wouldn't want to buy from you because of that alone. Local nerds indeed.

[Blue4130]

6 hours ago, CryoZen said:

Hello everyone. I'm reaching out because I want to verify whether or not I am insane. I bought a bunch of new parts during the Black Friday sales with the intent of building PCs and selling them on my local market. I have been receiving a lot of criticism about how my rigs are now "used" and that the big companies can sell for far more because of their reputation and warranties. I posted a PC for a price that was lower than the big system builders by about $300-$400. That was also often times before tax and shipping was calculated, and most of the PCs had things like lower end and wattage power supplies, slower memory, half the storage, a lower end GPU, etc. Yet I get told that the PC I built is worth half the price because now it's "used" by booting it up and testing it, and the local nerds value it at the prices of used components alone. I completely disagree. Any thoughts? Thanks

If you are selling as an individual on a marketplace... If it's not sealed in the box, it's not new. Simple as that. 

[Coaxialgamer]

I mean I'd say that hardware that has very clearly been acquired recently, with original packaging and receipts/manufacturer warranty is probably worth more than some random used part that's been in a PC for the last year or more.

 

But it's also true that if I were in the market for gaming hardware, I wouldn't want to pay new pricing on stuff like that. 

 

The fact that I can't lean on the manufacturer for warranty support (or perhaps not as easily) is a risk I as a customer am taking, which also means that even new/sealed hardware is worth less than retail pricing in this case.

[Heliian]

They're trying to lowball you.  Don't pay mind to those people.  If your pricing is acceptable to the market then it'll move in a week. In my area, there are people tryna sell super old and used hardware for waaay too much and I don't waste time on telling them.

The main downside with local online marketplaces are the weirdos that come with it.

 

Pricing depends on area and general market prices.  I will wait a max of 2 weeks before lowering my prices as it's a small market.  Busier ones should be a week or less before price cuts. 

 

[Lurking]

What you fabricated is worth what someone is wiling to pay. Not more, not less.

 

What real World warranty will those PCs have? Do you provide all the warranty and have a good reputation? If not, those are used parts now. 

[Paranoid Kami]

They're trying to hassle you to get a lower price. Just ignore them. Look for more places to advertise your computers if you can.

[CryoZen]

On 12/21/2022 at 12:19 PM, FlappyBoobs said:

For a start, you refer to your potential customers as "the local nerds" stop that. Next you bought multiple limited offers meaning that those same "local nerds" missed out on the deal. Lastly the "local nerds" know what they are buying and who they are buing from, they will not pay more than $20-$50 over what you paid for the parts because that's what most shops charge for assembly...without warranty.

 

Either offer a warranty though a legit business you setup or suck up the fact that you didn't do your research before jumping in with both feet. Honestly it sounds like you have a bad attitude and I wouldn't want to buy from you because of that alone. Local nerds indeed.

The "local nerds" aren't my customers. I also don't understand how that's so offensive. The research point is a good point though, I did kind of jump into it without proper local market research. Honestly though just reading what you wrote, it sounds like I'm not the one that needs an attitude adjustment. Thank you for your time.

[wasab]

you wont be able to compete with the oems selling prebuilt. they have economy of scales and you dont. not to mentioned brand name behind it and vertical and horizontal integration to further cut down on the cost of manufacturing/assembling. custom built is always cheaper than prebuilt is largerly a thing of the past. with good deals, prebuilt come very close to what you can build yourself. 

[birdhuman]

What you are selling is literally "used".

You do not have a package. You cannot provide invoice from your own business. Your parts are retail parts and every single ones are "out of box".

[LogicalDrm]

On 12/27/2022 at 4:50 PM, CryoZen said:

The "local nerds" aren't my customers. I also don't understand how that's so offensive.

Namecalling is always offensive. You wouldn't want to be called nerdie-boy, would you? Because, since you are PC builder, you are one of them.

 

As for subject itself, you are selling used hardware. The fact its not sealed in box will drop price, maybe up to 10%. No warranty will drop it close to actual used levels of 30% off retail. You probably can offer warranty with receipts, but since you have made full build, you are competing with OEMs who offer full warranty on full PC. With support email/phone and place to bring or send machine when something happens. And if you aren't offering such service, then its used for sure.

 

For the pricing its hard to say anything without actual examples.

[Middcore]

Perhaps you didn't mean "local nerds" to sound derogatory, but that's how it comes across, like you think you're better and cooler than these people. As has already been alluded to, building PC's would make you a "nerd" in the eyes of a lot of people. 

 

The fact is the market for selling PC's as a private individual in a local market like this is very limited. Think of potential buyers as divided up into four quadrants based on whether they have a high or low budget and a high or low level of PC knowledge:

 

• The High Knowledge/Low Budget and High Knowledge/High Budget groups know the cost of components and that buying a PC someone else built is poor value, and would rather build themselves to get the most value and have total control over every component selected.
• The Low Knowledge/High Budget group will buy a PC from an actual business and get the benefit of warranties and support, because they either don't know its poor value or the convenience and peace of mind is worth it to them. 
• So the only market you have left is the Low Knowledge/Low Budget quadrant; people who don't have the knowledge to buy components and build themselves, and also can't afford the price premium to buy from a system integrator business. 

 

If you're not building and pricing your systems with this in mind, you're probably not going to sell many PC's.

  

[DeerDK]

If you really want to do this you need to make an actual business and start buying the components from an wholesale which is cheaper but they only sell to businesses. 

And you need to offer warranty and whatever your local laws demand of businesses. 

Otherwise you are not selling new computers, you are a person who has the rather expensive hobby of putting systems together and selling them shortly after. 

As a consumer I would never consider a private seller to be able to offer the same as a store in terms of warranty, professionalism and security. 

[TH3M4DR4TT3R]

You are in effect selling a used PC because you offer no warranty and you are not the OEM, what you are is a person who has bought cheap parts / deals and built a PC that you want to sell on a primarily 2nd hand marketplace. Whether the parts are new to you or not isn't the point, the fact that you are NOT a business definitely is, though as previous posters have said a 2nd hand PC at 300-400 under MSRP just isn't enough of a bargain for many people to want to risk the lack of a warranty and the risk that the parts aren't genuine.

[discarded]

On 12/22/2022 at 3:22 AM, CryoZen said:

 Yet I get told that the PC I built is worth half the price because now it's "used" by booting it up and testing it, and the local nerds value it at the prices of used components alone. I completely disagree. Any thoughts? Thanks

Indulge in your hobby. The people pricing the PCs by component cost are not the customers you want. They can build their own PCs. Focus on the wider market. I would encourage you to continue & not be discouraged by anyone. A burn-in test is essential on any PC you send out, I reckon. That is electricity and time. As is assembly and component sourcing. Time and energy. Just be up-front about everything you do and don't pretend. Good luck.