PC Building Buisness?

[Allupyourfinger]

If I were to start a small business where I build PC's and sell them for a small profit how would I go about doing this? 

 

Is there anyone with experience trying this?

 

What would be the best way to reach my customers (eBay, Shopify ext...?)

[Princess Luna]

Waste of time, too much of a saturated market, either you'll never have the prices of the big players in pre-builds and people interested in custom builds usually just puts it together themselves.

[BarackOBatman]

17 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

If I were to start a small business where I build PC's and sell them for a small profit how would I go about doing this? 

 

Is there anyone with experience trying this?

 

What would be the best way to reach my customers (eBay, Shopify ext...?)

As a hobby, I have sold 10 PC's or so out of my house.

Its pretty hard to compete with the likes of the system integrators such as Cyberpower PC and iBuyPower. Especially since they offer a "legitimate" warranty on their products and you can buy them at big stores, rather than some guy on the craigslist. Their prices are in some cases, hard to beat.

I only use Ebay for individual components. The towers are expensive to ship, and its recommended to package the video card seperatley.

Most of my business has been through an app called OfferUp but also a little through craigslist and facebook marketplace.

For a $300-600 PC, i make about 0 - $60

For a $600+ hopefully more...

Most i ever profited was selling a $815 PC for $965 ($150 Profit)

These prices are from a parts, and gas/mileage standpoint only.

When you consider the time it takes to build the PCs im really loosing money if anything. Since I do it for fun (as a hobby) its time well spent IMO.

You reallllly gotta be good at hunting for the deals if you want to flip a profit. You'll loose money if you buy your components for MSRP.

 

Not a way to make a living imo.

[AncientNerd]

13 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

If I were to start a small business where I build PC's and sell them for a small profit how would I go about doing this? 

 

Is there anyone with experience trying this?

 

What would be the best way to reach my customers (eBay, Shopify ext...?)

The only possible way to make money at this is to be local - really, really local, as in word of mouth in a small town or group of people local. Twenty, or heck even ten years ago you might have been able to be a startup small company doing this. But even then the companies that made it didn't/don't do one off custom work they do large volume. Even the so called custom shops on the internet are much larger than a one person. The one person shops all do the really wild super custom builds that are more works of art than computers anymore and sell for tens of thousands of dollars just for the art aspect. 

[Allupyourfinger]

1 minute ago, BarackOBatman said:

As a hobby, I have sold 10 PC's or so out of my house.

Its pretty hard to compete with the likes of the system integrators such as Cyberpower PC and iBuyPower. Especially since they offer a "legitimate" warranty on their products and you can buy them at big stores, rather than some guy on the craigslist. Their prices are in some cases, hard to beat.

I only use Ebay for individual components. The towers are expensive to ship, and its recommended to package the video card seperatley.

Most of my business has been through an app called OfferUp but also a little through craigslist and facebook marketplace.

For a $300-600 PC, i make about 0 - $60

For a $600+ hopefully more...

Most i ever profited was selling a $815 PC for $965 ($150 Profit)

When you consider the time it takes to build the PCs i really loosing money if anything. Since I do it for fun (as a hobby) its time well spent IMO.

You reallllly gotta be good at hunting for the deals if you want to flip a profit. You'll loose money if you but components for MSRP.

 

That's actually pretty cool. I would be down to do for very little profit just because I enjoy building so much.

[r3loAded]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

Waste of time, too much of a saturated market, either you'll never have the prices of the big players in pre-builds and people interested in custom builds usually just puts it together themselves.

Let's agree to disagree

 

Indeed the market is kind of saturated but it does depends the area as well.

 

I've started this as a side business (and still is) last year in January and I've sold over 100 gaming PCs ranging from £200 up to £1200. All my PCs were using 95% pre-owned components. At start there was no receipt or warranty provided but as I've seen that people were asking about warranty and receipt I enrolled in the self-employed program in order to provide receipts and pay taxes for my hobby income (yes in UK there is such thing).

 

True, it's not a full time job for me and I couldn't make a living out of this but it does add up to my monthly income on average £200. But for me is a hobby and then a business.

 

As I said all my computers contain 95% pre-owned components and I do negotiate a lot for each one. I am not greedy and try to provide the best deals in my area. Not selling on ebay as their 8% fees + 3.4%+20p fees for paypal would mean that I'll be left without profit. Also it would be difficult (expensive) for me to provide warranty hundred of miles away.

[BarackOBatman]

1 minute ago, Allupyourfinger said:

 

That's actually pretty cool. I would be down to do for very little profit just because I enjoy building so much.

edited my first post BTW (just some small changes)

 

But yeah  that's why i do it! Its just fun!

[r3loAded]

For example this is what I have for sale at the moment

 

First 5 builds are all for sale at the moment. It is a lot of money invested but I got faith that I will sale them eventually. Just last Saturday I sold 2, one for £950 and the other for £675, having about £300 profit from which I need to pay taxes and take roughly £30 for petrol.

[Allupyourfinger]

4 minutes ago, r3loAded said:

Let's agree to disagree

 

Indeed the market is kind of saturated but it does depends the area as well.

 

I've started this as a side business (and still is) last year in January and I've sold over 100 gaming PCs ranging from £200 up to £1200. All my PCs were using 95% pre-owned components. At start there was no receipt or warranty provided but as I've seen that people were asking about warranty and receipt I enrolled in the self-employed program in order to provide receipts and pay taxes for my hobby income (yes in UK there is such thing).

 

True, it's not a full time job for me and I couldn't make a living out of this but it does add up to my monthly income on average £200. But for me is a hobby and then a business.

 

As I said all my computers contain 95% pre-owned components and I do negotiate a lot for each one. I am not greedy and try to provide the best deals in my area. Not selling on ebay as their 8% fees + 3.4%+20p fees for paypal would mean that I'll be left without profit. Also it would be difficult (expensive) for me to provide warranty hundred of miles away.

 

4 minutes ago, BarackOBatman said:

edited my first post BTW (just some small changes)

 

But yeah  that's why i do it! Its just fun!

 

The only thing for me is the upfront cost of components. Have you guys ever had anyone back out of a deal after you bought the components and did the build?

[Allupyourfinger]

1 minute ago, r3loAded said:

For example this is what I have for sale at the moment

 

First 5 builds are all for sale at the moment. It is a lot of money invested but I got faith that I will sale them eventually. Just last Saturday I sold 2, one for £950 and the other for £675, having about £300 profit from which I need to pay taxes and take roughly £30 for petrol.

 

Beautiful builds. I saw your topic a little bit ago, kind of what gave me this idea.

[divito]

Building alone is not enough typically. In some areas, it might work depending on the size of the town or city, and what kind of options and stores are available. That being said, it would only last so long.

The way to supplement is by offering the complementary services. The upgrades, the data transfers, the virus removals, etc... If you have a decently small area under-served or not served at all, you can probably be successful.
 

2 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

The only thing for me is the upfront cost of components. Have you guys ever had anyone back out of a deal after you bought the components and did the build?

It's happened. But over a certain amount, I would typically ask for a deposit, or would have them pre-pay, or once I've put together a part list, I get them to sign off on it and we purchase it together with their credit card.

[BarackOBatman]

1 minute ago, Allupyourfinger said:

 

 

The only thing for me is the upfront cost of components. Have you guys ever had anyone back out of a deal after you bought the components and did the build?

The PC's have always been investment up front for me, and then its up to me to sell for a profit. 

 

There was one time a guy wanted to add wifi to a PC i had already built, so i bought the wifi card, and then he backed out, but it was not big deal... (like $8 US)

 

When it comes to components, If you don't use in in one build, you can probably use it in another. So I buy any components that are good value. Kind of on a whim ( i kind of keep a small stock.) Then when i get enough parts, or an idea for a build, i finish it out, and list it for sale.

[Allupyourfinger]

3 minutes ago, divito said:

Building alone is not enough typically. In some areas, it might work depending on the size of the town or city, and what kind of options and stores are available. That being said, it would only last so long.

The way to supplement is by offering the complementary services. The upgrades, the data transfers, the virus removals, etc... If you have a decently small area under-served or not served at all, you can probably be successful.
 

It's happened. But over a certain amount, I would typically ask for a deposit, or would have them pre-pay, or once I've put together a part list, I get them to sign off on it and we purchase it together with their credit card.

The complimentary service idea sounds pretty good. I live in a pretty small town with a bigger city near it leaving lots of room for startup businesses and not much of a local saturated market at all.

 

Why would anyone trust to prepay for a build?  

[BarackOBatman]

9 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

The complimentary service idea sounds pretty good. I live in a pretty small town with a bigger city near it leaving lots of room for startup businesses and not much of a local saturated market at all.

 

Why would anyone trust to prepay for a build?  

I'm uncertain about @divitos situation, but some resale apps or sites allow buyers to leave feedback (which establishes a rating) or upload government documents to prove you are legitimate (ID, Birth certificate??) and you get a special badge next to your name to help get some credibility. Earn enough of it and someone might trust you to do this. Some sites even guarantee you get the what you paid for or your money back i think?? 

[Allupyourfinger]

2 minutes ago, BarackOBatman said:

I'm uncertain, but some resale apps or sites allow buyers to leave feedback or upload government documents to prove you are legitimate (ID, Birth certificate??) and you get a special badge next to your name to help get some credibility. Earn enough of it and someone might trust you to do this. Some sites even guarantee you get the what you paid for or your money back i think?? 

 

The only thing with the 'Money Back Guarantee' services is PayPal will hold the money for a couple of days even up to weeks in case they don't get the product than its easy to give the money back and you cant spend it. Making pre-paying pointless

[r3loAded]

6 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

Why would anyone trust to prepay for a build?

If it's local then word to mouth is the best thing but that grows up in time. It takes a lot of time. That's why I chose to do upfront builds, risking my money and hoping to get my money back and maybe something on top.

 

Friendliness and having a chat with every possible customer helps as well.

 

It would be very hard to make a living out of this so don't aim for that at this point.

[Allupyourfinger]

1 minute ago, r3loAded said:

If it's local then word to mouth is the best thing but that grows up in time. It takes a lot of time. That's why I chose to do upfront builds, risking my money and hoping to get my money back and maybe something on top.

 

Friendliness and having a chat with every possible customer helps as well.

 

It would be very hard to make a living out of this so don't aim for that at this point.

 

In no way do I look to make a living do this, although it would be cool I would just be doing it for pretty much someone else to pay for my hobby of building 

[r3loAded]

Example of upfront investment

[BarackOBatman]

@Allupyourfinger Forgot to mention, a benefit to my cost up front strategy is that I frequently have friends and family (my family is full of gamers) over, so we do a lot of LANs (small LANs... like 5 v 5 tops) and gaming on the PCs while i wait for them to sell! 

Just be sure to leave any plastic on the PCs if you use new components and reset windows before you sell!

[Allupyourfinger]

2 minutes ago, r3loAded said:

Example of upfront investment

 

Well, we know why GPU prices are up...  lol. That's pretty awesome.

[BarackOBatman]

2 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

 

In no way do I look to make a living do this, although it would be cool I would just be doing it for pretty much someone else to pay for my hobby of building 

Exactly!

[Allupyourfinger]

Just now, BarackOBatman said:

@Allupyourfinger Forgot to mention, a benefit to my cost up front strategy is that I frequently have friends and family (my family is full of gamers) over, so we do a lot of LANs (small LANs... like 5 v 5 tops) and gaming on the PCs while i wait for them to sell! 

Hehe, gotta test them out if you get what I mean

[cluelessgenius]

i sell custom builds about 3-4 times a year and only do it as a hobby and only charge cost of material and only sell to people i know that know at least a little bit about pcs. what may people dont think about is that the more you sell the more support youll need to do especially if the buyer has no knowledge about pcs what so ever. 

i made the mistake once building a machine for a family that was somehow relatives of a buddy of mine and within the 1st year i had to go over there 6 times to do basically nothing because of problems i wasnt able to reproduce when i was there. i would not recommend it.

also i sell them for cost of material because i do it as a favor to them and found if i were to charge them extra on top it would just be cheaper to get a prebuild. because i only use brand name products and oems well lets not get into that.

[Allupyourfinger]

1 minute ago, cluelessgenius said:

i sell custom builds about 3-4 times a year and only do it as a hobby and only charge cost of material and only sell to people i know that know at least a little bit about pcs. what may people dont think about is that the more you sell the more support youll need to do especially if the buyer has no knowledge about pcs what so ever. 

i made the mistake once building a machine for a family that was somehow relatives of a buddy of mine and within the 1st year i had to go over there 6 times to do basically nothing because of problems i wasnt able to reproduce when i was there. i would not recommend it.

also i sell them for cost of material because i do it as a favor to them and found if i were to charge them extra on top it would just be cheaper to get a prebuild. because i only use brand name products and oems well lets not get into that.

 

Interesting. I could see some people who aren't so knowledgeable about computers would end up having some sort of simple problem and then giving me a bad rep or giving bad reviews.

[cluelessgenius]

6 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

 

Interesting. I could see some people who aren't so knowledgeable about computers would end up having some sort of simple problem and then giving me a bad rep or giving bad reviews.

well even if they accept that things happen and are very glad that you still come to help and give you no blame at all its still very annoying having someone constantly bothering you about all sorts of trivial stuff i already got my parents for that and dont need more people doing that.

for example lets say you set up a free antivirus like avast or something then you can expect a call when the licence needs renewing in a year and "a window popped up saying my licence is running out or something?"