• Is building a computer and selling it on eBay a good idea?
    22 replies, posted
I've had the idea for a while, and I know many people do it on eBay, however I'm not actually sure how successful it is. I also don't have any ratings on eBay and I'm not sure how much that affects the likelihood of someone bidding. I've put together a pretty nice $470 AMD gaming rig on Newegg, well capable of most modern games, and I'm about ready to order it and try this. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any recommendations?
Bidding may end is disaster if you're not careful. You're best of just going for buy it now/best offer and set your own price. I don't know how successful this is though. It might be a good idea making low-mid end as opposed to high end since those are for the hardcore PC people which you probably won't find on eBay.
List it on craigslist instead, much easier to deal with unless you have a great rep on ebay.
[QUOTE=>VLN<;34104033]List it on craigslist instead, much easier to deal with unless you have a great rep on ebay.[/QUOTE] It also eliminates the problem of damage in shipping. If they come over to pick it up, you can have it loosely plugged in to show the customer that it actually works.
and I'm pretty sure there's also no listing fee or whatever on craiglist as opposed to ebay
[QUOTE=Odellus;34106851]and I'm pretty sure there's also no listing fee or whatever on craiglist as opposed to ebay[/QUOTE] All of craigslist is free listing. (just watch the pictures)
just make sure you weed out any nigerians **[B]WILL NOT SHIP TO NIGERIA[/B]** otherwise they'll try to scam your shit. Avoid it by watching for emails requesting overseas shipping, offering extra payment for overseas shipment, funky names like Aareonakakanfo Chukwumereije, or people requesting your built desktop for their missionary ex-wife daughter. They might even send phishing paypal links.
Whole computers are not really high in demand on eBay, and is guaranteed to be disastrous unless you set a minimum reserver or shill bid. The latter is highly not recommended if you don't know how to do it "professionally" as it can result in your account being suspended.
Things are different today from two years ago. Nowadays, people want simple products such as tablets and smartphones. Your desktop probably won't sell too well. I've been doing the same thing for the past three years; the first year was great, probably made around $3k or so. The past two years? So-so. I've moved on to buy-selling phones.
I sell PCs on ebay too Right now is not a good time to do it. Nobody wants to buy anything. [editline]8th January 2012[/editline] And if you're trying to sell gaming PCs as long as shit like [url=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIBOX-HD-G3-AM3-ATHLON-645-1TB-HDD-8GB-DDR3-RAM-AMD-GAMING-COMPUTER-DESKTOP-PC-/200663055989?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2eb8733e75#ht_1774wt_1139]this[/url], [url=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galaxy-3-AMD-FX-Quad-Core-3-6Ghz-Desktop-Gaming-PC-500gb-4gb-DDR3-ATI-6450-1gb-/150696241180?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item231632281c#ht_3327wt_1185]this[/url] and [url=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIBOX-TOWER-X1-NEW-AMD-DESKTOP-ATI-HD-6450-500GB-2GB-RAM-CHEAP-FAST-GAMING-PC-/190592590990?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2c6034248e]this[/url] exist then good luck.
Research the price of these "Gaming"pc's on ebay and look at them for a while to see how much they sell. Make a budget for your own buildt pc and check if its well enough below the market price. The price difference * the ammount you see sold = your profit. Check if its viable.
[QUOTE=Soleeedus;34107301]just make sure you weed out any nigerians **[B]WILL NOT SHIP TO NIGERIA[/B]** otherwise they'll try to scam your shit. Avoid it by watching for emails requesting overseas shipping, offering extra payment for overseas shipment, funky names like Aareonakakanfo Chukwumereije, or people requesting your built desktop for their missionary ex-wife daughter. They might even send phishing paypal links.[/QUOTE] "Buyer is responsible for all shipping charges"
I dont know how taxes work there, but if it was here it wouldn't be a good idea, as business here do not have to pay VAT, meaning they can obtain their components cheaper, so If you want some sort of profit (assuming your doing buy-it-now) you will have to put the price up or not have a big profit. Also, unless you are selling them OS-Free/Linux (or being rather naughty) you will have to pay a lot more for OS licences than many large computer companies with agreements with MS. I build computers for people, but only performance machines because at least if I am selling them to non-friends everything needs to be totally above board and I just cannot undercut the prices of cheap machines that big manufactures churn out.
[QUOTE=rhx123;34128905]I dont know how taxes work there, but if it was here it wouldn't be a good idea, as business here do not have to pay VAT, meaning they can obtain their components cheaper, so If you want some sort of profit (assuming your doing buy-it-now) you will have to put the price up or not have a big profit. Also, unless you are selling them OS-Free/Linux (or being rather naughty) you will have to pay a lot more for OS licences than many large computer companies with agreements with MS. I build computers for people, but only performance machines because at least if I am selling them to non-friends everything needs to be totally above board and I just cannot undercut the prices of cheap machines that big manufactures churn out.[/QUOTE] Technet licences are fairly cheap, you can get 15 copies of all the versions of Win7 for less than one copy of Ultimate.
[QUOTE=Chubbs;34129991]Technet licences are fairly cheap, you can get 15 copies of all the versions of Win7 for less than one copy of Ultimate.[/QUOTE] Yeah, but technet licences are for evaluation only (supposedly). Correct me if I'm wrong, but selling computers with technet licences is against the agreement for using them, so in law is just as illegitimate as not having a licence at all. Well I would not want to be selling computers with technet licences on myself, anyway. [B]Edit:[/B] [URL="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/cc294422.aspx"]http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/cc294422.aspx[/URL] [QUOTE]"You may not use the software in a live operating environment..."[/QUOTE]
I've noticed the main ebay pc buyer tends not to know what they are buying too well. They will generally go for the big number specs '12GHz' CPU's and 1GB passive GPU's that are really 256mb or less but expand with shared memory. I disapprove of these practices and hope you dont use any of them if you decide to sell prebuilts on ebay. People will see your PC's but not realise they are of higher quality with true specs and actually worth the money when compared to these 'fluffed up machines' without some serious copy-writing.
[QUOTE=cosmic duck;34130563]I've noticed the main ebay pc buyer tends not to know what they are buying too well. They will generally go for the big number specs '12GHz' CPU's and 1GB passive GPU's that are really 256mb or less but expand with shared memory. I disapprove of these practices and hope you dont use any of them if you decide to sell prebuilts on ebay. People will see your PC's but not realise they are of higher quality with true specs and actually worth the money when compared to these 'fluffed up machines' without some serious copy-writing.[/QUOTE] I agree, In a computer mag I was reading, in an article about Buldozer they mentioned its "eBay Frequency". Made me chuckle. I agree, however I sometimes really wonder if said sellers arn't that bright, and actually think that you can just add all the core speeds up.
[QUOTE=rhx123;34131552]I agree, In a computer mag I was reading, in an article about Buldozer they mentioned its "eBay Frequency". Made me chuckle. I agree, however I sometimes really wonder if said sellers arn't that bright, and actually think that you can just add all the core speeds up.[/QUOTE] I doubt that someone that dumb could assemble a computer.
[QUOTE=Chubbs;34131564]I doubt that someone that dumb could assemble a computer.[/QUOTE] Well, AMD didn't help by naming their 2Ghz Dual core the 4000+ etc, I remeber buying mine from maplin a long time ago and even they said in the store "its efectivly 4GHz"
[QUOTE=rhx123;34131781]Well, AMD didn't help by naming their 2Ghz Dual core the 4000+ etc, I remeber buying mine from maplin a long time ago and even they said in the store "its efectivly 4GHz"[/QUOTE] >Goes to Maplin >expects people to know stuff
[QUOTE=Chubbs;34132149]>Goes to Maplin>expects people to know stuff[/QUOTE]I was young and stupid :( but that cpu has lasted me from then (2006 I think) up until now so can't moan.In the era of the p4, high was better. Apparently.
[QUOTE=rhx123;34132233]I was young and stupid :( but that cpu has lasted me from then (2006 I think) up until now so can't moan.In the era of the p4, high was better. Apparently.[/QUOTE] Stick a huge cooler on it and try to get the 4Ghz out of it that the Maplin guy said you could.
Ebay no, Craigslist yes. Do local sales, shipping will kill your profit
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