race08

Hi,

I was wondering if there is any money in building computers and making a profit. I have been doing this for awhile for family and friends and it is going really good. But I am interested in doing this on the side or perhaps making it a full time deal in the future. I was thinking of building them and then maybe selling them on ebay. Also is there anyway to buy pc parts at wholesale?

Harriet Tubgirl

buying pc parts at wholesale is more expensive than one at a time. buying one at a time means you can find great deals with rebates, but these deals are usually 1 per customer. you have to buy in HUGE quantities direct from china if you want to make any money. (huge quantities meaning filling up one of those boxcars on a train)

i just came from a small company that tried to do this... that is what we discovered from the experience.

one at a time = cheap
small business = not cheap
huge business = super cheap

NWPhotog

Pretty tough to make money building computers competing against the big boys. It can be done but the real profit is in servicing small and medium sized businesses.

race08

Ya, I was just curious if there was some sort of profit to be made and where to get the best deals. I'm pretty good at this sort of stuff and really was just seeing if I could make like an extra $1000 to $1500 a month.

DeFcOn

i do it at school.........fix old computers and sell them that is....i've made a pretty decent profit this quarter

NWPhotog

Probably a pretty good sideline in school but much tougher to build new computers against the big boys as a business. Once you start buying all new componets take on the cost of doing business and providing warranty, the margins are very slim. It can be done but you have to develop a niche or find a reason people will pay you much more than they'll pay Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.

Chevy

To sell new PC's, you need to do a few things:

1 - Find a supplier that is reputable and not too expensive. This gives you consistency in your builds (price, parts available, etc).

2 - Sell them based on reliability (Dells, etc, have a 25% or greater failure rate in the first month. >1% of mine fail in the first 12 months).

3 - Service is the key. Provide the best customer service, and use this as a major selling point (no more calls to HP tech support where you get routed to a drone with a checklist, etc.)

4 - Target specialty markets - gamers and media pc's.

5 - Don't try to compete with the $399 systems. If a customer asks why, tell them the truth - A $399 system is a weste of your money, and will cost you a lot more down the road (lack of RAM, low-quality parts, etc.)

6 - Educate the customer to the truth of "less is more". Never load trial-ware, and keep the software loaded to a minimum. Why slow down a system with all these apps that are worthless?

For example, my base AMD64 system uses an Antec case, Athlon64 3000+, 512MB DDR400, 120GB SATA, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, FDD, 128MB PCI-X (ATI x300), XP Home, ezArmor, AdAware/Spybot/Spywareblaster/Spywareguard, OpenOffice 2.0, GIMP 2.0, 17" LCD, Altec Lansing Speakers, MS Keyboard/Optical Mouse - 3 years parts/ 1 year labor warranty, and 1 year Telephone Tech Support .... All for $1199.

I don't sell a pc cheaper, and don't want to. Remember, you sell it, you're expected to support it.

crazijoe

It's hard to compete with the big boys. A lot of consumers don't know enough about computers when they buy them. They see an add for $299 desktop Dimension and jump at it. It's your job to point out what exactly they are getting for that $299 and sway them to what you could provide.

AaronV

This seems like good advice... but where do you find that supplier? Do you get everything from one source, or many? online, or near your home/office?

Chevy

I'm lucky to have a dependable supplier about 20 min away. You may need to go further out - so you'll have to consider shipping costs. Either way, try to stick with one or two. Consistency is important.

For specialty items I may go on the hunt, but my basics are from one source.

An important question is whether you're plan calls for more income from service, or the markup on parts. I don't mark my parts up a whole lot - really enough to cover the costs involved in driving to get them, plus a tad more - as I want to keep the overall price down. My real income comes from the service side (spyware removal, reinstalls, etc.).

Consistency also comes into play with your pricing. I have two basic markups - one for system builds, and another for "a la carte" purchases (about 15% higher).

For instance, let's say the basic to build a box (case, mobo, cpu, ram, hdd, optical drive, floppy, OS, AV, kbd/mouse, speakers) costs me $600. I'll may retail the assembled box for $719 (20% markup), but if a customer bought each part separately I may go to +30% per part (totals to $780).

Labor for me has two rates - In my shop ($65/hr, 1 hr min.), in the field ($85/hr, 1 hr. min, clock starts when I leave my shop, stops when I leave your location.). I tend to fix the price of certain jobs that I do in the shop (OS reinstall 1.5hrs, Spyware cleanup $119.95, .5 hrs for install of any hardware bought from me). The reason I can charge just 1.5 for an OS reinstall (we all know it can take longer) is that while the install is running, I can work on something else until I need to answer a prompt.

Man, I need to just write a guide ... There are a lot of ways to approach pricing ... Early on you'll find yourself changing it, but once you find the right combo of markups and fixed prices be sure to stick with it.

ITechnician45

As far as suppliers go, I have a very reliable supplier who has yet to fail me or my friends. TigerDirect.com has great parts at low prices. Another place you could go to if someone asks you for a speciality system is Xoxide.com.