cut & throat ---> generally not a sound business plan. not to mention that you're dealing with ebay PEOPLE granted not all of them are dolts but it seems like computers especially would be a nightmare....I turned it on and nothing happened!
excellent point blitz! i never bought a pc off of ebay or for a private individual. but next time i will be looking for that 'geek' as you put it. i really hate talking to CS reps that barely speak english.
This business is way too saturated at the moment. If you wanna start it, you gotta have something else on the side.
Nowadays hardcore gamers build their own PCs. If you build your high end computer it won't sell well because it will be too expensive...
and then on the low end you'd be competing with the like of Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUsa, etc. and a plethora of online retailers
you will be taking a big risk.. unless you get part real cheap buying bulk other then that, its a no go.. look at dell their computers start at 300+
Wow, gamers build their own PCs? Why does pretty much every computer retailer cater for gamers? Why does companies such as Alienware (now owned by Dell) exist? Seriously people, why make such brash assumptions. There's a lot of gamers and power users who can afford $5000 for a PC but either don't know how to build their own, don't want to risk spending all the money on components and screwing it up, don't have the time or simply want everything done for them.
Jeez, don't get your panties in a bunch. First of all we have a massive computer place in town(Fry's Electronics) that I'm sure sells $K's worth of components a day to gamers and enthusiasts. Lots of people do it themselves, that's b/c if you build it yourself you only have to spend $2500 for the same machine
I worked it out and my computer I purchased from ebay brand new cost me $1500, it would've cost $1650+ if I would've ordered the parts separately (ebuyer and ebay, whichever was cheaper) and put it together myself, so it would've been more expensive.
yeah alienware use to charge loads of money for there computers.. but made a name for themselves.. i use to just buy the cool cases and build it myself
All right... the "geeks" or "nerds" will build it themselves. There is always the tech kiddie/adult who will buy alienware and the like(I know a few... they are hella rich) Anyways I would like to see the comp you built for $1500. Also newegg is the place to go for computer parts... Wish they sold where I live... My comp that I am currently building is costing me and extra $400+ because I am not buying in the States... It sucks
Yeah, I was looking for second hand components, cheaper to buy second hand stuff than at retail prices. Hence why I said 'ebuyer or ebay, whatever was cheaper'. My $1500 computer is: - ASRock ALIVENF5SLI-1394 Dual SLI PCI-E MOBO - AMD Phenom64 Quad Core 9500 8.8Ghz - 500GB Serial ATA - DDR2 800Mhz PC6400 RAM Memory - 8GB - DVD Dual Layer RW - nVidia 8800GTX 768MB Very good graphics card - 600W Power Supply Unit - Wizard Black Case (2 x 12CM Thermalake BLUE LED FAN (Front and Back) 1 x 25CM LED Fan on Side Panel) - 3yrs 'pick up next day' warranty!! Ok, I'm taking his word for this, but I've met the guy in person, know his address and his home phone number, good enough for me This cost £430 ($900), I also got 2x 24" LCD Samsung PC monitors which cost £300 in total ($600). I'd like to point out that all this would've cost about $1200 a few years ago, just the $ has lost a lot of value compared to the £, parts would also cost less if I lived in the US. It's worked great so far, no problems, but I only needed it to test software for my business, I use macs 99% of the time.
You know what I think would work better, is to get custom orders from people and build the comp for them from exactly what they want... that way, they get what they want and you are guaranteed a sale.
Again. The industry is commoditized, plus if he purchases stock then expect it to depreciate about 3% a month. On top of that you have: fraud to worry about, returns, whiney customers to deal with, faults, manufacturers, marketing, and on and on. To top it all off he'd be lucky to make 5% margin on eBay. Now you talk about all your pc's come from eBay that doesn't mean the seller is making anything we are not talking about a buyers perspective. The sell cycle lasts 7 days on average in feebay if your buyer isn't willing to commit and buy you have to relist it all over again. Rinse repeat until you're close to selling it for a loss. eBay has 1000s of the bottom of the barrel buyers. It's next to impossible to make a living from this industy even with your own site nevermind eBay. Take for example all the competition theres literally 1000s of sites all selling the same stuff, most make losses regularly - and then you have companies like pricegrabber charging 35pence a click for you to get some traffic on a motherboard that you would only make £4 from selling. All these could be explained clearly in Porters Five Forces This is from a person who had a gold seller status and his own site and I haven't even explained half of it. My advice to OP is find something else, because even if you can make enough from it (nigh impossible) then the industy only has 10 years left anyway until PS6 comes out etc.