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ROCINANTE
Original Member 007
Premium Member
join:1999-06-29
Hartsdale, NY

ROCINANTE to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08

Re: Selling custom built PC's, your thoughts.

This is not a good idea. Look at it from the average buyer's perspective (someone with little tech knowledge). He just wants to buy a name brand computer from a well established and reputable store. Perhaps he may even search online to find good deals. The computer is an appliance to him. Why would he buy from an unknown source, if he could even be made aware of your site? On the other hand, why would a tech savy person buy from you, when he can build his own rig or at least know where to get a better deal from someone he knows will be in business in the future?

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08 to Kilroy

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to Kilroy
said by Kilroy:

I think freeze See Profile has the idea. If you decide to do this, do it as a hobby. If it turns into a profit maker great, if not, it was just a hobby.

This.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

Packeteers to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08
Dura - as much as i hate to discourage your entrepreneurial spirit, you are about 15 years too late. back in the mid to late 90's it paid to build your own vs. buy whatever HP Compaq Dell or Gateway was selling - now all those companies wish they could drop their PC divisions, and do what IBM did - get into pure consulting work.

Online savvy buyers reading maximumpc and tomshardware already build their own, non-savvy buy whatever their local office or electronics stores sell, and business people only buy business supported products from HP and Dell. As others have posted, if you have one pain in the ass buyer out of five, your profits are shot to hell.

I actually know a guy who even today builds clones and sells them, but that's in another country where tax and import laws favor parts over finished goods. So unless you plan on moving to Lebanon, I suggest you explore another Ecommerce options.

One last issue - the desktop PC is dying... replaced by tablets smartphones netbooks, whatever you wanna call them. Once a google based retina display tablet comes out, even I'll be retiring my 5 year old HP/Compaq desktop PC and enjoy seeing my data live up in the clouds.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine to ROCINANTE

Member

to ROCINANTE
And yet there are five custom PC shops within five miles of my home.

Dealing with the general public can be aggravating but you get used to it. His customers are more likely to live nearby and are willing to bring their PCs to his shop if it can't be solved on the phone.

Don't compare the little shop on the corner to Dell/Gateway/etc. I buy my meat from a little butcher shop down the street and not from the big name grocery stores. I get better service at a cheaper price and a better product. He can do the same.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

2 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

I guarantee you those "custom pc shops"
make most of their money on data recovery and
cleaning virus/trojans off people's hard drives,
doing modest upgrades that non techies can't
like adding harddrive space, ram, and video cards,
and they are probably in very low rent space.
the only reason they even put a "custom pc"
on display, is to exude their technical prowess,
not to actually sell any of them.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

said by Packeteers:

I guarantee you those "custom pc shops"
make most of their money on ...

That's OK. If he doesn't mind doing that, he's making money. The whole point of any business. Nothing wrong with that.

Drex
Beer...The other white meat.
Premium Member
join:2000-02-24
Not There

1 recommendation

Drex to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08
You will become your clients own personal helpdesk.

"I can't get to [insert website]? Why not?"
"My computer keeps trying to go into Safe Mode. What's that?"
"How do I burn a CD?"
"I can't play music on my computer. I swear I didn't do anything. What's happened?"
"I accidentally deleted a file. Can you get it back for me?"

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

said by Drex:

You will become your clients own personal helpdesk.

That's OK. If he doesn't mind doing that, he's making money. The whole point of any business. Nothing wrong with that.

ROCINANTE
Original Member 007
Premium Member
join:1999-06-29
Hartsdale, NY

ROCINANTE to howardfine

Premium Member

to howardfine
said by howardfine:

And yet there are five custom PC shops within five miles of my home.

The key is that they have a brick and mortar shop and that they do not sell online only.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

1 recommendation

dennismurphy to Packeteers

Premium Member

to Packeteers
said by Packeteers:

Dura - as much as i hate to discourage your entrepreneurial spirit, you are about 15 years too late.

You read my mind. Even 15 years ago was almost too late.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

27 years ago, I bought into a certain sandwich restaurant chain and was told, "I'm too late. There are plenty of sandwich shops around!". Now those sandwich shops are gone while mine are thriving.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

dennismurphy

Premium Member

said by howardfine:

27 years ago, I bought into a certain sandwich restaurant chain and was told, "I'm too late. There are plenty of sandwich shops around!". Now those sandwich shops are gone while mine are thriving.

That's all well and good, but you're not selling a product whose profit margin has decreased substantially year over year for the last 20 years, to the point where your competitors are selling at 1-2 points above cost.

Frankly, outside of the "extreme gamer" market, the custom PC business is dead. It has no margin.

Why do you think HP was looking to get out of the business? No margin. The reason to keep it has to do with supply chain leverage for the rest of their products ....

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

But he's not HP. He wants to make a few bucks on the side and hope to grow it. With the number of shops in my area alone, someone must be making a buck.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08

Premium Member

Alright, I think im done tinkering with prices. Heres my budget PC.

Budget PC
Rosewill blackbone computer case
AMD A-4 2.7GHz dualcore APU w/ stock heatsink
8GB DDR3 1333
500GB HDD 7200 RPM
x22 DVD Burner
550W PSU
Onboard AMD Radeon HD 6410D-DVI and VGA
Windows 7 w/ SP1 x64
1000 DPI mice and chiclet keyboard included

(in the details I would put every bit of info like 6 USB ports in back, 4 in front with esata port etc.

$550.

Your thoughts? Im working on my Mid-Range build right now.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

no monitor?

george357
Premium Member
join:2009-09-18
Marshall, NC

george357 to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08
As far as installing freeware, I would talk to the company offering the freeware I wanted to install, you could possibly even work out a deal that would give you kickbacks if the customer bought the paid version. As for competing against the likes of Dell and Walmart, the service you already mentioned, along with upgradability would go a long ways in closing that gap. You could also make a point about the lack of crapware on your systems. If you really want to shave the costs on the builds get your state's reseller/business license so that hardware companies would be willing to cut you deals on wholesale lots. It could take some searching but many time you can get these lots in smaller units of say 10 at a time which would keep your overhead down a little as well. If this is your passion, go for it! Better to try and fail than not to try!

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08 to AVD

Premium Member

to AVD
said by AVD:

no monitor?

nope

ROCINANTE
Original Member 007
Premium Member
join:1999-06-29
Hartsdale, NY

ROCINANTE

Premium Member

What is your cost? Spending $500 to sell at $550 is not worth it, especially if you factor in your time to build it.
sbcretired
join:2006-01-07
Scottville, MI

sbcretired to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08
There is a line between hobby-friend-relative, and profit-anybody.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08 to ROCINANTE

Premium Member

to ROCINANTE
said by ROCINANTE:

What is your cost? Spending $500 to sell at $550 is not worth it, especially if you factor in your time to build it.

About $470. Could be cheaper if parts go on sale. I already have some dvd burners so take $15-$20 off my cost.
Duramax08

Duramax08

Premium Member

And we have shit tons of dell usb keyboard/mices that we give away. If I could keep a few take another $20 off my cost.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine to ROCINANTE

Member

to ROCINANTE
said by ROCINANTE:

What is your cost? Spending $500 to sell at $550 is not worth it

If he sells one a day, five days a week, throughout the year that would add up to $13K. Is that worth it? Especially if it takes him, say 2 hours after work to put one together?
Netkeys
join:2000-12-08
Hollywood, FL

Netkeys

Member

If you want to make money provide support.

Dell makes more money on upgraded service contract and system upgrades then the base system. That's why it was so much more to upgrade memory from Dell then from another retail source. There is not enough money in the actual HW to make it pay.

Remember that if the video goes out the customer expects you to have the system repairs in a couple of days not months while you send in the defective part and wait for the manufacture to send a replacement. This means an out of pocket expense and in the end you have a rebuilt part replacing the new one you had to purchase to get the system fixed. Remember that the parts change like the weather which means that all those rebuild parts become outdated very quickly and the buyer expects a direct replacement part not a substitute.

I've been in the business for over 20 years and started out building and selling systems but with in a couple of years things started changing and had I not changed with the times I would have been out of business now.

Charge someone $100 to set up there new wireless router and you have all profit. No warranty to worry about and no out of pocket expense. Works for upgrades to there systems also. Great money in removing viruses at $200 a pop.

Work smart and make more without the risks.

Remember that even the cheapest systems from Dell include a minimum of 1 year next business day repair. Very hard for the small guy to match and make any money.

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08
Have you figured sales and income taxes into all of your prices? Insurance? What if a machine you put together causes a fire and burns down a house, because you made a mistake?

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

how do you make a mistake that causes a fire but lets the machine boot on the bench?

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08

Premium Member

I would run the pc for a few days atleast. Guess you can call that the burn in mode. I know I got alot of work for the fine print for things like those. Going to have to serialize each case where I have a info on the parts purchased, warranty info etc.
Duramax08

Duramax08 to swintec

Premium Member

to swintec
said by swintec:

Have you figured sales and income taxes into all of your prices?

I need to look into that. You would think that if you open a store with some godaddy store account or so, they would charge some kind of tax or provide info about taxes. Going to look into that tonight.

FutureMon
Dude Whats mine say?

join:2000-10-05
Marina, CA

1 edit

1 recommendation

FutureMon to dennismurphy

to dennismurphy
said by dennismurphy:

said by Packeteers:

Dura - as much as i hate to discourage your entrepreneurial spirit, you are about 15 years too late.

You read my mind. Even 15 years ago was almost too late.

+1

I used to do this. I could make as much as $300 on a system. The biggest reason I decided to get out of it was because of the warranty support side.

I had a regular full time job. When I got a call because the CD-Rom drive stopped working on a PC I had sold, I had to leave work early in order to facilitate taking a look at it - not to mention driving to their home.

I ended up taking the PC back to the builder, and they fixed the CD-Rom, then I took it back to the customer.

Next day I got a call, my sound card isn't working. What?

Whatever the shop did to fix the CD-Rom, broke the sound card. I ended up having to go again to the customers location and pick up the PC and take it back to the shop.

Ultimately it was the shops fault for building the system out with devices that simply weren't compatable with each other, and the bottom line was I ended up having to give the customer a full refund.

Over this same system, I ended up taking the builder to small claims court over a refund. I won my case. They appealed. I won the appeal because they didn't show. They appealed again. I won the appeal again. Did I ever collect? Nope. And all that time away from my day job cost me a pretty penny more than the $800 I was suing for.

Too much trouble. Now, when someone wants me to build them a system, I take them to Dell.com and help them design and purchase it directly from there.

If you REALLY want to make money, as others have said - do it providing support. Or training. Those are things that won't break and cost you money in the long run.

- FM
Stumbles
join:2002-12-17
Port Saint Lucie, FL

Stumbles to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08
Umm what about the cost of Windows?

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08 to FutureMon

Premium Member

to FutureMon
I got lost....

You use to build systems and make $300 or so.

You had a full time job and when something broke, you had to leave early to drive to the customers home.

This is where you lost me, You ended up taking the pc back to the builder, they fixed it and you took it back to the customer. Huh?

Whatever they did to the cd rom, it broke the sound card causing to go back to the customer.

You blame the shop (you or someone else?) because the things werent compatible and they ended up giving the customer a full refund.