[SOLVED] Can i make money from this?

[adamgrant520]

Cutting to the chase I want to make some extra cash, and I'm thinking of buying used, cheap systems, banging a gpu in them and selling them on. I'm easily finding old dells with i5's a hdd and ssd for 70 pounds, I could then get a 1050ti for 130 pounds bringing my total cost to 200, and I'm seeing systems with similar specs being advertised at LEAST 250 pounds, and averaging around 300. Making my profit around 50 -100 pounds every time.

Now would this be a viable way of earning money? Or would I just break even every time?

 

[USAFRet]

Cutting to the chase I want to make some extra cash, and I'm thinking of buying used, cheap systems, banging a gpu in them and selling them on. I'm easily finding old dells with i5's a hdd and ssd for 70 pounds, I could then get a 1050ti for 130 pounds bringing my total cost to 200, and I'm seeing systems with similar specs being advertised at LEAST 250 pounds, and averaging around 300. Making my profit around 50 -100 pounds every time.

Now would this be a viable way of earning money? Or would I just break even every time?

1. Shipping. Unless you are doing local pickup, shipping costs kill this.
2. What do those other systems actually sell for? Not advertised...actual sale price.
3. Time. How much will you spend on each system in locating, buying, fixing up, advertising, boxing, etc, etc.
4. Who is your actual market for these? Dropping in a GPU indicates a gamer. The rest of the specs matter for those people. Non-gamers do not care about that GPU.

 

[adamgrant520]

1. Shipping. Unless you are doing local pickup, shipping costs kill this.
2. What do those other systems actually sell for? Not advertised...actual sale price.
3. Time. How much will you spend on each system in locating, buying, fixing up, advertising, boxing, etc, etc.
4. Who is your actual market for these? Dropping in a GPU indicates a gamer. The rest of the specs matter for those people. Non-gamers do not care about that GPU.

Yeah I looked into this and took it into account with the numbers I gave above. The prices include shipping.

Time doesn't matter at the moment, I'm too young for a job and in my eyes money is money, and even if it takes me 3 weeks to finish it, that's still some extra money and it's doing something I love too!

I'm not sure about the actual SALE price of them, not something I thought about. I'll look into that

And yeah the market would be for people who want to start pc gaming on a tight budget I guess 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

I just want to know if its even possible to make profit with this method before I go blowing money for nothing

 

[USAFRet]

Shipping a full PC can cost $50 or more. So you need to subtract that from your theoretical "profit".

70(PC) + 130(GPU) = 200
Sell for 250
Minus your shipping cost of 50

You might break even. Maybe.

If you spend 5 hours to make 10 quid 'profit'...that's not even McDonalds wages.


Then, you have to factor in a valid Windows license. Are you planning on including that as well? Or hoping the used PC you buy comes with a valid license?


But...try one. See what happens.

 

[Nemesia]

I did this for a while. Not only the profit is not there the clients keeps calling you after you sold them the system when they have issues. It's hell.

 

[geofelt]

The key will be finding buyers.
I doubt you would make any profit out of it, but you could try one and see how you do.'
Consider any loss as educational tuition payment.

What might work, is to advertise a building service using customer supplied parts.
But, be prepared for the hassle of after sale support.

 

[Turtle Rig]

Shipping a full PC can cost $50 or more. So you need to subtract that from your theoretical "profit".

70(PC) + 130(GPU) = 200
Sell for 250
Minus your shipping cost of 50

You might break even. Maybe.

If you spend 5 hours to make 10 quid 'profit'...that's not even McDonalds wages.


Then, you have to factor in a valid Windows license. Are you planning on including that as well? Or hoping the used PC you buy comes with a valid license?


But...try one. See what happens.

I second that 50 bucks US dollar is not going to happen. That package alone is going to be big if it is a modern mid tower case. It must go without breaking so you need to do expert packaging and take the sales in online form since you don't have credit card machine or access to take theirs. 😷☮👩🏿‍🦲🖐🏽👨🏽‍🦲😉 As for shipping I assume it is only in your country and I can tell you 75 dollars in US minimum to ship it. I don't think people are going to drive down over from who knows where to pickup their new shiny box, rather you must ship it so that a long with what kinda time you have on your hands. If you have lots of time on your hands then do it and you will make nice money guaranteed but don't expect to get rich but enough money to pay for your stuff like phone and internet and TV and what not. Good Luck and Let us know of further conerns. 🖐🏽☮😷🙉

 

[mdd1963]

I was given an old I3-2120 Dell for free last summer...; naturally, not all that impressive on WIn 10 these days, even with 8 GB of RAM...particularly with a spinning drive..

Rather than make it landfill-bound, I slapped on Linux MInt 18 or 19, sold it for only $75 as a secure web surfing/shopping PC some 30 minutes after it was advertised on a local website. (With taskbar or desktop shortcuts set up for Chrome, OS updates, LibreOffice, etc., it becomes remarkably easy to talk someone thru as a basic surfer/home use PC)

Not sure what your particular market will bear on used PC prices....; with so many i5 2500/i7-2600 based systems off lease for sale the past two years for $100 or less, it's hard to extract too much for basic PCs, IMO....

 

[adamgrant520]

Yeah, I'm not sure that it would work, thanks for the advice everyone !