Mom disagrees on building then selling PC

[DatCerealBoi]

I'm 14 and have been mowing lawns like crazy to save up $800. I plan to build a PC on cyber Monday, install all the drivers, download a good search engine, do a benchmark or 2 with firestrike, then plug in my 3TB harddrive and start playing some games. But after this, I will sell it on eBay for the original price and then some. When and if someones buys it I will swatch the 3TB HDD for the 1TB HDD I downloaded all the drivers on. Doing this will earn me a pretty good profit once someone buys it. I plan to do it pretty cheap though to outbid other PCs. Sadly my mother is completely against this saying I could buy a car, Saying it's stupid, and listing all the worst things that could happen. She keeps saying if there's 1 faulty part I could have to go to court and similar things. Does anybody have something to say to let her know it's a better idea than she thinks or maybe tell me why I shouldn't do that? I will have a family member that works on PCs look at it and see if its alright to be sold. Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I think you're a bit over confident to think you can easily sell it for the same price you paid. Even more so if you think you can make a profit. You're a couple years too young to drive, but it's not exactly a crazy idea to start setting aside a little money each month until you're 16 to afford a car.

Mom has reason to be worried if she thinks all you're mowing lawns for is to play video games. Try to reach a compromise with her and show her all that work will pay off in other ways too. Ways that can eventually get you into a better job and out on your own. One of the first things an employer is interested in is how industrious you've been, not how you spend your leisure time.

Playing video games is a luxury, not necessity, and if you want to afford it when you're on your own, you'll have to have a decent job to pay for all the necessities first. That's all mom is trying to tell you, and bless her for it. Sounds like a good mom to me.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The court thing, no. If you sold it privately it would be considered 'as is' unless you plan on including some kind of support and advertising that as part of the deal.

The plan won't work though. You will lose money. Used computer parts lose value just like a new car loses value as soon as you drive it off the lot. Unless you are building a specific system for a person who has ordered it and agreed on a set price you will lose money 99% of the time. Why would someone buy a premium priced system from you when they could buy from somewhere like Dell that includes years of support and warranties?

 

[DSzymborski]

I'm 14 and have been mowing lawns like crazy to save up $800. I plan to build a PC on cyber Monday, install all the drivers, download a good search engine, do a benchmark or 2 with firestrike, then plug in my 3TB harddrive and start playing some games. But after this, I will sell it on eBay for the original price and then some. When and if someones buys it I will swatch the 3TB HDD for the 1TB HDD I downloaded all the drivers on. Doing this will earn me a pretty good profit once someone buys it. I plan to do it pretty cheap though to outbid other PCs. Sadly my mother is completely against this saying I could buy a car, Saying it's stupid, and listing all the worst things that could happen. She keeps saying if there's 1 faulty part I could have to go to court and similar things. Does anybody have something to say to let her know it's a better idea than she thinks or maybe tell me why I shouldn't do that? I will have a family member that works on PCs look at it and see if its alright to be sold. Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, she's correct in general (though misses on some of the specifics). Planning to profit by selling a used PC is a pretty terrible plan - unless you find just the right bidder, you're almost certainly going to get quite a lot less in return than you paid for it. There are some people that have been able to sell their RX 470/480 GPUs used than they paid new, but that relied on a very specific set of events that caused that range of GPU quality to become scarce and isn't something you can plan on ahead of time.

 

[Solandri]

Computers are about the fastest depreciating product most people buy. Especially high-end components like expensive video cards. They'll depreciate slightly faster than a car. You can make money building systems to order for people, but you're highly unlikely to make money building one, using it for a few months, then selling it.

Saving money when you're young is always a good idea. At a 6% interest rate

• 
  ■saving $10,000 per year from ages 18-26 will result in $1.12 million at retirement (65).
  ■saving $10,000 per year from ages 20-30 will result in $1.15 million at retirement.
  ■saving $10,000 per year from ages 30-65 will result in $1.11 million at retirement.

That's right, saving for just 9-11 years when you're young will result in more money at retirement than saving for 35 years when you're older. Yeah I know 6% interest is unrealistic lately, but the long-term average return for investing in an index stock fund is about 7%.

If you do wish to pursue this and are relatively knowledgeable and competent with computers, I'd suggest building/buying systems to order for small businesses. A lot of small business owners don't know enough about computers to decide what type of computer they need, yet they're not big enough to hire a full-time IT person. So you can listen to what they need, and buy an appropriate computer for them and set it up (install updates, Malwarebytes and basic programs they'll need like Office or LibreOffice). Charge a small premium for your time, like $100 per computer or 10%. You don't have to build the systems yourself, you can just order pre-built systems from Dell or HP (you'll learn pretty quickly that time is your most valuable asset).

If you do a good job, they'll refer you to other businesses looking to buy a computer so you'll get more work by word of mouth. And they'll also start asking you for (paid) help when they run into computer problems like hardware failures and virus infections. Just be aware that the IRS and probably your state expect you to pay taxes on the money you make doing this once you make more than about $6350. (You'll have to file a tax return no matter how much you make.)

For a little extra margin, use cash-back sites like ebates, Open a U.S. Bank account and get their Cash+ credit card for your purchases. It gives you 5% cash back on categories you select, one of which is electronics retailers, up to $100 per quarter ($2000 in spending). Another category is bookstores, which works for Amazon. Once you've saved up some money, you can open a Fidelity account, which gets you free checking and checks, free online bill pay, and reimbursement for ATM withdrawals worldwide. Get their credit card which gives 2% cash back on everything, no limit.