I finally sold the worlds cheapest gaming PC 3 days ago. I made about a nice profit of close to $200 on it. Considering I put in maybe 2 or 3 hours of labour in total I'm quite satisfied with the result.
This is the second gaming PC I've sold. The first one I sold was to some Christian weirdo (he was some random sect) who wanted it for a TV station. He lectured me about the evils of video games. Then once he paid for it and got it out the door he complained that it was broken. He changed his story about three times before giving up. That has put me off doing pickups ever since.
I want to work on a third and fourth gaming PC. They will be significantly less powerful than this one I just sold. They will be similar to the first one I sold which was 8gb DDR3, 240gb SSD, 1030 GT, i5-2600 3.4(?)GHz.
I think I could do something on a budget of NZD$220 for each one. I would be aiming to sell for probably around $375-425. A nice tidy little profit and a challenge at the same time.
I have seen some HP 8200 office block PCs (they do sell) with an I5-2600, 4GB DDR3, 250gb HDD for NZD$70. That's a good base to start from. That gives me up to $150 to find a GPU and an SSD for each one.
The real challenge is that GT1030 GDDR5's are a pain in the ass to find that second hand. They are available new -- for $160 NZD. But I have seen them sold for NZD$90 second hand, albeit when they're available. If anyone has any recommendations for an alternative GPU to this it would be appreciated. It has to be a low-profile bracket.
As for the SSD a 120gb one is $30 + $7 shipping. A 240gb is $49 + $3 shipping. $15 difference. I may as well go for the 240 SSD for each one as it well help it sell.
Finally, if I were to be super lucky and score a GPU for a retardedly reasonable price I would buy some extra ram. Why am I paying for something can I can download off the internet for free?
That is option 1.
I have seen x3 I7-2600 + mobo + 8GB DDR3 combos. That's identical to how I did on the last build. Bulk prices. $450 for 3 -- but I could probably negotiate it down a few dollars.
I would have to get x3 cases + PSU + GPU + SSD.The risk is that on a per capita basis they will be quite expensive to build. NZD$50 for a cheap case. NZD$60 for a PSU. A 750 TI being $100. SSD $50. Then you add $150 for the I7 + mobo + 8gb. I would be taking on a lot of risk in uncharted territory for me. I don't know how well (if at all) they would sell if I started doing them for $600, $700, $800. I prefer to buy as cheap as possible to allow me to lower prices if I have to. But this puts the expenses quite high. It wouldn't give me as much profit and I would be taking a risk buying in bulk.
They are a fair price nonetheless on their own. But whether or not I can currently actually do it and manage is another question all together. I don't want to dig into my savings too much. Currently I have kept all my operations self-sustaining. I haven't had to break into my savings substantially (only a couple of hundred early on for macs). I'm definitely keeping a nice profit while getting back my principal at the moment.
Decisions, decisions.
As far as GPU's. I read some scuttlebutt that AMD is releasing a rx 5300 that's supposed to be on par with the rx560-590 series. But considering the price for those cards have been sitting at $180, that price may drop further come october.
I've been considering building a flipping computers. Craigslist here is quite active with people selling "fortnight specials" in the $250-450 range. I do occasionally see high end builds going $800+ but it seems that these sit for awhile before being bought.