Who builds systems on the side to sell on Craigslist or eBay?

Archaea

Archaea

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 19, 2004
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I've seen some good hardware deals lately and decided to build a system on the side to see how it sells on eBay or Craigslist.

As a long time PC hobbiest I enjoy building systems, so it isn't really work per se, and if I can make a couple hundred bucks while at it, hey why not?

I checked out eBay sold listings and it appeared, rationally, that the best profit margins were on the no holds barred entries. So with that in mind I bought some new high end parts through microcenter, and Newegg --- on reasonable sales and will see how it goes.

I figure worst I can do is basically break even and basically dontate my time because of the combo prices and passion for finding deals and tinkering with overclocking.

Have any of you tried this? Is it a money losing proposition? Break even? Profitable?

I'm building a closed loop water cooled 1080ti rig with a 7700k presumably overclocked to 5ghz, 32GB RGB ram, 1080ti, nice flashy case with all the RGB options tricked out, evo 960 nvme SSD OS drive and 2tb firecuda sshd for games and an 8TB WD RED drive for long term archiving. Overkill and quite pretty!

It used to be you couldn't touch prices for systems from the big players, especially considering the OS inclusion, support, etc (Dell, HP, Alienware, etc) --- but these days - with internet vendors, newegg, amazon, microcenter - etc - you can potentially match or beat their prices -- even if only slightly -- and you can definitely beat their quality/feature list for the price (bigger PSU, more bells and whistles on motherboards, overclocking, lack of bloatware, etc).

I'm curious as to others' experiences with this in recent times.
 
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I tried to do this when I was younger mostly with friends and family. Every time they screwed something up I get calls for me to come over and expected me to fix it for free. It became to much of a hassle to do. As long as you don't give them contact information and state as is with no warranty then might be worth it. Might be hard sells at reasonable profits then locally anyway. On Ebay shipping and fees would kill a lot of profit.
 
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I agree with Vegeta535 , it's a total pita, I've made more just selling components
 
I use to do this 10 years ago and it was ok-ish back then.

What I seem to noticed from craigslist was...

1) Many more folks were looking for "cheap" systems than high-end gaming systems. This lead me to breaking down higher-end systems into cheaper builds or parting out.

2) People will nag at you for their own mistakes. I had a guy that called me everyday to fix his computer because he played with the bios. I showed him online how to reset the CMOS jumper but of course that was too much work for him.

3) Fast forward to 2017, more people are looking for laptops. Honestly a decent laptop will do everything and more for an average consumer. People are more familiar with online shopping now and make smarter/stupider decisions from slickdeals to ebay.

I see the same high-end systems on craigslist and never moving. They are marketing to buyers who has money and they are asking top dollar for it. What does the buyer care if the computer is "new". They can spend the same money and get roughly the same spec from cyberpower or whatever. These folks aren't exactly on a cheap budget.

Well that is my opinion really.
 
DTN107 said:
I use to do this 10 years ago and it was ok-ish back then.

What I seem to noticed from craigslist was...

1) Many more folks were looking for "cheap" systems than high-end gaming systems. This lead me to breaking down higher-end systems into cheaper builds or parting out.

2) People will nag at you for their own mistakes. I had a guy that called me everyday to fix his computer because he played with the bios. I showed him online how to reset the CMOS jumper but of course that was too much work for him.

3) Fast forward to 2017, more people are looking for laptops. Honestly a decent laptop will do everything and more for an average consumer. People are more familiar with online shopping now and make smarter/stupider decisions from slickdeals to ebay.

I see the same high-end systems on craigslist and never moving. They are marketing to buyers who has money and they are asking top dollar for it. What does the buyer care if the computer is "new". They can spend the same money and get roughly the same spec from cyberpower or whatever. These folks aren't exactly on a cheap budget.

Well that is my opinion really.
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Actually you could build good gaming PC that can rival OEMs for the money even cheaper but you are right about cheap systems. I compared a system with a $100 mark up costing about the same from a system builder that was better in every way. The problem is like you said people will break stuff and nag you even if sold as is with no warranty. I would really love to get back into doing it so I get to play with all the new hardware but the headache of dealing with stupid people. Making $100 of a system I would of sold is decent for doing something I like. About $20 an hour from start to finish.
 
vegeta535 said:
Actually you could build good gaming PC that can rival OEMs for the money even cheaper but you are right about cheap systems. I compared a system with a $100 mark up costing about the same from a system builder that was better in every way. The problem is like you said people will break stuff and nag you even if sold as is with no warranty. I would really love to get back into doing it so I get to play with all the new hardware but the headache of dealing with stupid people. Making $100 of a system I would of sold is decent for doing something I like. About $20 an hour from start to finish.
Click to expand...

Well I was mainly speaking from a consumer point-of-view. If they were willing to spend like a $1000-1200 for an i7 with GTX 1080 build. Then a smart buyer who is more savvy would negotiate it down or build their own and save on cost. A less-savvy buyer wouldn't care about the fine details but just the raw specs. They can easily just walk into bestbuy and pick up a cyberpower computer. What do they care really about case quality or ram brand name? Roughly same price but at least it will be "new" to them.

Regarding about $20/hour. I always factor the amount of time it sat on the shelf waiting to be sold. I had computers sitting around for 2 months before it was sold and that was after a couple price drops. If it takes 3 weeks to sale a computer for a $100 profit, it is kinda a bust deal unless it was junk parts that were scraped together to make some kinda sale.
 
I used to do it alot on gaming forrums. i gave people 7 days return policy and credit time so they could try the machine out. and 30 days warranty for factory faults.
I sold a lot of computer and made a pretty amount of it but i also has a source to cheap/free parts from my work.
 
The big gaming OEM s have to tool their line based on availability and things like 'shipping' and support - - - then performance . Imagine your favorite 1lb copper heatpipe cooler attached to a board and then the boxed tower thrown across a few shipping sorting centers .

You have an advantage there in availability and pricing just picking up specials from MC or Frys and then doing something interesting with them .

With Surface and Macbooks the industrys new price point with margin is in mobile ... think thin light and cool vs PERFORMANCE . I heard a rumor that Apple was going to use KABY LAKE in next run , which was news because they usually don't touch a chipset that isn't 2 years old...getting lowest price from mfg and most mature platform is their goal .

Find a niche and have fun wifh that ..it may be finding the 'golden sample' and selling the mb cpu and ram together ..but not a system . Or modern systems running Win7 as time is limited on DELL being able to downgrade rights on Win 10 Pro with the new CPU lines.

Kenny
 
You will lose money.

Even if you sell one or two systems for a small profit, you won't be able to do so consistently.
Plus Ebay and Paypal both get a big cut off the top. Craigslist shoppers want bargains.

And as others have said, shipping damage will always be your fault.
Any problem at all with the system will be your fault.

You would need to be able to swing OEM pricing on parts and sell in volume to make any money.

If you had a computer sales & service store front that might be different.
But the money on that comes from service, not so much hardware sales.
And then you need to be able to cover big rent on a store every month.
I've seen a huge number of strip mall computer stores go belly up.

It would make more sense to get into computer recycling. You get used equipment for free or even
charge a nominal fee to pick up the equipment. Then you can sell something that didn't cost you anything.
Get ready to scrap a lot of what you take in though, a lot of it will truly be scrap.

It's a tough business to make any money as a little guy.

If I was shopping for a high end system, it wouldn't be from a guy I don't know building them in his basement.

.
 
Spartacus said:
You will lose money.

Even if you sell one or two systems for a small profit, you won't be able to do so consistently.
Plus Ebay and Paypal both get a big cut off the top. Craigslist shoppers want bargains.

And as others have said, shipping damage will always be your fault.
Any problem at all with the system will be your fault.

You would need to be able to swing OEM pricing on parts and sell in volume to make any money.

If you had a computer sales & service store front that might be different.
But the money on that comes from service, not so much hardware sales.
And then you need to be able to cover big rent on a store every month.
I've seen a huge number of strip mall computer stores go belly up.

It would make more sense to get into computer recycling. You get used equipment for free or even
charge a nominal fee to pick up the equipment. Then you can sell something that didn't cost you anything.
Get ready to scrap a lot of what you take in though, a lot of it will truly be scrap.

It's a tough business to make any money as a little guy.

If I was shopping for a high end system, it wouldn't be from a guy I don't know building them in his basement.

.
Click to expand...

We'll all the parts arrived. We will see how it goes! Fwiw I don't expect the typical hardforum guy like you to be my customer. And yes I will be building it in my basement! ;)



Pay no attention to the plastic wrap on the speakers. I have a pair of loaner speakers I'm trying out from JTR speakers. The 212HT.

gotta have some tunes to build by!

IMG_1750.JPG

Parts
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Darn this Genome II case helix looks fantastic even before the LEDs light up!

IMG_1753.JPG
 
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Wow.... nice home theater setup!

I wish you luck with the project, hopefully you do well with it.
You never know I guess, Michael Dell started out of his garage. :)

.
 
Listed my project on eBay today. If this works out I might do this on the side. I really enjoy building PCs and overclocking and tinkering and wringing out performance! It's so enjoyable to me I'd probably do it once in a while even if I just break even monetarily.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222550595831?

Components List:
  • CPU: Intel I7 7700K overclocked to 4.8GHz on all cores
  • Cooling: 360 mm water cooling radiator - closed loop cooler
  • RAM: 32GB PC3000 Geil EVO X RAM
  • Motherboard: ASRock Z270 Extreme 4
  • OS Drive: 256GB NVME SSD 960 EVO (3,200MB/s read)
  • Gaming Drive: 2TB SSHD Seagate Firecuda
  • Archive Drive: 8TB Western Digital RED NAS hard-drive
  • Video Card: Gigabyte Gaming OC 1080 Ti
  • PSU: PC Powering & Cooling MK2 Silencer 750 Watt (silver efficiency)
  • Case: Deep Cool Genome II Gamer Storm
  • Lighting: RGB lighting with 7 distinct lighting areas. Pick the color you want, the brightness you want, and the style you want (breathing, cycling, static, strobing, etc.)

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Nice rig!

I threw down a bid on it, can't let it go cheap. :)

* Not a shill bid, I'd gladly pay what I bid on it.

.
 
You built a killer system. I hope it sells for a decent price.

I have been thinking about doing this lately, as I have fallen into some decent deals, and am currently swimming in computers/parts.
However, there are some hang ups. In the past, when I have tried to help people who want new computers, usually they fall into two categories.
The first is people that want the best and the newest at bargain prices, but are unwilling to take anything used. It is better to just let these people walk, as they are the type described above, where they would just walk into Best Buy and get a Cyberpower/iBuypower, or call Dell and get an overpriced, under-specced XPS, and be perfectly happy because they have the money and it is new.
The second are people who are looking for a bargain, and are very cheap, and will try to talk you out of everything you own for $10, a six pack of cheap beer, and a 20 piece bucket from KFC. Again, they want as much as they can get for the money, and are really willing to pick apart the machine you are trying to sell.
Neither really know a lot about building PC's, or they would do it themselves. Even today, building the machine is still regarded as a mystical art, for some reason.

That being said, I think the real money is in buying slightly older video cards and stuffing them into older pre-builts that you get for either cheap or free and refresh and repurpose for gaming. Sandy and Ivy seems to be where the money is at, as they are still relevant(not many games require more than that for even the recommended specs). There are boat loads of prebuilds with those in them, couple them with a 750Ti or other cards for quick sales.

I have a Haswell i5 build with a 1060 I have to figure out how to sell now, because the price for it rivals going to the store and buying a new PC, however that new PC isn't going to come with an SSD or a 1060.
 
I don't build machines anymore but on occasion I'll grab something at a pawn shop that's a good price and give it the once over and redo the OS install and list it on craigslist for a price, sure. What irritates the fuck outta me are the people that do exactly what the OP is talking about - and I don't have a problem with that really - but instead of listing them in the commercial category for businesses (which that qualifies anyone building machines specifically to sell them on craigslist as, even if they never get a damned business license to do it) they spam up the owner category with their bullshit builds and it gets old fast.

Sorry, that's just how I feel about it and I've had to deal with a shitload of idiots here in the Las Vegas area that do this 24/7 spamming up the owner category and rationalizing it as "Well I'm not a business, I just do this to make money on the side..." or some other ridiculous reasoning when they're told they need to stop spamming up the owner category. craigslist created the split between owner and business/commercial for that reason but of course those fuckheads don't care and will do it anyway so yeah, it's frustrating to see how stupid people can be so frequently. ;)

I got no problem with people doing this stuff to make some money, I really honestly don't, but I do have a problem when they can't play by the simplistic rules and list them in the proper area regardless of having a business/commercial license or not, that's what craigslist expects and why they created the split so the least these sellers can do is do things the right way.
 
I didn't even bother listing it on Craigslist. I prefer selling on eBay to dealing with Craigslist wierdos.

"will you take $5 for it?"
"I'm out of the country now, can my friend pick it up"
"Can you deliver it to me by midnight (it's 9PM)"
"will you take a trade for my broken tube TV?"
 
hehe Yeah, the strangest folk use craigslist (waves) and it can be funny sometimes the shit they'll come up with as an offer, I typically tell people flat out cash in the hand and it's theirs, not interested in offers, serious inquiries only, tell them it has to be picked up and I can't deliver and of course no matter what I put in the body of the ad itself I can be absolutely certain that at least one person is going to ask me questions that are already answered in the ad itself. It goes something like this:

Interested person: so im interested in that <whatever> still available
Me: Yep, the price is <price listed in ad> clearly stated in the ad
Interested person: would you consider taking <offer>
Me: The price is clearly stated in the ad
Interested person: ok so you want <price listed in the ad>
Me: Yep
Interested person: can you deliver
Me: If you read the ad you'd already know the answer to that
Interested party: i did read the ad
Me: Okey dokey
Interested party: so <their offer again> and you can deliver great
Me: (and I have seriously said this on entirely too many occasions) Are you just fucking stupid or what?
Interested party: fu asshole

Sorry, I can't, and I won't tolerate stupid, I just can't do it. :D
 
Yep, too many of the CL crowd think they can play Jedi mind tricks on you to lower your price.

I also like the ones who refuse to meet in a public place, like a fast food place with cameras.
I guess they are too uncomfortable in that setting to pull a gun and rob you.

.
 
I hate dealing with people on CL. Both from a sellers standpoint AND a buyers.

I've had people on CL email me days or even weeks later after I emailed them about something that they've had for sale. In fact, so much time has gone by that sometimes the original ad already expired and I have no idea what in the hell they were selling.
 
30 minutes left ---
hoping I get a bit of a jump from the $2075 it's at now - or I'll lose money on just the hardware puchase price after 10-13% ebay fees...

Nevertheless, I'm gonna let it ride out fairly...(we'll see where it ends up!)
 
Good on you for following through on an aspiration/venture. Sorry you had to take a loss on it; 10% from eBay final value fees and 3% from Paypal fees just cruah profit margins so hard!
 
It is very difficult for me to see how anyone can turn a profit from selling on eBay after eBay takes there cut, then PayPal gets there cut and then you have to ship the product...
 
Archaea,

I am interested in this machine, or something like it. Please send me a message.
 
AGNICK said:
Archaea,

I am interested in this machine, or something like it. Please send me a message.
Click to expand...

PM sent, but quite honestly I am losing $100 + on this sale just in the components (not counting probably 15 hours I spent tuning it and overclocking it, and stress testing it for a week - making absolutely sure I was sending out a solid machine at the overclock speeds), and now I can't replicate the prices I bought the items for because an 8% off coupon I used is now expired.

So I'm sorry - but I doubt I can help you now. I truly enjoy building these things, but it certainly loses a bit of the charm when you spend a lot of time and effort and then end up subsidizing the buyer from your own wallet.

My business moto can't be:

I lose money on every sale, but I make it up with quantity. :eek: :shy: ;)


Anyway - - no complaints --- I knew it was a gamble when I signed up for it.


Perhaps I can direct you towards a good online price from a well known vendor (for free of course) -- I'm a bit of deal hound and try to keep atop the best prices and deals on new computer hardware. You have a PM.
 
Just for shit and giggles I tried to sell my current PC for $1500 on CL to see what I would get. I got nothing but low ball offers. The highest offer was $800 so I pulled it down after 3 weeks. So yea not worth it to do on your own unless you can get commissioned for the work.

4770k with a H100i cooler
Asus z97 plus
16GB ram
Gigabyte gaming 1 1080
Corsair T850 PSU
Corair obsidian 450 case
2TB WD 7200 rpm drive
500GB Samsung 840 Evo
256 GB 960 Evo NVMe
 
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vegeta535 said:
Just for shit and giggles I tried to sell my current PC for $1500 on CL to see what I would get. I got nothing but low ball offers. The highest offer was $800 so I pulled it down after 3 weeks. So yea not worth it to do on your own unless you can get commissioned for the work.

4770k with a H100i cooler
Asus z97 plus
16GB ram
Gigabyte gaming 1 1080
Corsair T850 PSU
Corair obsidian 450 case
2TB WD 7200 rpm drive
500GB Samsung 840 Evo
256 GB 960 Evo NVMe
Click to expand...


Pull the GPU, CPU cooler, and the SSDs and list it again as a high performance home/office system.

You may very well get the same $800 offer but now you've stripped out a lot of valuable parts
and it may be closer to what you're looking to get for it.

That GPU alone should get at least $399.

.
 
Spartacus said:
Pull the GPU, CPU cooler, and the SSDs and list it again as a high performance home/office system.

You may very well get the same $800 offer but now you've stripped out a lot of valuable parts
and it may be closer to what you're looking to get for it.

That GPU alone should get at least $399.

.
Click to expand...
I just did it to test the waters. I wasn't really interested in selling but if someone would of offered me $1500 then I wouldn't turn it down and put it towards a new 8 core 1080 TI beast.
 
Building and selling custom PCs has been my main side hustle for almost 20 years. It's all about networking, word-of-mouth, and learning how to identify time-wasters in their first message to you (and then ignoring them). I do not sell assembled systems online, only locally.

Some months I make a couple hundred bucks, other months I'll make a couple thousand. The former are a lot more common than the latter, but this is a hobby that makes (not takes) money.
 
vegeta535 said:
Actually you could build good gaming PC that can rival OEMs for the money even cheaper but you are right about cheap systems. I compared a system with a $100 mark up costing about the same from a system builder that was better in every way. The problem is like you said people will break stuff and nag you even if sold as is with no warranty. I would really love to get back into doing it so I get to play with all the new hardware but the headache of dealing with stupid people. Making $100 of a system I would of sold is decent for doing something I like. About $20 an hour from start to finish.
Click to expand...

I think the problem is there are companies out there that build fully custom high powered systems and warranty them. So people looking for those kinds of builds who don't want to build it themselves usually would gravitate towards those shops. The people on Ebay and Craigslist are looking to pay bottom dollar and then want to get support or they will call in and complain to Ebay that you sold them lemons.

Typically a PITA in my experience. I do custom build systems for family, friends, friends of friends, coworkers, etc. But I won't do builds for strangers or Ebay anymore.
 
I used to have my own computer building business (StealthPC) when I was in college circa 2003-2006. Most of the people who wanted computers were college students in the sub-$1000 price range, often times around about $600. I sold quite a few actually but with very little profit. The income per hour was pretty low. Most people never called me back for support, the couple that did called me a lot. I'm still servicing a computer I built back then, it is an Athlon XP 1700+. The guy visited me in a different city and had me install a new hard drive and video card recently. I did it as a courtesy because I thought it was so cool that somebody is still using a PC I built like 14 years ago.

These days I do it more as a hobby, however strangely enough I make a pretty solid chunk of change now doing it. I only like to build ultra high end PC's for people who have disposable income ($3000+ range) and just want want a cool toy to play with. I have people asking me to build $500 PC's for them and they try to negotiate on it as if I'm actually making any money so I don't do that anymore. I had a guy try to shortchange me by $20 on a $300 PC i built recently for him. I am also a civil engineer / program manager and build computers to fulfill technology needs for infrastructure design programs. Definitely a weird niche I never expected to be exploiting. I might build anywhere from about 2-30 PC's a year for these purposes. Not going to waste my time on Craigslist and Ebay where people are usually looking for the cheapest of the cheap.
 
bjornb17 said:
I used to have my own computer building business (StealthPC) when I was in college circa 2003-2006. Most of the people who wanted computers were college students in the sub-$1000 price range, often times around about $600. I sold quite a few actually but with very little profit. The income per hour was pretty low. Most people never called me back for support, the couple that did called me a lot. I'm still servicing a computer I built back then, it is an Athlon XP 1700+. The guy visited me in a different city and had me install a new hard drive and video card recently. I did it as a courtesy because I thought it was so cool that somebody is still using a PC I built like 14 years ago.

These days I do it more as a hobby, however strangely enough I make a pretty solid chunk of change now doing it. I only like to build ultra high end PC's for people who have disposable income ($3000+ range) and just want want a cool toy to play with. I have people asking me to build $500 PC's for them and they try to negotiate on it as if I'm actually making any money so I don't do that anymore. I had a guy try to shortchange me by $20 on a $300 PC i built recently for him. I am also a civil engineer / program manager and build computers to fulfill technology needs for infrastructure design programs. Definitely a weird niche I never expected to be exploiting. I might build anywhere from about 2-30 PC's a year for these purposes. Not going to waste my time on Craigslist and Ebay where people are usually looking for the cheapest of the cheap.
Click to expand...

who are your clients?
 
Archaea said:
who are your clients?
Click to expand...

Usually joint ventures that are formed between multiple engineering firms to carry out a program management contract. We'll get a subcontract for civil engineering design or survey services and also negotiate in a technology subcontract to build a few PC's to the program's workstation spec - usually like an X99/Xeon build or something along those lines.
 
DTN107 said:
3) Fast forward to 2017, more people are looking for laptops. Honestly a decent laptop will do everything and more for an average consumer. People are more familiar with online shopping now and make smarter/stupider decisions from slickdeals to ebay.
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up, no one wants desktops anymore that will allow you to turn a profit. If they are on CL or eBay they are looking for dirt cheap


Honestly, I even moved away from parting out... I just build my rig once, use it as long as I can then build a new one. By the time I upgrade the parts are basically worthless, I gave my last desktop (1st gen i7/560ti) to a friends kid for free. That being said, my current (ivy/660) might be the last, my PS4 and Macbook Pro see all the use now). Hell I even moved Plex off my desktop onto a power friendly MacMini haha.
 
That is a very nice build, I would have loved building a system like that and it is a shame it did not collect a higher price, but this is the landscape at the moment, and getting money from a desktop build is very difficult.
Having to go through a 3rd party with various transaction fees makes it close to impossible to make a profit, with some exceptions.

My experience "in recent times" is to only build for a select few, 1 or 2 systems a year, anything more just gets me into support hell, and my "profit" is usually the old hardware, imagine getting a Phenom II 945 system or GTX 9800 as payment today.
Most of my builds are just over the low end class or a mid tier gamer, and I have told a bunch of people to go down to the local store and pick up a computer there, as I can't compete with them at the low end.

EDIT:
Not to mention the amount of people who just want a laptop or tablet.
 
I worked in a computer repair shop for a while....

They're a few types of people who purchase computers:

Elderly people who know nothing about PC's and want something that's easiest to use, preferably Windows XP or even Windows 95 and has a dial up modem

People who have done some Google searches, think they've got the jest of computer science and either try to build or repair their own PC, failing miserably

Young gamers who generally build their own PC, know a little bit until they run into a problem they can't fix


We would get some requests to find them new PC's, generally tablets & laptops but I would say 80% of the people looking for a PC wanted two things: lowest price (typically $100-$300) & Windows 7

We sold more Windows 7 laptops than any desktops. People would buy these 10-15+ year old laptops for like $100-$200 after we fixed whatever repair it needed and reloaded Windows 7. They would last for a little while but after a year or so would most likely fail in some form. People did not understand this… they want the most reliable and fastest product yet spend a ridiculously low amount of money on it. They will gawk at prices yet have no idea what hardware is inside the PC or what it does. It’s not about the price of the product more so the overall price they don’t feel they should pay.


The amount of people who want to spend the cash to buy a NEW PC I feel like want that extra warranty. They don't claim to know anything about PC's therefor go to the chain stores (Best Buy, Micro Center, Etc) and get recommendations to buy whatever is on display.


I feel like select few people who want a new PC built, typically know a little bit about hardware or enough to know what they would like. These people are very hard to find.


Ultimately everyone is right though: The first sign of anything going wrong, regardless if their internet spiked for a few seconds to them not plugging the PC into the outlet, they WILL blame you, they will call you and demand you fix it for free.

I can't tell you the number of used PC's we sold then after a storm they would call and say it "just stopped working". I would then inquire if anything else "stopped working" and the modem, router or anything else in the vicinity was fried too - but that HAS to be unrelated, that used PC they bought from us suddenly stopped working!

Even if you do no warranty and claim no responsibility with today's consumers they will go find every chance - Facebook, Google, Craigslist, Yelp - and give you every possible bad review saying you sold "defective merchandise".


I feel like it's just not worth it. I will just continue to build and repair for my close friends and family but other than that....it would have to be a ton of cash income to get me to do it again.

As you may not have noticed - I liked my job but strongly dislike the clientele.
 
The Ebay title description "10TB SSD" made me do double take on hard drives. I read it as it had 10TB of hard drive space all on SSD drives.

I had coworker in my first IT role that he did PC builds and support for small businesses. He said building PCs had very little profit and most of his money from the side job came from Support and doing Networking/Server support. He was Windows Sysadmin for place we worked. I tried to build PCs for coworkers back then, but found it was not worth the trouble to source the parts from different places and try to make a profit. Anymore, I build them for myself and family members. Since Windows 7, I feel the amount of calls I get dropped off a lot. I'm currently working on building new PC for sister and nephew. Waiting on deals for CPU/Mobo, video card, and case. Sister said she isn't in hurry, so I am buying the parts as I see deals on them. It is really nice to be able go into a Microcenter to get the board and CPU for cheaper than online pricing.
 
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