Do any of you sell computers on ebay?

.temp · 13 Feb 2011 at 23:33

Michaeljcox24 said:
if you could make a wedge selling rigs on the bay mate we'd all be doing it

this

terminator2k2 · 13 Feb 2011 at 23:46

Michaeljcox24 said:
if you could make a wedge selling rigs on the bay mate we'd all be doing it

yes this is what came into my head the second i saw this thread......

ebay is full of sellers selling anything that could be sold......thats why you cant make a business or make money selling from ebay......

dan1903 · 14 Feb 2011 at 00:31

all this negativity makes me want to do it more haha :eek:

I've just done a bit of back-of-an-envelope calculating. Lets say I buy and build this system:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

ex vat, that costs £327.83

the lowest priced system on ebay atm with a 955 and gtx460 costs £420.

If I charge £420, im making a profit of £92.17

take away the £0.40 listing fee, and the £14.80 final value fee (£8.17 + 1.5% of final sale price) and leaves me with £76.97 profit.

I suppose £75 profit isn't worth it if you are trying to start a serious business, but im not, i just thought about this as a fun project on the side.
besides, £75 is a lot of beer money

izit · 14 Feb 2011 at 00:34

Thought about this myself but like others said huge fees and so much competition makes it hard to even make a profit.
It's crazy how much places charge for building PCs or simple Windows trouble solving. Some of them even get more money for loading all that junkware on them.

PhillyDee · 14 Feb 2011 at 00:35

terminator2k2 said:
yes this is what came into my head the second i saw this thread......

ebay is full of sellers selling anything that could be sold......thats why you cant make a business or make money selling from ebay......

Yes you can. I do. However, its not my main job, I do not sell anything near the volumes required. The secret is to find the right suppliers. Something which still eludes me!

JW1993 · 14 Feb 2011 at 00:39

dan1903 said:
all this negativity makes me want to do it more haha

I've just done a bit of back-of-an-envelope calculating. Lets say I buy and build this system:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

ex vat, that costs £327.83

the lowest priced system on ebay atm with a 955 and gtx460 costs £420.

If I charge £420, im making a profit of £92.17

take away the £0.40 listing fee, and the £14.80 final value fee (£8.17 + 1.5% of final sale price) and leaves me with £76.97 profit.

I suppose £75 profit isn't worth it if you are trying to start a serious business, but im not, i just thought about this as a fun project on the side.
besides, £75 is a lot of beer money

a lot of people interested in this would not be aware that this does not have an operating system or if you were not mention this in your listing it would only appeal to a very niche market of ebay

Surveyor · 14 Feb 2011 at 01:05

If I charge £420, im making a profit of £92.17

take away the £0.40 listing fee, and the £14.80 final value fee (£8.17 + 1.5% of final sale price) and leaves me with £76.97 profit.

What about delivery charges?

What are you going to do when purchasers have problems and need support/warranty?

Why won't you be paying VAT on the parts you purchase?

Is the typical e-bayer going to buy without an operating system? They'll want to plug it in and use it.

At the end of the day you aren't going to make any money and it'll probably end up costing you.

marcus_667 · 14 Feb 2011 at 01:20

nvm being a ****

dan1903 · 14 Feb 2011 at 02:41

Surveyor said:
What about delivery charges?

What are you going to do when purchasers have problems and need support/warranty?

Why won't you be paying VAT on the parts you purchase?

Is the typical e-bayer going to buy without an operating system? They'll want to plug it in and use it.

At the end of the day you aren't going to make any money and it'll probably end up costing you.

delivery from my house to the UK would be about £15, which I would just charge as the postage on ebay.

not entirely sure what I would do for warrenty and support... build it well and hope for the best

I'm not paying VAT because I live in the Channel islands (no taxes)

I suppose if its a priority I could just buy win 7 for £70 and bump up the price to £500, most of the systems I can see that come preinstalled with windows 7 are marked up for it.

bah, call me stubborn but I still really fancy giving it a go.. If it doesn't work out I won't lose much, lesson learned. But if it does work, I can turn a small profit whilst doing something fun

danewesley · 14 Feb 2011 at 02:53

ive built 4 computers in the last 3 weeks for family and friends, for free, just ask around and get some built!

Werewolf · 14 Feb 2011 at 03:57

dan1903 said:
delivery from my house to the UK would be about £15, which I would just charge as the postage on ebay.

not entirely sure what I would do for warrenty and support... build it well and hope for the best

I'm not paying VAT because I live in the Channel islands (no taxes)

However you've missed a fairly important thing.

At the moment the PC arrives inside the UK from the channel islands VAT (and any duty) will apply, and will be charged to the buyer (unless you pre pay it), along with a handling fee of anything up to £20+.

So at best you lose that advantage, at worst you're out of pocket when the buyer refuses to pay the charges and it's returned you potentially with a paypal charge back (and in the worst case scenario you're left without the hardware, or the money).

If it was that easy the likes of OCUK would be selling from the channel islands instead of from Stoke.

panthro · 14 Feb 2011 at 05:12

I say just go for it and learn from your experience. Providing you are prepared to possibly lose out on some cash theres no harm in it.

.temp · 14 Feb 2011 at 06:01

i think this is something a lot of us have thought of in the past. most of us are here as we like to build rigs. thing is, will it be a waste of time or not?

i know you say you might make a profit...but factor in the time you spent building the rig and testing it and it might work out to less than minimum wage :/...might be better off getting a job in a store/restaurant for a wage?

just sayin', no beef OP i admire your enthusiasm

pcAnywhere · 14 Feb 2011 at 07:31

Werewolf said:
However you've missed a fairly important thing.

At the moment the PC arrives inside the UK from the channel islands VAT (and any duty) will apply, and will be charged to the buyer (unless you pre pay it), along with a handling fee of anything up to £20+.

So at best you lose that advantage, at worst you're out of pocket when the buyer refuses to pay the charges and it's returned you potentially with a paypal charge back (and in the worst case scenario you're left without the hardware, or the money).

If it was that easy the likes of OCUK would be selling from the channel islands instead of from Stoke.

This.

dan1903 · 14 Feb 2011 at 07:32

.temp said:
i think this is something a lot of us have thought of in the past. most of us are here as we like to build rigs. thing is, will it be a waste of time or not?

i know you say you might make a profit...but factor in the time you spent building the rig and testing it and it might work out to less than minimum wage :/...might be better off getting a job in a store/restaurant for a wage?

just sayin', no beef OP i admire your enthusiasm

yeah a few people have said this, but I already work at MnS on saturdays, and honestly I would rather eat my own nutsack than work extra hours there :rolleyes:

I have to work for stupid, irritating, and down right incompetent managers who like nothing more than to exert the minuscule amounts of power they hold in their sad lives, not to mention I have to deal with whiney old customers who can't accept when they have made a mistake. rant over...

Werewolf said:
At the moment the PC arrives inside the UK from the channel islands VAT (and any duty) will apply, and will be charged to the buyer (unless you pre pay it), along with a handling fee of anything up to £20+.

So at best you lose that advantage, at worst you're out of pocket when the buyer refuses to pay the charges and it's returned you potentially with a paypal charge back (and in the worst case scenario you're left without the hardware, or the money).

ah crap I hadn't considered that... Knew there must be something i was missing in my sums. damn

pcAnywhere · 14 Feb 2011 at 07:56

You can sell goods below a certain amount without any issue. I think the limit is around £18.

Admiral Huddy · 14 Feb 2011 at 08:17

It's one thing selling a PC, it's another issues when it comes to offering after sales support. There's also shipping, returns and Insurance costs etc etc to think about..

Many people think that building a PC makes them a PC technician. This is far from the truth.

kristmace · 14 Feb 2011 at 09:03

dan1903 said:
the lowest priced system on ebay atm with a 955 and gtx460 costs £420.

If I charge £420, im making a profit of £92.17

take away the £0.40 listing fee, and the £14.80 final value fee (£8.17 + 1.5% of final sale price) and leaves me with £76.97 profit.

I'm sure Ebays final value fee is 10% so that'd be £42.

They shaft you so much.... thats why there are a lot less individual sellers and more companies doing it these days.

Bramill · 14 Feb 2011 at 09:56

I saw one guy selling his services on eBay rather than computers. You basically tell him what you want and he charges for the parts + 23 quid for building the rig. He creates private auctions so the buyers are protected. I'm not sure if he shows the customers the original invoices to prove that the parts came to that amount he says.

JJ

Bramill · 14 Feb 2011 at 09:59

I used to sell mobile phone accessories and mobile phones on eBay and never payed a final value fee. I paid about 15 quid a month and my listings cost 20p each. If you do what i mentioned in the above post you'll only need to create listings for 0.99p with your contact details in stating what your services are and how much you charge etc.

JJ