I've had a good number of conversations with a friend about this, and we were debating about whether or not there is still a legitimate market for this to work. I obviously don't mean starting a business or anything extreme, but just as a means of making a few extra bucks here and there, selling PC's online, via craigslist, ebay, etc.
The problem that I argued was; I don't think the average person is going to want to spend $400+ for a "gaming" computer, when it is simply cheaper to go the route of buying a console(For an average gamer considering PC). And for the average user who is not a gamer, would be pretty enticed at the idea of purchasing a prebuilt from a retailer(I think this is the most realistic market however). Lastly you have the enthusiast group. My friend tried to argue that there are enthusiasts out there that don't want to be bothered throwing together a PC with hundreds of dollars worth of hardware. For me personally I just can't see that. If someone was knowledgeable and enthusiastic enough about computer hardware, I think they would be more than capable and willing to assemble their own PC, rather than pay somebody to do it.
I've seen how the stores/sellers on Ebay operate, and it's extremely sad how they try to pass their machines off as "Gaming" rigs, with onboard chips and 2GB of ram. And I guess ignorant people are actually paying for these machines because they dont know any better. I would rather not take advantage of peoples ignorance to that level, but is that the only way to pull decent profits?
I was thinking of assembling dirt cheap dual core AMD based PC's and selling them to the average user for about $50 dollars more than what I had paid for the PC. A PC that doesn't claim to have extreme gaming capabilities but will achieve your normal web surfing/email/youtube/office tasks decently.
To summarize what I'm trying to say is; I think 'How cheap is it?' is almost ALWAYS going to be the critical factor in whether not someone is interested in a gaming rig or PC. That's why you have millions of people across the US flocking to stores on black friday, so they can get some shitty HDTV for 80 dollars, etc. Sad but true. And unfortunately with PC's, the more you can spend the better in most cases.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
The problem that I argued was; I don't think the average person is going to want to spend $400+ for a "gaming" computer, when it is simply cheaper to go the route of buying a console(For an average gamer considering PC). And for the average user who is not a gamer, would be pretty enticed at the idea of purchasing a prebuilt from a retailer(I think this is the most realistic market however). Lastly you have the enthusiast group. My friend tried to argue that there are enthusiasts out there that don't want to be bothered throwing together a PC with hundreds of dollars worth of hardware. For me personally I just can't see that. If someone was knowledgeable and enthusiastic enough about computer hardware, I think they would be more than capable and willing to assemble their own PC, rather than pay somebody to do it.
I've seen how the stores/sellers on Ebay operate, and it's extremely sad how they try to pass their machines off as "Gaming" rigs, with onboard chips and 2GB of ram. And I guess ignorant people are actually paying for these machines because they dont know any better. I would rather not take advantage of peoples ignorance to that level, but is that the only way to pull decent profits?
I was thinking of assembling dirt cheap dual core AMD based PC's and selling them to the average user for about $50 dollars more than what I had paid for the PC. A PC that doesn't claim to have extreme gaming capabilities but will achieve your normal web surfing/email/youtube/office tasks decently.
To summarize what I'm trying to say is; I think 'How cheap is it?' is almost ALWAYS going to be the critical factor in whether not someone is interested in a gaming rig or PC. That's why you have millions of people across the US flocking to stores on black friday, so they can get some shitty HDTV for 80 dollars, etc. Sad but true. And unfortunately with PC's, the more you can spend the better in most cases.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
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