Selling custom computers -fail

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Kerrya

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So I’ve been trying my hand at building computers and selling them - it’s been a dismal failure.

I buy parts (new) from Newegg or Amazon but only when on sale. I put them in nice new cases, add a sprinkle of RGB and advertise them on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji (Canadian Craigslist) and then…. Nothing. Not even a single inquiry.

I haven’t gone after gamers due to the insane price of high end video cards. So I’ve tried using AMD processors with built in graphics like the Ryzen 5 5600G or lower end ($100) graphics cards.

Any idea on what I’m doing wrong? Or is this just a dumb idea?

Any advice appreciated.
 
Unfortunately you have to work harder for a custom built system as people only see the price and never see the value in it. I have sold a lot of custom built systems and I never build it until I have the sale first. I sell my systems on the value of a custom built system, i.e. better parts, longer lasting, components that you want, etc. If you build a system first they will never buy it because they see the off the shelf ones that are $400 or $500 and feel you're ripping them off or something.
 
Kerrya said:
Any idea on what I’m doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Yeah you're putting the cart before the horse. I sell quite a few custom systems but I certainly don't go building a bunch of computers and advertising them on Craigslist. And heck, I use Craigslist all the time to advertise my repair service and even refurbished desktops and laptops! Custom build clients are different. Let me be frank, cheapwads and custom builds don't mix. It's extremely important to use quality components when building a custom computer but most people just look at the specs and the price and if yours is even a little bit more expensive, they consider it a "bad deal."

You shouldn't be selling custom computers, you should be selling your SERVICE, both the building itself and your consulting service. You don't want the type of client who is looking for the highest specs for the lowest price. Unfortunately that's 95% of people in the custom build space. That is, until they get burnt and come to you to fix the pile of garbage they bought/built.

You'll never be able to compete with garbage builders like CyberPower who use the cheapest garbage Chinese components available and only have a $50 markup. They rely on volume, not customer loyalty, good margins, and repeat business. I have a CyberPower PC in the shop right now. The thing won't boot into Windows. They used some cheap ass ADATA SSD and it's failed after only 14 months. Color me surprised. But this client only saw the high specs and the low price and hit the BUY NOW button without hesitation. Now it's my job to educate them on the turd they bought, replace the low quality garbage components, and create loyalty between me and my client. This client will always come to me in the future if they need service on their current build and when it's time to build a new system. But if I had tried to capture this client BEFORE they got burned, I probably wouldn't have been able to.

I build an average of 3-5 custom systems per week. I keep one or two on hand at any given time and I also stock a good amount of parts. My main shop sells 10x the number of custom systems that I do personally from my home and a crap ton of parts as well. I actually don't sell parts from my home. I only use the parts in repairs/builds. Despite the fact that I could afford to build a bunch of systems and advertise them on Craigslist I don't because I wouldn't see any results from it. I do however get people with custom builds calling me for my repair service that I advertise on Craigslist and I'm sometimes able to build them a new system. I just got in a 1st gen i5 custom build last week and of course I recommended a new build instead of fixing it. The guy wanted me to install an RTX 3080 to improve his gaming performance. Needless to say, I recommended replacing the system.

This guy knew the importance of quality. He had his system built like 12 years ago from a small local shop that's unfortunately gone out of business and they'd already done the work of educating him. It didn't take much to convince him to drop $2,500 on a new build, and he didn't scrutinize every component and complain that he could get a computer with the same specs for cheaper with CyberPower or whatever other garbage "gaming" computer he found on Walmart.com.
 
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Yea I get the occasional game build, though more than often it's the failed game build that I have to rebuild.
For business I use prebuilt business systems - Dell etc.
 
Running a small computer shop in the UK, we sell prebuilds and PC’s we build ourselves, we offer a 3-year warrantee with every PC we build over the 1-year warrantee with the prebuilds. This helps most customer except the higher cost of our builds. We also only build a PC when the order has been placed.

Our main selling point is the service we offer, we offer a data transfer service as an optional extra, most customers buying computers from us are doing so for this option. They want their programs and emails moved across. This is a service that they cannot get anywhere else, at least locally and it has kept them coming back for over 20 years.

Its is the same with other services we offer, such as broadband, we resell broadband from one of the big suppliers in the UK, we cannot compete on price with the big house hold names, but we can compete on service.

If a customer orders broadband we will bring the router out and set it up and connect their devices to the new WIFI. We charge a callout and time on site, but this is what our customers want. If they have a fault, we will come out and replace the router and microfilter to see if we can fix the problem, before reporting it to the service provider. With the 200+ customers we have for our broadband, Mostly elderly customers, who just want someone to call, who will simply fix their problem and they are happy to pay that little bit extra for the service.
 
frase said:
I use prebuilt business systems
Click to expand...

I've used nothing but for several decades now. The available options are generally way more than adequate, regardless of intended application, and any issues with the hardware that might occur in early days is the manufacturer's problem, not mine. And once the "early failure window" is past, they just generally chug along for years and years afterward.

I haven't been able to justify a custom build for a very, very long time.
 
Kerrya said:
So I’ve been trying my hand at building computers and selling them - it’s been a dismal failure.

I buy parts (new) from Newegg or Amazon but only when on sale. I put them in nice new cases, add a sprinkle of RGB and advertise them on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji (Canadian Craigslist) and then…. Nothing. Not even a single inquiry.

I haven’t gone after gamers due to the insane price of high end video cards. So I’ve tried using AMD processors with built in graphics like the Ryzen 5 5600G or lower end ($100) graphics cards.

Any idea on what I’m doing wrong? Or is this just a dumb idea?

Any advice appreciated.
Click to expand...
You've put the cart before the horse so to speak. Building a product and then going to look for a market is always going fail with commodity based products and services. First you need to look at the market. This isn't the 1980's. You can buy a good, even very good, computer for under $500. Built in China. Take a hint from the others who've commented here. They're not selling computers. They're selling personal service which also just happens to include a computer amongst other things.
 
Markverhyden said:
You can buy a good, even very good, computer for under $500.
Click to expand...

Thank you. You're probably the only person I can think of, other than myself, who's been willing to state this unequivocally in this venue.

Most users don't need a "Rolls-Royce of Computers" based on what they do. And you can get a very reliable "transportation appliance class computer" for under $500 for emailing, web browsing, and using Office suites.

Processing power has long, long ago outstripped the needs of the vast majority of users, and you can get above 8GB of RAM in many machines that cost less than $500.

The machine I'm typing from cost under $500 when new and had (and has) 12GB RAM. I've had it at least 5 years now, it's a consumer class HP laptop, and it's still going strong. I'll keep it until Windows 10 dies, as it's got an AMD APU that will not be Windows 11 compatible if it hasn't been declared such by now.
 
The proper budget depends on the needs I couldn't do a computer for my personal needs for $500 or less but most people can and even still have it be portable.
 
britechguy said:
Thank you. You're probably the only person I can think of, other than myself, who's been willing to state this unequivocally in this venue.

Most users don't need a "Rolls-Royce of Computers" based on what they do. And you can get a very reliable "transportation appliance class computer" for under $500 for emailing, web browsing, and using Office suites.

Processing power has long, long ago outstripped the needs of the vast majority of users, and you can get above 8GB of RAM in many machines that cost less than $500.

The machine I'm typing from cost under $500 when new and had (and has) 12GB RAM. I've had it at least 5 years now, it's a consumer class HP laptop, and it's still going strong. I'll keep it until Windows 10 dies, as it's got an AMD APU that will not be Windows 11 compatible if it hasn't been declared such by now.
Click to expand...
No argument. But the reality is the industry wields an outsized control over our habits. I regularly tell people that Office '97 can handle all my needs. Yet even if I had it I'd be going through proverbial junk yards to get hardware that'll work with it. And don't get me going on OS's. At least with Linux you can still go back to the very beginning to get what you need.

And Apple's one of the worst offenders. Between their restrictive parts policies and planned obsolescence support most users have little choice but buy new. But they're not the only one. The market does drive somethings, like portability. So we have a plethora very small, glued together devices, using monolithic chips which can handle almost everything in one package. Repairs costs easily approach or exceed replacement on low end devices.
 
@Markverhyden

You'll get no argument from me.

I simply long ago accepted that "planned obsolescence" was on every bit as exponential a trajectory as processing power is (or was, for decades) and that "going with the flow" was not optional.

I also try to get clients (and others) to understand that things like OSes, Office suites, and similar are not and never have been "bespoke suits" cut to suit you as an individual user. They are Swiss Army knife type affairs where they serve a great many disparate demographics and must make it relatively easy for all of them to get done what needs doing. What's "useless bloat" to me is "the godsend feature" to others. 'Twas ever thus, and ever shall be.
 
sapphirescales said:
I can confirm that Office '97 works on Windows 10.
Click to expand...

Not surprising. Not wise to use (particularly Outlook) either.

I've got XP era software that runs perfectly happily under Windows 10. I can count on less than one hand the number of programs I've ever encountered that won't work, and often not even requiring compatibility mode, under Windows 10 that originated all the way back to Windows 3.1.
 
To me now. Has to be able to run Win 11, i3 or better, 8gigs ram, and a minimum 256 gig SSD. No exceptions or they can walk in my case.
That can be done for $500 in the US. A client got one today ordered from Dell. We shall see its duration in service.
 
@Markverhyden I run Office '07 or something like that, I lost track of how far back I go, but mostly just for keeping and checking old email archives I actually replaced all the other apps with Libre Office
 
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