Computer Refurbising

[red12049]

Well, for one, it's not worth the money. The profit margin isn't enough to mess with it. Two, the warranty. I know I can have the manufacturer do the warranty, but I'd still have to deal with it. Either by telling people to contact someone else or be expected to handle other issues. Like if the system gets a virus or is just running slow. The virus is pretty easy to explain that it's not covered and that i have to charge them. Although, I don't want to have to mess with explaining this either. The running slow, phantom problems, etc I just don't want to deal with at all. Some people, no matter how hard you try and explain something to them, they always expect so much more than what they pay for. Even if you explain what they are getting before you order it.

There's just too much to mess with. Right now anyways, I just prefer to do strictly service. I don't even really do upgrades. I have done a couple, but they were specific cases with people I knew. I don't advertise it and I don't stock much for parts. I don't want the overhead. I really just want to do service and that's it.

Neutron,

Obviously, to each their own, but just a FWIW:

I've been selling new systems for almost fifteen years, and refurbs for somewhere between eight and ten years. On new systems, I average two to three hundred in profit, and offer a two year warranty, with lightning damage being the only hardware exclusion. I can literally count on one hand the number of systems I've had to do warranty work on in the last two or three years. I do two to five new systems a month, so it's a nice bit of extra change.

Rick

 

[NeutronTech]

Neutron,

Obviously, to each their own, but just a FWIW:

I've been selling new systems for almost fifteen years, and refurbs for somewhere between eight and ten years. On new systems, I average two to three hundred in profit, and offer a two year warranty, with lightning damage being the only hardware exclusion. I can literally count on one hand the number of systems I've had to do warranty work on in the last two or three years. I do two to five new systems a month, so it's a nice bit of extra change.

Rick

I guess a lot of that depends how cheap your able to get the systems. I don't know if it is just this area or what, but in my last 2 tech jobs around here the people always brought their system in for trivial things. I guess the whole experience put a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't mind doing it later, but right now I just want to focus on doing service. Maybe its' because the profit margin is so high compared to that of selling parts or systems.

 

[CPU]

Referbs are sold as is. New systems are under manufacturers warranty an to obtain warranty service on their behalf cost money. (tos)

 

[red12049]

Referbs are sold as is. New systems are under manufacturers warranty an to obtain warranty service on their behalf cost money. (tos)

Are your new systems name brand(Dell, etc.)?

Rick

 

[CPU]

Are your new systems name brand(Dell, etc.)?

Rick

yes always new never built.

 

[minc3d]

I don't dabble with building systems either. Hard to justify passing that cost to the customer on time spent when I can get great Dell, HP, Lenovo desktops/laptops for excellent prices with warranties from the manufacturer.

I'd challenge anyone to get as good pricing as you do on a pre-built compared to a self-built system. Even if you save a few bux with the self-built, it may only be another $15-20 and you've got disparate warranties on every part in the machine - some worse than others.

I think the days of custom builds are over. People care about software now; hardware is all fairly good as long as it's put together by a reputable name.

 

[amallette]

Referbs great extra income

I love to sell referb machines and usally don't have to put any money into it. I offer a recycling program at no charge to my customers. I usally use the good parts off of the machines that come in and then I sell them as is. It helps with the monthly cash flow.

 

[Mushin]

The replies to the refurb question have been very insightfull.

I think I will move in that direction.

Here are the problems that we will face initially...

1.) Where do we get items to refurbish?
a.) recycle program
b.) abandoned computers
c.) in bulk somewhere but where?

2.) What are all the avenues to generate revenue?
a.) Refurbish and sell: ebay, craigs list, at out shop
b.) part out and sell: Ebay, potential e-comm store

3.) What are the avenues to get rid of surplus?
a.) Recycler
b.) donate
c.) bulk sales?

 

[PcTek9]

One thing that you may not have even considered.

You can quite often save even the oldest crappiest computer and make it internet worthy simply by adding something like Slitaz Linux.

Slitaz runs in 32 meg of ram, complete gui, internet, email, many other things, and it's free. It's pretty much immune to computer viruses.

Slitaz is very beautiful and works.

I used to toss old pc's then I donated them to girls inc.

Slitaz makes older computers very useful. I use a few here as a fileserver, scanserver, NAS devices. I've found it more usable - in my experience - than openfiler or freenas, and much more stable. But it is completely usable as a desktop os.

 

[Mushin]

One thing that you may not have even considered.

You can quite often save even the oldest crappiest computer and make it internet worthy simply by adding something like Slitaz Linux.

Slitaz runs in 32 meg of ram, complete gui, internet, email, many other things, and it's free. It's pretty much immune to computer viruses.

Slitaz is very beautiful and works.

I used to toss old pc's then I donated them to girls inc.

Slitaz makes older computers very useful. I use a few here as a fileserver, scanserver, NAS devices. I've found it more usable - in my experience - than openfiler or freenas, and much more stable. But it is completely usable as a desktop os.

This brings up a good option for those "useless PC's." I know that there are places out there like teen and community centers that would like to have a computer lab. Since most of the lab would probably be for Internet use I could see this as a great way to help places out.

 

[minc3d]

The idea about taking such older PCs to a local community center or nonprofit and donating it is a WONDERFUL idea. Also a good way to let your name out and ask them to put up one of your company signs or logos on the machine. Perhaps you could laminate a nice company flyer and post it above the machine with something along the lines of "complimentary PC donated by ...."

To answer others' questions about where to get PCs, I merely work with the systems people give me due to them getting newer machines or systems they didn't want to repair. Most of my clients are advised against fixing/repairing a 4-5 year old PC if it has HDD failure, CDROM drive gone bad, etc and go with a new machine. I in turn offer to recycle it for free, and if I can sell the system as a refurb, I do. If parts or the whole thing need to be recycled, I've got a relationship with a local recycler that picks up my stuff for free because his places makes money off parting it out. Win win for everyone.

I don't know how you get a relationship with a recycler like this, but perhaps by telling them you will use them exclusively for all your junk PCs and accessories, they may be willing to offer you similar setup of what I have going on.

I found my guy because he offered to buy a PARTS ONLY server off ebay from me. When he came out, we started talking, and lo and behold he offered this kind of setup to me. He is someone that works for the larger recycler in town.

I wouldn't go parting out systems and selling the parts on ebay. 1) It's time consuming dealing with an exponential number of listings for small parts like that and 2) your time commitment grows even more if you have to deal with DOA returns on small junk that customers may want to send back.

Skip it all and just sell the systems as refurbs on ebay, listing their condition to the best of your ability, and call them AS IS with NO RETURNS or warranty from you. I've been doing this for years, even before I had my company, and have had maybe a bad experience with 1 out of over 50-80 systems sold so far.

 

[Mushin]

I wouldn't go parting out systems and selling the parts on ebay. 1) It's time consuming dealing with an exponential number of listings for small parts like that and 2) your time commitment grows even more if you have to deal with DOA returns on small junk that customers may want to send back.

Skip it all and just sell the systems as refurbs on ebay, listing their condition to the best of your ability, and call them AS IS with NO RETURNS or warranty from you. I've been doing this for years, even before I had my company, and have had maybe a bad experience with 1 out of over 50-80 systems sold so far.

The parting things out idea is something I am on the fence about.. Here is why I am thinking about parting out.

Items like LCD displays, keyboards, and Laptop CPU fans can bring in easy money and it is pretty cut and dry if they work or not. Now the reason I would want to part them out is reducing my labor costs expenditures.

As part of refurbing the computer a decision will be made if it will be viable to sell... Since the major components will have been tested already (Most of the time) if will be easy to put it into the sell pile.

So on a dead laptop a keyboard is a pretty safe bet and could fetch about $30.00 which is approx 2 to 2.5 hours of labor (Paid to employee). If it takes less than 2 hours to list, sell and ship the item then we come out ahead.

As I said though I am on the fence about this. To make it worth while we would need to do this at moderate volume or do it during down time.

 

[Mushin]

Refurb Update:

A little while back I started this thread to discus my interestes in lauching a refurbished computer segment of my business. The input in this thread was very insightfull.

So... with that in mind I thought I would update everyone on my used/refurbished computer adventure.

The initial hurdle that I has was how to come up with inventory to be used to launch this segment of the business. I decided that buying computers at auction in bulk would be the best avenue for getting started. The key for me was to find enough machines in bulk that were the same or very similar to spread out the cost per unit and the risk associated with having DOA computers because most bulk auctions operate on an AS-IS basis.

Today I went to an auction and managed to purcahse a singnificant number of desktop computers with P4 HT 3.0 Ghz processors, with at least 512mb of ram and varrious size hard drives.

To prep for the sale of these units I have create a Refurbished Computer Certification and Sales Form. Ordered a "yard sign" to place in front of my business advertising a Surplus Computer Blowout Sale." I have also created add-on/upgrade options such as Upgrade to 1 GB of RAM or Add Security Software.

In the past we have had people ask if we sold used computer and at the time we did not... but for some customers we did note their account that they were interested in used computers and we may already have a few units sold.

 

[red12049]

A little while back I started this thread to discus my interestes in lauching a refurbished computer segment of my business. The input in this thread was very insightfull.

So... with that in mind I thought I would update everyone on my used/refurbished computer adventure.

The initial hurdle that I has was how to come up with inventory to be used to launch this segment of the business. I decided that buying computers at auction in bulk would be the best avenue for getting started. The key for me was to find enough machines in bulk that were the same or very similar to spread out the cost per unit and the risk associated with having DOA computers because most bulk auctions operate on an AS-IS basis.

Today I went to an auction and managed to purcahse a singnificant number of desktop computers with P4 HT 3.0 Ghz processors, with at least 512mb of ram and varrious size hard drives.

To prep for the sale of these units I have create a Refurbished Computer Certification and Sales Form. Ordered a "yard sign" to place in front of my business advertising a Surplus Computer Blowout Sale." I have also created add-on/upgrade options such as Upgrade to 1 GB of RAM or Add Security Software.

In the past we have had people ask if we sold used computer and at the time we did not... but for some customers we did note their account that they were interested in used computers and we may already have a few units sold.

Phil,

If you don't mind my asking, what do you consider to be a "significant number"?

BTW, if you are going that route, you may want to consider govdeals.com. I've used them several times, with good success.

Rick

 

[Mushin]

I started off with with a lot of 24 computers. I did bid on additional quantities but they were mostly shells with no hard drives and they ended up going for the same or more than what I got the functional computers for.

I have looked at gov deals a bit and indeed that will be one resource for computers.

 

[Alan22]

Thanks for the update Phil. Hope it works out well for you.

 

[NeutronTech]

Speaking of refurb items. Anyone know a good place to get refurb or used flat panel monitors? I looked on ebay, and though the prices are cheap, the cost of shipping makes up for the cheap price.

 

[Mushin]

Surplus auctions are a good way.

GoveDeals.com has lots of monitors but you have to pick them up so this is only handy if the location is near you.

 

[Styxbound]

Refurbs

The most reliable sources I know of are the state and city auctions. I only deal in Louisiana but I imagine most states hold regular auctions; also large cities.

The biggest problem is that many of the lcds need repair so you're almost forced into that to make it viable. Turns out though most of them aren't that hard to repair. I'm getting probably 75-80% of the ones I've tried and only been doing it maybe 3 or 4 months. Bad caps, resoldering joints, and board swaps where possible pretty much account for that percentage.

I'm about to try something for getting equipment I haven't tried before; I'll post how it comes out later on.