Other people views wanted to help clear a fuzzy head

shed_head_2

Not sure if this is the correct forum to be posting this so mods please move if you feel it would be better else where.

I am a stay at home mum looking to make some extra cash to supplement the family income so that I can delay my return to work. In my working life I teach secondary maths. In the early days of school computers (before the gov grants) most maths departments ran the pupils networks on a shoestring. Its amazing the skills you pick up. I admit I am about 8 years out of date though.

Our local council runs a scheme for recycling thier old office computers. School kids who have dropped out of the system wipe the computers clean and then make sure they have working parts etc. This means they have some basic computer tech type skills which they can then decide if they want to go to college to develop further. so its a win win situation.

I have the chance of buying some of thes machines with an idea of selling them on. I have a number of issues though.

We are already on a limited budget I am worried that I will buy a number of units and not be able to sell them on.
I am unsure what the current market is wanting. I know companies like big pockets etc sell recon computers around £150.
The computers are generally P4 2.4 gigg with win 2000 a network card and modem. I dont think they are good enough for the gamers out there but are good enough to surf the internet do general household stuff and write up essays etc. so may appeal to teens and students who are not gamers. Following on from this obviously it would not be profitable to put microsoft office on them however I know on here there are links to the free office type products. Can I load them onto the computers?

Sorry for the ramble, its an oppotunity I do not want to miss; but I am scared to take the plunge due to family finances.

Would appreciate other peoples views on this matter.

Em

Woby_Tide

depends on what price they are offering them to yuo. Fair enough you can add open office/AV on them to make them more appealing technically and 'add value' but depends how much extra you can realistically sell them on. Then factor in that you won't be offering any warranty, or limited warranty I guess which bigpockets and the like do. So only needs 1 or 2 to break not long after you sell them on to start eating in your profits/customer satisfaction. If it goes well and word of mouth gets round it could work, but it could equally be a lot of effort with little reward at the end sadly

shed_head_2

Base unit with mouse, keyboard, no speakers and crt monitor with win 2000 £70. The guy who runs the scheme says he will exchange anything that does not work. I have to set up the machine with drivers etc and load windows 2000 on. Still need to quiz him about the windows license as I am unsure how that works. I do get a sticker with the license number on though.

Then my local paper allows you to advertise anything under £100 free. so that would be £30 on each one.

[Deleted User]

I even think £70 is overpriced tbh

jaydeeuk1

You can get new base units for £100, I'm afraid there is very little money to be made in refurbed desktop PC's nowadays, unless they are as new.
You may have more luck if you are able to get hold of fairly recent (<5 years) laptops.
Even then, the price of new laptops are falling to around the £200 mark. If you look on ebay, you will get a good idea of the kind of spec that is selling for a particular price, and an idea of brands, sizes etc.

nomoneytoday

In the days before ebay etc you could easily do what you are suggesting.
I used to run a business of this type and we made an average of £600 a week each on top of other sales (even after VAT and taxes)

We bought ex corporate stock at auctions such as DCS and MCA ( www.mca-uk.co.uk ) and sold machines to the retail for £400-500 less than a new one

However, in this day and age where you can buy a brand new laptop for under £300 there is only a little market and margin left to fight for.

Good Luck

motorguy

shed_head wrote: »

Base unit with mouse, keyboard, no speakers and crt monitor with win 2000 £70. The guy who runs the scheme says he will exchange anything that does not work. I have to set up the machine with drivers etc and load windows 2000 on. Still need to quiz him about the windows license as I am unsure how that works. I do get a sticker with the license number on though.

Then my local paper allows you to advertise anything under £100 free. so that would be £30 on each one.

Your local paper probably allows private ads under £100 free, when you start putting in lots of repeat ads, they will smell a rat and start charging you, unless you put in exactly the same ad week after week and tell them its the same machine, but you cant sell it....

So, you have it in a £99, people will expect to buy it for £90. So thats 1/3 of your profit gone. If people realise you're selling them for a part time job they will plague you with things like its 'running slow' or 'it crashed last night'.

I dont see that its worth the risk. £20 profit per unit isnt enough.

C_Ronaldo

be_alright wrote: »

I even think £70 is overpriced tbh

I dont think £70 isnt too bad, but is there a market for the pc's though, i wouldnt bother doing it to be honest

BillScarab

They're Windows 2000 as well not XP which may put off some people, particularly the sort of people who may be looking at £100 PC's.

isofa

Personally I wouldn't bother - it'll turn into a headache, you'll have large piles of computer equipment piling up, for very little profit, if any. People coming to your home (or you having to deliver bulky items) etc.

5-10 years ago, then definitely it'd be worth it, nowadays, with new computers so cheap, and hundreds of more modern bargains on eBay for less - there would be better uses of your time, trying different work from home businesses.

Earlier this year I sold two old "top end" systems on eBay, one which originally cost £3000 sold for £30, and another with an original cost of £2000, for the princely sum of £20! Admittedly these were older systems, but perfect workstations, in as new condition, complete with all original packaging. I spent a day properly wiping and reinstalling both, which if, based on the cost of my time, would have been much quicker just to take them to a recycling depot.

shed_head_2

Thank you for all the thoughts. I kinda knew what all of you are saying hence the reason I have been dithering about it all.

Once again MSe users have helped think through a problem.

Em