[Method] make money with old laptop keyboards

[M4DM4X]

I found this method while searching for a new keyboard online for my laptop because one key was broken. New keyboards are quite expensive. So while searching on ebay I found some sellers selling only the keys one by one, not the whole keyboard just keys, at a lower price than the whole keyboard obviously.
One key is sold at around $5/6 for my laptop model. So I happily bought the one I needed.

These people are buying old keyboards, or maybe just get some old broken laptops for a few bucks on fb marketplace, and then sell the keys apart. That's a great business idea I think. Even if you buy new keyboards to do this method, is still profitable.
A keyboard is composed of around 100 keys, which means $500 minimum per keyboard if you sell keys one by one. That's huge compared to if you were selling the whole keyboard (around $50).
Keyboads are not complicated to store for someone who wants to do this from home, and shipping cost for a key is very low. ROI on this one is great.

 

[MakeCoolDays]

It is a bad idea. Various keyboard models (desktop / laptop) have different keys and a key of keyboard model A will not fit in for a key of keyboard model B. And with almost over 10,000 keyboard models, how many old / used keyboards will you buy, in order to fulfil orders ? You will have a huge inventory stuck at any given point of time, if you want to fulfil orders for lots of keyboard model's keys.

 

[berhas]

I like your thought. but I don't think it will work. you can't sell all the keys on the keyboard, usually the "W,A,S,D" keys are broken

 

[M4DM4X]

It is a bad idea. Various keyboard models (desktop / laptop) have different keys and a key of keyboard model A will not fit in for a key of keyboard model B. And with almost over 10,000 keyboard models, how many old / used keyboards will you buy, in order to fulfil orders ? You will have a huge inventory stuck at any given point of time, if you want to fulfil orders for lots of keyboard model's keys.

just store most sold laptops' keyboards, you are not forced to store all the models existing in the world
Also you can just store the keys in a sachet, not the entire kb. It doesnt take much place at all you can basically store a thousand keyboards (keys in sachets) in a simple closet.

I like your thought. but I don't think it will work. you can't sell all the keys on the keyboard, usually the "W,A,S,D" keys are broken

yeah there are certain keys that are most used than the others so statistically there are keys that break more frequently. Doesnt mean the others cant be broken though, you can have dust under keys and break them while trying to clean underneath (like me hahah)

 

[HenryObi]

Even if you buy new keyboards to do this method, is still profitable.
A keyboard is composed of around 100 keys, which means $500 minimum per keyboard if you sell keys one by one.

It's good when you have an old keyboard lying around, not going to buy a brand new keyboard for this.

You may never get to sell a good number of the keys. It's not a good idea to go buy new keyboard for this.

 

[FluffyStuff]

You mean keycap? Like for custom keyboard?

 

[nirajjoshi]

To make things even simpler, work things out with someone who repair/resale or deal with old laptops. Once you get an order then get your keys from that person and pay him the commission.

You save on investment.
You don't have to store any inventory.

 

[terrycody]

But some keywords keys are integrated with the whole shit, you can'
t just repair one, or some models you have to know how to soldering, to fix it yourself, the idea is good, but involves too much work and hustles.

 

[jeffro89]

Looks good from far, but far from good. If it's that easy you do it lol .
I think getting traffic will be the hardest part.
In all my years of my existence on this planet, I've never heard anyone buying 1 flipping key for their keyboard. Let alone a marketplace existing for this...
I might be living under a rock... But if this is happening, I might as well start selling knives and forks. I'm always losing those .

 

[RealDaddy]

I don't know if this works or not, but, @M4DM4X you get full marks for this creative side hustle idea.

 

[hematnet17]

This is a great idea if you have some broken device around. But for long term, you need to buy some broken laptops with a cheap price, and sell only the keyboard. And those are some work to do.
But, this is really a good idea!

 

[zubidoo]

The guys who are making money off this and doing this at scale by buying the actual keys from factories in large quantities and sell on ebay/amazon etc. They aren't buying broken keyboards one by one. I'm convinced the majority of you aren't actually making any real money with these sort of half baked ideas.

 

[blackdragonbee]

Keycaps worth to try? I think it depends on design, material, trust brand..

 

[M4DM4X]

It's good when you have an old keyboard lying around, not going to buy a brand new keyboard for this.

You may never get to sell a good number of the keys. It's not a good idea to go buy new keyboard for this.

how do you know you won't sell a good number of keys?

You mean keycap? Like for custom keyboard?

regular keys, like A, B, C, Enter Key, Space bar,etc...

But some keywords keys are integrated with the whole shit, you can'
t just repair one, or some models you have to know how to soldering, to fix it yourself, the idea is good, but involves too much work and hustles.

On all the laptops I had, keys were just clipsed, easy to put or remove.

Looks good from far, but far from good. If it's that easy you do it lol .
I think getting traffic will be the hardest part.
In all my years of my existence on this planet, I've never heard anyone buying 1 flipping key for their keyboard. Let alone a marketplace existing for this...
I might be living under a rock... But if this is happening, I might as well start selling knives and forks. I'm always losing those .

Setting up a website for this would be a pain with SEO yes, better use ebay or fb marketplace, there are sellers there already.

I don't know if this works or not, but, @M4DM4X you get full marks for this creative side hustle idea.

Trying to copy your great mindset my friend

The guys who are making money off this and doing this at scale by buying the actual keys from factories in large quantities and sell on ebay/amazon etc. They aren't buying broken keyboards one by one. I'm convinced the majority of you aren't actually making any real money with these sort of half baked ideas.

When you look at ebay listings for keybords on sale with an option to buy keys one by one, you can see they sell because many keys on the scrolling menu are greyed (meaning they are sold). When I bought my key for example, there were only a few other keys remaining on the listing.
But yeah you won't get elon musk's fortune by doing this. Just a side hustle with a small investment and can be done from home without too much hassle.

 

[IM Dude]

I got a old laptop with broken keys, you know what I did , I just bought a USB keyboard for 5 or 6 dollars, problem solved.
Selling keys requires a lot of hassle for both laptop owners and key sellers with little margin of profit.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[MakeCoolDays]

I got a old laptop with broken keys, you know what I did , I just bought a USB keyboard for 5 or 6 dollars, problem solved.

What problem solved ? The broken keys of the laptop still remain broken. So, the problem of the broken keys is not solved by buying (and using) a USB keyboard, as the problem was the broken keys which still remain broken.

 

[mnunes532]

I got a old laptop with broken keys, you know what I did , I just bought a USB keyboard for 5 or 6 dollars, problem solved.
Selling keys requires a lot of hassle for both laptop owners and key sellers with little margin of profit.
Just my 2 cents.

I did the same thing

 

[india]

Good idea but this is not going to make you a millionaire. There is very less demand for this kind of service and those who can repair their laptop themselves will only buy this kind of product.

 

[tachyons]

It's a crap idea, The reason is that buying a new keyboard is more profitable than buying an old one. Because the old keyboard does not cause a problem for once, then it brings many problems with it. The most logical thing is to solve the problem from the root.

 

[davids355]

It’s a bit like domaining. You buy loads of keyboards and you might sit on them for years, until you find a buyer for each key.

Probably is quite a good business though but I’d say put a few twists on it-

Go round to your local computer shops and say you’ll get rid of all their scrap for them- you can probably get away with charging for this, where I worked we used to pay someone to take our old scrap computers away. So that’s either some money made before you start, free parts or at worst a nominal fee for parts.

That way you’re making a profit as soon as you sell anything.

I would also say it’s better getting the full laptops, computers etc and selling every individual component- on a prop you have keys, palmrest, back plastics, battery etc you can make a lot from even a broken laptop.

With these things you can really maximise the profit potential and also account for issues- for example if you bought a keyboard then you only sold a few keys you could stay in a loss, so you need to take advantage wherever possible to ensure it’s going to actually be profitable.

Lastly, you would need a really good system for documenting everything because what you also don’t want is to be dealing with returns where you’ve sold someone slightly the wrong component for their device.