Where can I buy some cheap computers to resell?
- Thread starter zliv44
- Start date
Paranoid Android
Elite Member
- Jun 20, 2010
- 2,864
- 4,209
China? Alibaba?
Carepolice
Power Member
- Mar 25, 2009
- 575
- 629
Your starting budget will force you to scavenge until you raise more capital, which is fine. I suggest checking your classified sites for people that want computer repair, then offer to purchase their dead machines so you may fix them and turn them for profit.
I'd also recommend talking with local businesses that utilize large quantities of computers. For example, call centers have a tendency to spit out machines on a regular basis and you may be able to pick them up cheaply. I did some contracting work for a center that was donating their old machines to schools just to get the tax credit. That's really not a bad place to look.
Cheers!
I'd also recommend talking with local businesses that utilize large quantities of computers. For example, call centers have a tendency to spit out machines on a regular basis and you may be able to pick them up cheaply. I did some contracting work for a center that was donating their old machines to schools just to get the tax credit. That's really not a bad place to look.
Cheers!
Swordude
Regular Member
- Dec 29, 2013
- 253
- 236
It's going to be damn near impossible to find something for that price, and trying to sell it for a profit (especially if you have to pay shipping costs and stuff, but if you're dropshipping it wouldn't be as bad) is going to be even more of a challenge.
My advice would be to save up some more money to invest, probably about $500 so you can get a couple decent laptops. Take a look here http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/laptops/#/?page-index=1 and try and find the best deals, I'm sure there are at least a couple of refurbs there that could sell for ~$50-100 more than what Lenovo is charging.
Oh, and I know a lot of businesses use Lenovo because they are cheap and good PCs for office work -- maybe try contacting some local businesses and telling them you have cheap refurbished laptops for sale.
Good luck
My advice would be to save up some more money to invest, probably about $500 so you can get a couple decent laptops. Take a look here http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/laptops/#/?page-index=1 and try and find the best deals, I'm sure there are at least a couple of refurbs there that could sell for ~$50-100 more than what Lenovo is charging.
Oh, and I know a lot of businesses use Lenovo because they are cheap and good PCs for office work -- maybe try contacting some local businesses and telling them you have cheap refurbished laptops for sale.
Good luck
SirSmash
Regular Member
- May 25, 2014
- 310
- 274
Auctions, find some in your area. They'll likely have surplus from schools, government, and businesses. Pallet of ~20 computers should go for 300 or so. Likely older ~3 year old systems that have been returned after lease. Single system for $90? Probably not going to happen, you got to buy in bulk and the used market is mostly auction.
It's what I do for a living, my business buys and sells used electronics. You can make money but you'd better know what you're doing. Meaning you can look at a pallet stacked with computers and even though you can only see the top 4 systems on the pallet and the sides and corners of the rest, you can tell me the exact model number and specifications of what's inside. If you know your **it there's no possible way for us to mess with you but if you can't do that the regulars, like me, will make sure you're out of business real quick by making you pay too much for the stuff. On the off chance that you catch on and we do win the bid? We'll just signal the auctioneer to re-auction that lot and they'll do it because we pay the auction house a whole lot more money than you do.
Make sure it's what you want to do, it's profitable, it can be fun, but there's far easier ways to make a buck. You'll be working Saturday's as most auctions are on the weekend. Most auctions are also held in the middle of nowhere so being outside in the summer when it's 108 degrees? That's a normal day at work. The stuff you buy is generally bought as you see it, where you see it, so you'll be man handling the stuff you purchase into your vehicle.
It's what I do for a living, my business buys and sells used electronics. You can make money but you'd better know what you're doing. Meaning you can look at a pallet stacked with computers and even though you can only see the top 4 systems on the pallet and the sides and corners of the rest, you can tell me the exact model number and specifications of what's inside. If you know your **it there's no possible way for us to mess with you but if you can't do that the regulars, like me, will make sure you're out of business real quick by making you pay too much for the stuff. On the off chance that you catch on and we do win the bid? We'll just signal the auctioneer to re-auction that lot and they'll do it because we pay the auction house a whole lot more money than you do.
Make sure it's what you want to do, it's profitable, it can be fun, but there's far easier ways to make a buck. You'll be working Saturday's as most auctions are on the weekend. Most auctions are also held in the middle of nowhere so being outside in the summer when it's 108 degrees? That's a normal day at work. The stuff you buy is generally bought as you see it, where you see it, so you'll be man handling the stuff you purchase into your vehicle.
Yeah, I'm on craigslist all day and everyday. There are a lot of posting for computers for under 100 (a lot of times as low as 30 bucks, but you have to be fast). Look for all the areas around a certain radius and you can call everyone and schedule a pick up. If you don't mind driving around and doing 10 hours a day, you could easily get 20-30 computers a day. Once you get established, you can start hiring people to drive and pick them up for you. I usually hire a person to drive a direction (north, south, east, or west) about an hour and pick up all the machines in that area. They drive about an hour that way and pick up around 5-10 computers for about 3-4 hours of driving and I would pay them about 80 bucks (depending). If you think about it, if you got 8 computers then it would raise the cost per computer about 10 bucks. Thats not bad considering you could use all that driving time for other IM expeditions.
Techxan
Elite Member
- Dec 7, 2011
- 3,091
- 3,620
If you are in the US:
www.publicsurplus.com
Last ones I bought cost $8 each for the box and another $5 for the monitor, and laptops sometimes sell for $15.
They are well used, and usually need a hard drive. A friend and I buy them by the dozen.
www.publicsurplus.com
Last ones I bought cost $8 each for the box and another $5 for the monitor, and laptops sometimes sell for $15.
They are well used, and usually need a hard drive. A friend and I buy them by the dozen.
Last edited:
That's a good suggestion indeed. Surplus government auctions are pretty common. Do you know if there is a place where we can find a list of auctions from different agencies? I usually have to go to a bunch of state, county, federal agencies websites and dig through their lists... it would be nice to have some kind of directory.
lilkid4000
BANNED
- Jan 10, 2014
- 60
- 7
you could go to Ebay i use it all the time to get cheap stuff.
This is $25 over budget though I'm sure you can do some odd jobs to come up with that amount. I found this on eBay, while you may not make a lot on a resale, you might be able to sell it for around $160 which would be about a 40% return. Here's the link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REFURBISHED...1201822702?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item4d1d2abfee
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REFURBISHED...1201822702?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item4d1d2abfee