I wanted to build a computer, but the problem was, I only had $600 dollars. To solve this problem, I turned to something that I knew well and was confident I could make money on: computer hardware.
Since first starting to build computers in 8th grade, I had built several for friends and myself, and had been keeping up with specs and market values of the parts. With that knowledge, I decided I could just buy cheap parts and sell them for more online.
However, I would need some capital to start off, since I had only $600, so I asked my parents for a loan of $720 dollars so I could buy the first two items I had picked out. It took a bit of convincing, but eventually they saw how sure I was of the profitability of my ventures. With my with my 66 $20 dollar bills in hand, I went out into the world to turn my money into more money. I don’t want to bore you with the details, so instead I will just show you some pictures of some of the parts that I bought, and later sold for more.
My basic business plan was this: I would scour the local buying and selling pages (Craigslist, OfferUp) for good deals, and then try to get the parts for as cheap as possible. After this, I occasionally sold them locally, but the majority were sold online through r/Hardwareswap, a forum for trading computer hardware. On there, computer components usually sell for more than local, and in some cases (the ones I looked for), they sold for a LOT more. I had to pay Paypal and shipping fees, but even with this, I was able to make money on all of my purchases.
This all started at the beginning of winter break. Since then, I have gotten my drivers license, and my parents are now much more on board with my idea after I started making money and they did’t have to drive me to pick up parts all the time. Through my trading, I was able to make enough money and extra parts to build my new computer (in the post below). Since I started out with $600 dollars and $720 loan, I now have my new computer ($1500 worth of parts), other computer parts I still need to sell valued at $850, $300 cash, and a still-outstanding loan of $720 (I am going to pay my parents back, eventually).
If anyone wants to do something similar, with computer components or another area that they are knowledgeable in, my advice is to know the market and have a plan of where you will buy and sell your goods before you go into it. It isn’t the easiest thing, but if you are interested in something anyway, buying and selling goods you are knowledgeable about is a good side hustle to make some extra money.
Also, if you need some computer parts or a new computer, I know a guy.
DIY Computing 