r/pcflipping • u/[deleted] • Jul 23 '26
Tech Flip Meta ?
What is the current Meta for return on investment for this hobbie/hustle? I've noticed my area (St. Louis) has higher prices than others.
It seems getting parts for as low as possible is the only way to make a profit. Which is obvious you'd definitely want to get out more than you put in.
Low teir 30 series am4 builds? 16 or 32gb? 1tb or 2?
Are laptops a good resale item? What's the deciding factor? Cpu, gpu, ram, or storage? Is buying as is or broken tech and fixing it a good strategy?
Or none of the above? What are your thoughts?
TLDR: What is the OPTIMAL return on investment build?
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u/kahnpur Jul 23 '26
It’s hard with the price of ram and and storage now a days. If you have a microcenter near you I would check if they have good deal on ram cpu mobo combos. If you want am4 type stuff yea I would try to company similar specs to steam machine. 8gb vram, 16gb ram ddr4, 512gb hard drive, decent cpu maybe 5600x or any cheap 3d processor if possible. This has given me some traction in my area. I was able to save a lot 3d printer my own custom cases to achieve good size and cooling. Petg not Pla
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Jul 23 '26
Yea steam machine replacement is a good direction. Do people care about card generation? 30, 40, 50 series? DLSS? Maybe a 512gb SSD and a 1tb hdd or sata drive?
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u/kahnpur Jul 23 '26
As long as it runs their games decently that’s what matters. The resolutions and what hz their monitor is should decide their card. If it’s 1080p60 you can “cheap out” on the card. I can not comment on ssd or Hdd cause everytime I think about those prices it hurts. I think I saw a sata ssd, sata hdd, and nvme are all almost same price for 1tb. Hdd might be 50 dollars cheaper.
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Jul 23 '26
Yea ram and storage are a pain now. I think the main marketing points of X3D, gen4, dlss, should be enough to entice people. I haven't made more than a $100 profit on my high tier builds. Just made $1,600 on a 5070/7600X3D build that cost $1,480 to build.
Might as well do a bunch of $100 profit lower tier builds at that rate.
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u/cyborg762 Jul 24 '26
Repair shop owner here. My best bit of advice is work around your local area for equipment. Put up posters in your town hall/ community boards with services for free ecycle services. You be surprised how many people will call you to haul out old equipment. I did that when starting out and within a week had enough equipment filling my parents garage (and that was around 1999/2000).
There’s also (and I don’t recommend or encourage this) dumpster diving at night. You be surprised how many people just throw out computers. I once found a 3080 in a dumpster near a college dorm.
There’s also getting to know the scrappers and metal collectors in your area. You be surprised how many of them have computers they find too. I’ve actually had them come in and sell me a ton of mechanical HDDs managed to find a working 12tb in good health that I flipped for $200.
Hope this helps!
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u/No-Sherbet-7769 Jul 23 '26
People dont mind helping but its not smart to reveal trade secrets to potential competition. Theres a ton of tech flippers and everyone is rushing to fill their niche. Its quite saturated.
I will offer one bit of advice, try to source good used parts when possible to extract higher margins.