Used Parts

[psihala]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but what's the point of the PC Bay other than for selling parts when 90% of the customers don't want them in new rigs or repairs? I've got builds long in storage that I've not been able to use or sell for jobs because they were all built from PC Bay parts that only one customer thus far would accept.

Am I just getting unlucky with picky customers?

[BonPadre]

You have to do this (even if you do dismantle parts of the PC's already built)

Try to find nice combinations, specially on nice higher end PC's with dual GPU's.
So keep your high Wattage PSU for those, and use the low wattage ones for straight single GPU build and crappy CPU's.
Try to put dual 1080 - 1070 on higher end used CPU's. That way you'll probably sell those PC's on PCBay from $3500 and higher

So once you have a nice combination on a PC assembled only from used parts, you turn it on and you OC the crap out of it.
That way you'll make money out of those used parts, and by OC the PC, you sell the full PC way above what parts would have given you if sold piece by piece.

That's a way to dump some crappy low end parts you probably never bought from PCBay but got for free from customers, the only parts you may have bought from PCBay are drives, Mobo, PSU and ofc cases. Usually you crawl under low end coolers and until some point low end CPU's as well, single RAM sticks, and poor GPU's.
So those crappy dual core CPU's with some crappy GPU's and quad cores with some easy to OC 1060's or low end dual GPU.

That beeing said, don't dismiss the mid tier CPU's with dual mid tier GPU... that can give you some nice bucks once OC correctly.

That's at least what I do personally, and I stockpile a lot of those broken PC's from PCBay lol.

[psihala]

Thanks for the strategy tip. I'll give it a try!

Still, it sounds like the PC Bay is more for making money off of used parts or rebuilds than a cheaper source of parts.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by psihala:

Still, it sounds like the PC Bay is more for making money off of used parts or rebuilds than a cheaper source of parts.

I think you also maybe misunderstand that part of the game.

You don't need "cheaper" parts source, because you don't "earn" money out of parts you install. You always get paied their value, should it be used or new, when you use them in a customer's build. Your only true income is from your labor.

The only superior income you'll get from used parts if you can instal them on a customer's build is this :
Used parts value is ALWAYS 1/3 of their brand new value, so if you pay them with a discount bigger than 66% on PCBay, then you ern those very few % more, as you'll get paied 1/3 of the brand new price.

But as this game is not challenging you to make money, you are not losing out much out of this tiny bucks more. You'll make way more money out of same parts in full builds you overclock and sell back at PCBay

[psihala]

Alright, then! I'll keep that in mind. Thanks so much for the responses.

[X-SR71]

You can sell fully built pcs in pcbay, you know that right? Best source of income.

[psihala]

Yes, I did know that. I was asking about a possible other use for the PCBay as in versions prior to a few updates ago, I remembered being able to use more used parts in repairs, but that doesn't seem to apply so much anymore.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by psihala:

I remembered being able to use more used parts in repairs, but that doesn't seem to apply so much anymore.

Very true.
Now early / mid game you can usually use those used fully built PC's when a story mission with "build me a computer" comes in, as usually those story missions don't refer to any used parts not wanted. (like the Oli mission with low end components at start if not mistaken), but then when you upgrade you still will get back used parts, while if you build out of new parts, the parts come back without the used tag.

I personally don't mind much the jobs for new build that asks for new parts, and due to again you getting paied the effective price of the part, there are no reasons to place used parts to a customer, since you'll make more out of same part in a build that is nicely overclocked and sold on PCBay.

The tactic of making more money out of used parts all went down the drain the exact same time devs implemented the new budget with labor separated from parts. Good old times when you screwed up customers with old parts and they were paying full amount for a "new" build

[psihala]

(Only half joking.) It would almost be worth keeping a bare-bones crappy computer with all-used cheapest priced components in storage for when those "Build me a new computer... for free" jobs comes in.

[wally314garcia]

Sorry to necro, but I couldn't find any other information on this and seeing as how the game is free on Epic recently more people may have this question.

Originally posted by BonPadre:

Used parts value is ALWAYS 1/3 of their brand new value

I don't think this is correct. The Ryzen 1300X goes for $150 new in the shop but in a customer's PC it sells for $62.

I think used parts used in customers' PCs sell for 25% above their 1/3 value rounded down to the nearest dollar.

[Hollywoodb1]

Selling fully built PC's on PCBay after OC'ing & running 3D Mark is a great way to earn cash on the side. You sell the built PC's for higher than the cost of the used parts 100% of time.

[Synavix]

Originally posted by hollywoodb1:

Selling fully built PC's on PCBay after OC'ing & running 3D Mark is a great way to earn cash on the side. You sell the built PC's for higher than the cost of the used parts 100% of time.

How much can you get from actually overclocking, though? I'm not far so I don't have all the high end parts, but I've fixed and re-sold 7 or 8 PCs from PCBay already and every time I overclock I'm only getting about 5-10 extra dollars out of it. Doesn't seem worth the time beyond just fixing + benchmarking, which increases the value by several hundred dollars for a lot less time/work.

[rog55]

idealy you need a 3d mark score of over 10,000 to get the full 3x value. this means you do need decent used parts then fully o/c it run 3d mark and you should see the value increase. i helped hybridsteel on his live stream yesterday the pc he used had a value of approx 1100 after a large o/c it went up to over 3000

[spanki2]

Originally posted by Synavix:

Doesn't seem worth the time beyond just fixing + benchmarking, which increases the value by several hundred dollars for a lot less time/work.

IMHO it's not worth to waste time on OC if the initial score is low because the increment will be low also, not worth your precious playtime. OCing makes sense only in high-end or expensive PCs. Just a reminder - if your base PC hits 10k 3DMark points there is no point to OC at all, as the price won't increase.

[Synavix]

Okay cool, that's what I was thinking. Thanks for the answers.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by wally314garcia:

Sorry to necro, but I couldn't find any other information on this and seeing as how the game is free on Epic recently more people may have this question.

Originally posted by BonPadre:

Used parts value is ALWAYS 1/3 of their brand new value

I don't think this is correct. The Ryzen 1300X goes for $150 new in the shop but in a customer's PC it sells for $62.

I think used parts used in customers' PCs sell for 25% above their 1/3 value rounded down to the nearest dollar.

Well that's the very issue of necroing a thread that is 2 years old... An information that was correct at the time may not be correct anymore when the game is still developped and has seen changes all the way on it's lifetime.

Next time, simply creat a new thread with correct information instead of digging for the sake of digging an outdated information. Thank you for your understanding. Specially since I don't play this game anymore, so I'll never ever update informations of mine in old threads.