The market for Gaming PCS , PCs in general

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 I'v been thinking of going into business providing IT products and services , mainly reselling Dells and building high end , custom PCs .

The idea is this  : for the gamers/techies , anything you want online ,  i will acquire it for you for a reasonable fee .
 Eg. If you want 2000 USD of parts ,  i'll get them for you with a nominal fee of 10% , making the total 2200 US .
   

For the average Joe , i'll  sell them a standard dell at a competitive price , deliver and install it myself .  Dell local customer service will take care of their warranty needs.

   
   Due to it being somewhat of a one man operation with limited resources , i plan to make it all feasible by keeping little or no stock :  You order what you want , pay a downpayment of 10-20% , and pay the rest on delivery , which will take 2-3 weeks for parts , or 4-6 weeks for a dell.

 I'll be taking cash, cheque , credit  card , wire transfer etc. like a standard , respectable business.


 What i'd like to know before i commit myself to this enterprise : What is the market like for  Gaming PCs and PCs in general ?

 How many fellow gamers would be interested ?

Does anyone have advice to offer?

[Crixx_Creww]

local retailers of machines have a very nasty habit of selling piss poor machines at top notch prices

and also conversely selling machester united level piss poor machines at "low prices"

if you want to take the initiative and provide trinidadians with a quality of machine at the low end they have never seen, or prices at teh high end they have never seen , then go ahead.


other than that, you will be entering into a very very saturated market, and there wont be anything to differentiate you from the rest.

My other bit of advice would be to, target the ministries... create a vat registered LLC

and create a range of products. Offer them high quality machines that they not accustom getting
at teh absurd prices they accustom paying. THat may garner you some fortune.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 I plan to offer anything there is a demand for  , probably will end up selling alot of Macs in addition to the Dell..
 
  I just realised that i'm going to be using Dell's business strategy more or less , tailoring to the customers needs and building to suit.

  Just one thing i need to know : How does the local warranty work with Dells , HP etc.? Do i just refer the customer to one company or is it more complicated than that?

[TriniXaeno]

I think you'd do well to join our budding tech squad.

We plan on doing the same and it's made up of a bunch of gatt tech gurus.

The differentiating factor will be quality and speed of service. Something one man can't offer, but a bunch of men scattered all over the country can.

[Redlum08]

I think you'd do well to join our budding tech squad.

We plan on doing the same and it's made up of a bunch of gatt tech gurus.

The differentiating factor will be quality and speed of service. Something one man can't offer, but a bunch of men scattered all over the country can.

That's an excellent point Noob, I think you guys will do very well serving the population of Computer "disabled". Follow the strategy of Geek Squad. I know with the Big Electronics stores here like Bestbuy have their services as part of their sales pitch. Makes for good profitable business on both sides. *Two Thumbs Up!

Not only PC's but perhaps Home Electronic set-ups with HDTV's and such, don't know how much of a market there is there since those tend to be expensive....but you get my point.

[Spazosaurus]

The Nerd Herd. I've pitched that name before havent I? No its not original but say what.

I have to say, I agree with Crix on the deferentiating yourself from the competition. I mean, there are so many people in this business that you HAVE to be different to be noticed.

As for the government contracts, there's a 50/50 chance of you getting any in your first year, and there's only a 5% chance of that. I work in a government ministry and we have a list of about 4 vendors we send rfq's to. Period. I'm fairly sure most other ministries work the same way, so as a newcommer to get on that list, well, only if you "know somebody".

But good idea nonetheless. The only drawback is that most trini's dont know about good thing and certainly eh willing to pay for it. Is everything they want cheap. Cheap cheap cheap. If you can build some pc's for $1000 a pop you'll be a millionaire in short order.

[Arcmanov]

The only drawback is that most trini's dont know about good thing and certainly eh willing to pay for it. Is everything they want cheap. Cheap cheap cheap.

Wow, that statement is so true, and is the single most significant reason why gaming PCs might be a hard sell in TnT.

[rb]

agreed, trinis would want to buy the cheapest pc and then quarrel when it can't run a game made past 2006.

also don't post your business plan online.

[Crixx_Creww]

certainly dont post your business plan online


but i seriously beg to differ greatly on that trinis only like to buy cheap ting.


Trinis pay 9K+ for absolutely bottom barrel manu esque machines
they dont know any better and the retailers down here murder their  ignorance.

they get machines that retail for about 5000 tt or so, and then sell them to the public for 9 to 11k
and people buy it. I know this very well.


and then there are the "budget machines"
those machines that people charge 3500 or so for
and are also completely jazz babies.

i despise those machines, for the simple reason that any of us could build a mini monster for that kinda money, and these noobs buy trash for that kinda money. case in point,

the ministry i work for, tenders out for machines for schools periodically.
they  say they want 3 machines with say x minimum specs.

those specs being, atleast a 2.8 ghz processor (doesnt matter if single or dual core)
80 gig hd
1 gig of ram
sound card
on board grafexx
blah blah

we ask for 3 quotes from each company

we get back about 15 quotes totall

all of them pedling pentium 4s blah blah blah
for between 9 and 12 thousand dollars.

I go balistic insisting this is pure robbery
they blink at me and go...s ooo um... yeah.... thas wat we get so pick one
i steups
fling the filthy quotes in the air
which ever one lands on my desk
pick that

seriously
thats the process

because ive been bickering for a year and nothing has changed


then i start seeing some stupid frakkin lenovos in certain offices, vista
512 megs of ram, pentium ds or 1.8 gig c2ds...

i grumble about the stupid vista and the piss poor ram
and ask how much it cost
they tell me is top of the line machines and it cost 16k

i blink at them
walk out of office.

yea....

trinis like cheap ting??
pfftt

[Spazosaurus]

Yeah but you see everybody knows about Dell. They've been hearing about Dell for years and the brand is now automatically synonymous with computing.

Now its happened to me more than once that people come to me for a machine built, I quote a price and specs for them and not hear from them for another year with a story like...

"Boy I computer here and it moving reaaalll slow."
So I go like "is so? what kind of computer is that?"
"AH Dell" they say.
I'm like..."ohhh ok"

Moral of the story?

Trini's generally like to buy cheap thing.

Those who willing to spend a little more prefer to buy from a big company instead of the small man.

I mean who can blame them, i'd be more comfortable knowing I can find a big company after 1 year over a small man over the same period.

When you offer them good price for reasonably powerful parts, they go like..."hmmm there must be a catch" and back away. It might not be trinis alone, could be how people are in general, but thats my experience.

[Crixx_Creww]

no again i have to disagree captitan

because they know de name dell

and they will go in courts or pricemart and pay 6 to 9 grand for a machine that should cost like 4

[TriniXaeno]

There are enough on both sides of the scale to make both of your arguments true.

That is, quite a few trini's only buy cheap thing and also quite a few trinis that will spend good money on any rig.

The strategy of course is to cater to both.

Differentiate on service, not on the product offered.

Over the years, we have converted many a customer that started off with a ValuePC (the cheapest configuration that we'd offer, with onboard video) to a more robust GamePC, running the hottest cards of the day.

Gamers who would come to us on a budget and get a Geforce 2 MX, would return a year later for a Geforce 5900 monster card.

Moral of the story, cater to both markets and don't make it a problem.

Do target the cheap bastards and the ministry big spenders.