What PC Gamers won't tell you about PC Gaming

Resellability is crap. No one's going to buy your gaming rig for half what it's worth because they'd rather build themselves.

Makes sense. Researching, ordering, waiting, recieving, unboxing, and building your first rig is one of the most exciting experiences you'll ever have as a gamer.

As trivial as it sounds, I think it is a big deal for people who find resale value important. What do I know?

Same goes for any second hand product.

How much is your PS2 going for on ebay these days?

But there is a second hand market for PC hardware

What are you talking a about?

But a $1000 PC will last you several years and does more than just play games like web browsing , YouTube, movie making, music making, research papers, work related stuff, etc.

So it evens out.

We're PC gamers, we're rich enough to just throw this stuff away when it no longer lives up to our standards, didn't you know this peasant?

Actually our country has a brand new/second hand selling of product. And people buy those. PCs included.

@whistle_blower: But according to consolites, nobody wants to go through the headache of building a rig. And "building your first rig is one of the most exciting experiences you'll ever have as a gamer?" Consolites claim this is something they never want to do. Why is this all of a sudden a positive for PC gaming? PC gamers generally don't care about resale value. And why would they? They don't rely on Gamestop to give them $18 for their 2 week old games in order to play the new releases like console kids. I sure as hell wouldn't pay more than $100 for used hardware at the spec level of these consoles. Console kids are the ones being taken for a ride, not PC gamers.

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for telling us this important information.

Don't sell it whole, you sell it in parts. Sell everything separately. Your not going to get what you paid for it when it was new, your going to make less on it due to it being used. But when you sell everything as a whole or a set buyers seem to think they can wiggle a cheaper deal out of you since they are buying everything at once.

Most people, like you said, will want to build their own rig, so list your stuff separately and you will open yourself up to more potential buyers. Your more likely to find buyers who are looking for certain parts to upgrade or replace in stuff in their own rig

@speedfreak48t5p: Exactly 11000 posts.

Reply to me.

REPLY TO ME!!!!!!

Why would you bother stating the obvious?

I sell my old PC parts. Depreciation varies. CPUs and GPUs hold value the best obviously and the newer the better, but lots of people buy them second hand because they are usually only 75-50% of the price of new components. For example, I owned a GTX 980 and when the GTX 980 Ti came out I bought one and sold my regular 980 on eBay for only $65 less than what I bought it for. Got rid of an unneeded part and got some much needed spending money for my PC. Win-win.

Personally, I would never buy used PC parts. But for people strapped for cash they are a decent option to get into PC gaming or a good gateway to high-end components otherwise out of reach.

I was hoping to learn about some dirty lil secrets that hermits have.

A PC have many uses aside from gaming. I tend to keep older PCs for a number of years after they've been retired from gaming.

I can always donate ancient PCs and write them off my income tax return.

calling people that play consoles "kids" is not going to get the response you might want. it sounds like you are reaaaaaly trying to put us down when in fact you come off as stupid and desperate. Sorry..

Well, no longer a consolite since Sony told gamers to go **** themselves, but historically I've found consoles to retain more resell values than computers...just an observation

I have to say ive NEVER built a pc thinking "humm what can i sell this for in a couple years"..Im not pc spec nut case. I upgrade about every 7 years. I dont play a lot of pc games,but I do play..and use my pc for video editing and photos etc..When I do upgrade,Ill probably just chuck this one in the garbage..wont even think about it.

PC gamers are the worst. The funniest thing I have ever witnessed is when you put all the PC gamers in the same area comparing rigs, all they do is brag about theirs and about how much yours sucks.

It is hilariously sad.

PC gamers have to be biggest emotionally insecure nerds ever. The ego's on these guys is off the charts. LOL

That is something PC gamers don't tell noobs looking to build a PC. They will gladly help you build one, then as soon as it is done, they tell you it sucks, its outdated and not as good as theirs. LOL

I want NO part of that "elite" "masterrace".

Pro tip,they don't

I just spent a fortune upgrading mine.

You're poor, it's okay to vent, we can't all have nice things.

considering TC made this thread in OT:

shipped my gaming rig through USPS at an APO address on post, and it took over a month to get home. I shipped it in the middle of Novemebr, and I think I picked it up on New Year's Eve at the post office. Now, my rig is damaged. One of my video card is dead, my computer keeps shutting itself off, the usb drives don't function properly, it freezes up a lot, and acts like a crappy windows xp computer from the 1990s even though it's a brand new fking computer that I built last year in August. 2400$ computer, by the way.

Perhaps they just don't want to buy your broken shit

I'm not selling it with the damaged parts. But it's good for you to go dig up my other thread. You must feel like some internet detective.

dig up? it was a few days ago and i posted in it

Kind of like what the PS4 crowd does to the Xbox crowd aye

@ButDuuude said:

I just spent a fortune upgrading mine.

Hahah I should do that with my old one, hang it from the roof like a chandelier/PC.

2nd hand PC parts are very sellable when sold separately. I built and sold almost entire rigs just by going the 2nd hand route.

I;m aware. I just don't see how it's relevant to this thread? Care to explain?

Because you're complaining about resellability and people not wanting to buy your gaming rig for half what it's worth, which may have something to do with it being damaged.

But even if it wasn't damaged, it would make more sense to part it out rather than trying to sell it as a whole

oh ok, yeah not all of it is damaged so yeah I took the other guy's advice and just reposted by parts :) thanks

@ButDuuude said:

I just spent a fortune upgrading mine.

I actually had some friends in college that built a server inside a cardboard box for file sharing and minecraft. I also had a lab mate that had a bitcoin mining rig in a cardboard box in lab but he was asked to take it home because it was a fire hazard

During the bitcoin mining craze a couple years back didn't the price of some AMD cards skyrocket for a time making for massive reselling potential during that period? Like the 290X going from $550 -> $900.

@whistle_blower: But you did

EDIT: I see I was late for this post. Sounds like you got it sorted out. So i'm wiping it with this message.

Currently I could resale my PC for probably $100-$200 more than the parts are worth because a lot of console people that want to get into PC gaming are afraid of messing up building an expensive PC and don't know how to put one together. After a while the price would obviously drop down to half, but not any time soon.

AlienWare and others whole business revolves around making cheap computers and selling them for more than they are worth, which wouldn't be possible if things were as you say.

You can also sell the pieces you need to upgrade so you don't have to spend too much more upgrading parts. So never throw away your boxes.

I recently looked online at the resale value of my 360 consoles and it was just $25 iirc. I recently sold my graphics card I've used for around 8 or 9 years online for $50, and haven't checked out what else I can sale from my old PC.

I don't sell my entire rig at once and start from scratch, I only upgrade the components that need it. I have been able to sell 'old' GPUs to friends who don't need quite as modern of a rig but honestly as someone else said, if you big into PC gaming you probably have enough disposable income that its not really a problem.

PC gaming was a mistake.

Never understood this 'resell' argument. If you're a working adult and have to cut corners on your budget to make room for gaming then you should probably focus on getting your career together and not worry about video games.

Of all the hobbies one can have, video gaming is actually on the cheap end of the scale.

Some would say the same of you.

There is something else. The games. Many that push PC gaming over console gaming will bring up games being cheaper. A lot of times retail games might be cheaper but that comes with a cost. Getting the games to run well on your system due to the porting issues, etc can be a chore. Sometimes it can be impossible because the port is that bad. There is no second hand market for you to buy games used from and even if the game is digital don't assume the price will be lower, especially outside of of the big summer and winter sales even if the game is old. The cheaper games that go on sale on Steam or just are cheaper in general might not even be to your liking. What's the point of having access to so many cheap games if you don't like them and they aren't to your taste? I've always found it annoying these aspects are ignored when one talks about the benefits of PC gaming over console gaming and one tries tries to convince others of making the switch. There are plenty of negatives to go along with the positives. One really should take a long hard look at their taste in games before getting serious about making the switch.

@whistle_blower: You're absolutely right.

Keep your 'gaming rig' (whatever that really means) in its many unopened boxes for 5 years.

Keep your XBOXOne/PS4/WII U and its controllers in its unopened box for 5 years.

Sell each of them and note the percent of your return.

Sure, nobodies going to buy your gaming rig, but if you sell parts individually you can get some good deals, as long as the parts you are selling aren't ancient.

I would never buy a second hand pc, but I do sell my old pcs

as a console gamer I can't say I'm too enthusiastic about the idea of used console hardware either, especially with modern consoles

Come on peasants, how long do you really think it's going to be until all your games are digital only and can't be sold or traded anymore? Five years? Ten? You know damn well that both Sony and Microsoft would love nothing more than to kill the entire used game market so they can take all the profit for themselves. Might as well get used to the idea now, because the writing is on the wall.

Cool.

I used to work in a place called Cash Generator. Basically a second hand shop, all sorts..consoles, pc parts, tvs, dvd's ect.

It's not exclusive to PC, most tech hardly holds value. (likewise books, games ect)

What a silly thread. It's actually really easy to sell used PC hardware and something I do all the time. My current rig is built entirely from swapping single components over the years and selling the old parts. Most PC builders wouldn't ever sell a whole computer because the sensible thing to do is start off with an upgradeable rig and just swap out single components over time.