Making money selling hardware?

[HostHK]

Hello all.

As some of you may know, I work for a hosting company based in Hong Kong but I actually live in Europe for most of the year. I travel back to Hong Kong as needed and it ends up being around once every 2 months I travel back.

As our company has been around for the better part of a decade, in that time, we have accumulated a significant amount of old hardware. Namely motherboards, CPUs, ram sticks etc. But we have all sorts of things. The aforementioned however come in spades!

Renting this hardware in HK is difficult to do profitably given the high cost of bandwidth, power and storage space (when compared with the US/CA/EU). Selling it is also difficult in a country where new computer hardware is basically the cheapest in the world.

I have considered selling all this stuff on eBay. However, given this forum is filled with a rather industrious lot, I thought I would post a thread seeing if anyone has any ideas on what to do with older equipment.

I have also considered the fact that I travel to and fro frequently WITH a hefty baggage allowance. I would be able to carry quite a bit back with me on my return flights. This would not be limited to our older hardware. I could bring back newer hardware too.

I am certain there are some issues bringing hardware from abroad and selling it within the EU without A.) adding VAT and B.) paying VAT on the import. But that's more of an issue for high value goods that are new, rather than older second hand goods. That being said, a friend of mine was very grateful for the 400 Euro saving on her new MacBook Pro so I'm .

So the question is, is anyone interested in helping me find a way to make money out of old (and possibly some new) hardware from Hong Kong. Baring in mind that some hardware can be brought to Europe easily?

Note: This is not intended to be a 'business'. This is intended to generate a little bit of 'pocket money'. The interested party is not required to put up any funds or 'buy' any of the hardware. The 'profits' of any sale would simply be shared and that's it.

 

[l0calh0st]

If I was you, I would find the latest cool things from the Chinese market. Like gadgets, I mean real cool gadgets. Before you sell it, make sure the quality is good, really good. Because 99% of the product from China are crap unfortunately.

You should focus on selling those gadgets, the hard to get things in Europe and USA. But remember, people love fast shipping. I recommend you SingPost. As it's almost 3x faster than HongKong Post and China Post.

Sorry if I was irrelevant. But as you have good connections in China, and your English is good then this could be an opportunity.

 

[HostHK]

Hi Qarizma,

Of course this is an idea that everyone from Hong Kong has had at some point. And it is certainly possible to make money selling small items manufactured in China, but i am not convinced it is something that is really worth doing.

Like I said in my post, the main objective for me is to rid our company of old stock laying around in our office.

Secondary objective is making a bit of pocket money by selling this stuff.

As a consequence of my frequent travelling to HK, and having a base in Europe, fast VAT free delivery is possible within the EU.

As an added bonus, occasional big ticket items can be among the things brought back to Europe.

I am happy to arrange for goods to be brought down from China. Shenzhen (Lo Wu) is just 15 minutes from my office in HK and I have unlimited travel to and fro, so buying things on the cheap, bringing them to Europe and selling them is not a problem. I just don't see how that can really be worth while. I guess it can make a bit of pocket money here and there but that doesn't really address my main objective :-).

But hey, I'm all for it if the interested person already has a market for those goods! I don't have the time to dive into yet another industry.

Thanks again though!

 

[mytarun]

would be easier starting

You can try, would be easier starting with friends. But as i say there is many places you can buy custom builds from now and it just turns up at your house all ready to go.

Online business and internet is killing the computer building trade for everyone. Before people had to pay people to do this as they where scaired to try. Now people can come on here read for a few nights a build a pc from scratch.

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