system builders... Am I charging too little? EDIT: thanks for the responses everyone, very informative :)

[StageLeft]

I gave them an estimate of $3610

my cost will be about 2500, I will be putting a lot of work in to make it quiet.

Holy CRAP are you ever overcharging. How long can that possibly REALLY take to do? A day? Most of it is just letting the OS install itself anyway. We both know that you can throw the thing together in 2-3 hours. Unless they really kill you with support that's a lot of money for putting a computer together.

Plus you have to dispose of all of the packaging. Does your garbage service charge by the pound?

He's building a computer not a house I could build 5 computers/week and my garbage man wouldn't even notice!

 

[Nusam]

Id say that redbeard had a lot of good points about how much you actually put into a job but really take for granted...like the trash by the pound and the cost of xp updating (bandwidth) and thats just some. last system I built for myself that was custom done took me 3 months of sanding polishing parts of the case itself and extensive wiring by hand so I could hide everything as much as humanly possible. And truthfully I wouldnt take 3k for my box like it sits with a 2.4 and a gig o ram. And I am not a business...Im just one o those yea I'll help ya install that burner or motherboard and whatnot. The single joe blow guy building computers from his house or even a small shop, cant even begin to make the kind of money these larger corp. are making, and those guys are making a killing. What with volume buying and all that. A technical skill is easily worth 25 an hour and if you put 40+ hrs into a system then IMHO there is nothing wrong with making a grand off that sale...

Id say you are dead on if not a bit underpriced.

 

[JediJorgie]

Cripes I'm glad I can build this stuff myself.

 

[n7]

Keep in this he is saying he will be helping the customer out with a lot of stuff.
For parts alone, that's a high markup, but if you consider a lot of time spent doing maintenance (if i understood correctly), then that's not that bad.

 

[gsaldivar]

I don't think you're charging too much. Your pricing is appropriate and fair.

You are going some high-end customization here with the 64bit CPU, RAID configuration, DVD burning, low-noise, etc.

No doubt your client will be depending on you for install, and at least some initial support to get them going.

If some long-term support will be required, then consider selling them a support contract for an additional fee. Don't leave this to be assumed as "included" in the cost of the hardware.

Good luck!

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: JediJorgie
Cripes I'm glad I can build this stuff myself.

I know, it's a fuggin rip off IMO.

It's really to bad more people don't do computer building as a side job, the average joe really gets it up the a** when people try to make a living off building computers.

 

[0roo0roo]

doesn't seem rational to choose a non branded unproven system builder who only charges a tiny bit less over a branded, polished, supported, system from falcon northwest.

 

[Dug]

jeez, what non-profit organizations do you guys work for?


Try seeing what the markup on everyday items like toothpaste are, and you'll see he's not making a lot.
Or better yet, try buying ANY customized item in any field and see how much it costs.

He's charging a more than fair price.

Even at that, most places will offer support if something is broken, but they aren't going to show you how to use it too.

 

[DanK414]

Ive done for family/friends most ive ever earned was $50 for hard labor. I say if you can get away w/ it more 2 you, but i think what ur getting is more than fair.

 

[justly]

In a capitalistic enviornment you sell it for as much as you can (shame on the buyer for not doing their job and price shopping). Then again I would laugh in your face if you gave me a price like that when I can get a Polywell 900VF system with the following for $2853.00

Motherboardoly 900VF Athlon64 MB w/1394,SATA-RAID,LAN,5.1A; Processor:AMD Athlon64 Processor 3400 (64bit-2.2GHz), 1M C; Memory: 2x DDR 400MHz 512MB PC3200 Memory Unbuffered; Chassislatinum 10Bay Aluminum MidTower w/420W Quiet PS; HardDrive:WD 200GB Ultra-100 IDE 7200RPM HD 8MB Cache; Additional HD: 2x WD SATA 36G 10K RPM Hard Drive 8M Cache; Floppy Drive:Silver 1.44MB Floppy Drive; Disk Controller:********* N O N E ***************; Drive Kit:********* N O N E ***************; I/O Device or Interfn-board 1394 Firewire Ports; Keyboard:Wireless Keyboard+Mouse (Silver PS2); Mice:********* N O N E ***************; CD/DVD:********* N O N E ***************; CDRW:52x32x52 EIDE Rewriteable CDRW Drive W/SW; DVD-R Rewriteable:Sony DVD+RW/-R DVD-RW/-R 4.7G CDRW OEM; Audio Sound:Sound Blaster Audigy2 6.1 Sound Card; Speaker:Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speaker W/Subwoofer; Video Editing (DV):********* N O N E ***************; Graphics:ATI Radeon 9800XT 8x 256mb DVI/Svideo/15Dshell; Video Camera:********* N O N E ***************; Monitor:********* N O N E ***************; Modem:Lucent 56K PCI V.92 Fax/Modem; Network Adaptern-Board 10/100Mbit Ethernet; Backup Device:********* N O N E ***************; Optional Software:*MS Office XP for Small Business Edition; Operating System:Windows XP Professional CD+License; Optional Support:1Yr IAI 24hr ThirdParty Tel Support; Custom Assemby:User Manual, Assembly, Packaging

EDIT: the smiley faces where not put there on purpose, they just happened to show up form the copied text.

 

[Stealth3R]

well definitely not charing too little when you make over 1000 bucks just to assembly a computer. I'd be damn if i could make 200 bucks for it lmao. i always built for free and no1 ever paid me a dime. they offer me meals and buy me foods and stuffs but other than that i didnt take the money

 

[Viper96720]

If I was paying $3500+ I would just buy a Voodoo.

 

[OverVolt]

Maybe if you could get us pics or something we might be able to make a better decision. But what about stuff like how long the warranty is, or will you teach them to use it or network it? What kind of case is that beast in? Watercooling? Are you going to clean off bloat from the OS? Will you include software on CD? (not burned copies )

Anyway from the info here now, i'd say its a fair price.

 

[Gerbil333]

I think you're charging too much. I'd charge about $500 profit for that system. $1100 is very steep.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: JediJorgie
Cripes I'm glad I can build this stuff myself.

you can they can't.

I feel comfortable with my prices. I raised my profit margins the higher the components went.

This is with legal, software, I usually do up a binder with all the cd's and system documentation, 1 yr parts AND labor warranty, I install it, and teach them how to use it. I configure all the software, it's literally ready for them to sit down with and start using.I setup email, activate windows and office and what ever else software needs it.

They come to me b/c they don't want to or can't do it themselves and what I do is worth it to them.

 

[RanDum72]

If the price is just to build a computer, then yes the price is a bit high. But then, you mentioned that you will provide support and probably spoon-feed them for a LONG time. In this case, the price is pretty reasonable or even cheap. Its like providing an on-site warranty/computer training class. If you factor in the amount of time you're going to spend with them plus associated costs (gas, etc...), you are actually not making a lot of money off it. Another strategy is to have them pay per incident that you have to go to their place to fix/train them. If you charge, say, $75/visit, you can actually make more money since you are probably going to make more than just a couple of visits per year.

 

[Grminalac]

An interesting question.
I do know that retailers like wal*mart need a 36% average markup on all items sold.
However the price of the computer is not always judged in markup, It would be rediculous to charge someone 2-3k extra in markup just because they wanted a 7k 40 inch LCD monitor. Computers are charged by how much time is spent configuring the system and the expertise of the builder, plus warranty. Systems from dell have the image quickly ghosted to the hard drive and for the most part the system is already tested and the bugs worked out. I'm assuming you have to do a manual install of the OS and Office software. You may find yourself stuck with a flaky piece of hardware or a little bug that takes you hours to figure out. Is that something you should charge a lot for, probably not.
Another item of note is that dell warrants the item directly if you buy a radeon 9800 and it breaks; dell will ship it next day and likely have someone at your house to install it. (assuming you bought that warranty) If you buy your parts from NewEgg would you be willing to get the part to them next day, install it and also eat the 15% restocking fee? Also are you giving them a 3 year warranty? It would suck to get that call 2 and a half years from now.

Why don't you do this. Get on rasputinj.com/or the hot deals section find the user a sweet deal on a DELL and then just charge them a consulting fee for the service. Plus charge them money for you going out and helping the user work on the system. Then hey if they have a technical problem you can just refer them to the dell site OR they can pay you 65 an hour to go out and fix it for them. (which means you call DELL for them )