Solved! Television Repair and Resale Side Business?

[Hexa Fox]

Hey guys,

I was hoping someone could tell me if this makes a good side business? Specifically, I see a lot of modern televisions with large price tags being sold everywhere for a little bit of nothing. For instance, I am looking at one now that is 52" and looks brand new. The seller wants $60.00 for it and says it just would not turn on one day. He said he thinks it is the power supply. I know from experience a lot of these Samsung's have two boards and more than likely it is the main board and not the power supply board. Rather the main board is just as big of a culprit, either way if either of these are the major problem it will not be too expensive to replace.

However, that is beyond the point. He said I am welcome to inspect the screen for cracks or any other damage. This is just one example of what you can find and sure a lot of you know this. I have a little extra time on my hands and space on my workbench. So is it plausible to purchase some of these televisions and troubleshoot them, repair them and resale them to start with? I would even love to consider starting a business like this.

I have considered doing several things like replacing iPhone batteries, cracked phone screens and the like. However, the televisions seem like they may be easier right off the bat and would probably sell pretty well if you were reasonable with the price. Correct me if I am wrong but most of these televisions can be repaired with some straight forward troubleshooting as long as there is not a larger issue, such as a cracked screen? I have a little experience soldering and was thinking this would be an excellent opportunity to get more experience. I know a lot of these televisions warp capacitors that can easily be soldered off and replaced. Thoughts?

 

[Wolfshadw]

First issue I think of when starting a tech/device business is the warranty. You're not likely to sell anything without some sort of warranty and even if you offer the standard 90 warranty, If you mis-diagnose the original issue, any profits you made on the sale are gone as well as (probably) some of your own cash.

The second issue I see is people just wanting to dump their old/non-working hardware, rather that paying the recycle fee. Check you local area to see what the cost of recycling displays is. Before you purchase it or accept it as a repair, you will need to charge a deposit fee (slightly higher) to cover the cost of the recycling in case people just want to dump the hardware. This will likely turn most people away.

In my locality, Best Buy offers recycling services for $25, but offers a $25 Best Buy gift card in exchange. My local county will recycle screens of any size for $10 ea.

If you just want to do this for the experience, go for it. If you're looking to start making extra money right away, I'd probably say no.

-Wolf sends

 

[Hexa Fox]

First issue I think of when starting a tech/device business is the warranty. You're not likely to sell anything without some sort of warranty and even if you offer the standard 90 warranty, If you mis-diagnose the original issue, any profits you made on the sale are gone as well as (probably) some of your own cash.

The second issue I see is people just wanting to dump their old/non-working hardware, rather that paying the recycle fee. Check you local area to see what the cost of recycling displays is. Before you purchase it or accept it as a repair, you will need to charge a deposit fee (slightly higher) to cover the cost of the recycling in case people just want to dump the hardware. This will likely turn most people away.

In my locality, Best Buy offers recycling services for $25, but offers a $25 Best Buy gift card in exchange. My local county will recycle screens of any size for $10 ea.

If you just want to do this for the experience, go for it. If you're looking to start making extra money right away, I'd probably say no.

-Wolf sends

Good sound advice. From what I have been reading it is difficult to fully diagnose many displays until it is much too late. As in you get it and figure out it has a much bigger problem, like a cracked LCD or something that would easily exceed the cost of the entire unit.

 

[COLGeek]

For consideration, the better business model might be parting out working components of TVs and selling those (as is) to folks trying to repair TVs. You would then need to recycle the remaining bits, though.

 

[hang-the-9]

Hey guys,

I was hoping someone could tell me if this makes a good side business? Specifically, I see a lot of modern televisions with large price tags being sold everywhere for a little bit of nothing. For instance, I am looking at one now that is 52" and looks brand new. The seller wants $60.00 for it and says it just would not turn on one day. He said he thinks it is the power supply. I know from experience a lot of these Samsung's have two boards and more than likely it is the main board and not the power supply board. Rather the main board is just as big of a culprit, either way if either of these are the major problem it will not be too expensive to replace.

However, that is beyond the point. He said I am welcome to inspect the screen for cracks or any other damage. This is just one example of what you can find and sure a lot of you know this. I have a little extra time on my hands and space on my workbench. So is it plausible to purchase some of these televisions and troubleshoot them, repair them and resale them to start with? I would even love to consider starting a business like this.

I have considered doing several things like replacing iPhone batteries, cracked phone screens and the like. However, the televisions seem like they may be easier right off the bat and would probably sell pretty well if you were reasonable with the price. Correct me if I am wrong but most of these televisions can be repaired with some straight forward troubleshooting as long as there is not a larger issue, such as a cracked screen? I have a little experience soldering and was thinking this would be an excellent opportunity to get more experience. I know a lot of these televisions warp capacitors that can easily be soldered off and replaced. Thoughts?

For TV repair to be worth doing the cost has to be less than just replacing the TV with a new or used working one. Say you buy the TV for $60, how much is the board to fix it? How much are you charging for your time? Take that and see how cheap just a replacement TV is. Plus what happens if you buy the parts and it does not fix the issue? If you want to play around with things, sure, but I would not expect it to be a great return on the time and money spent fixing things unless you get customers that are not savvy enough to know when to just replace the thing and how to buy a used working set.