Feedback Selling Shell Swapped Controllers?

[ButtonMarkedErase]

I've been thinking this over the past month or so, but do y'all think people would buy shell swapped joy cons and pro controllers for a premium, say $20-$40 more? I kinda had fun shell swapping my joy cons and think that if I get a bunch of parts and buy broken ones I could sell them for that price or even match Nintendo's pricing... That is if others would be interested in buying them. What do y'all think?

 

[Youngsie]

I think it's an interesting idea. Something to keep in mind when considering a service like this is the cost in the event that a controller was broken in the process. With small profit margins, it's possible to wipe out all profit with a single event.

My brother used to buy broken Xboxes, refurbish them and sell them. The problem being he was an enthusiast and not an actual repair shop and despite only selling to friends at discounts eventually one or two of them broke again and they came demanding their money back he eventually found that it wasn't worth his time or bad blood between his customers.

That isn't to say this would be your experience of course.

 

[ButtonMarkedErase]

I think it's an interesting idea. Something to keep in mind when considering a service like this is the cost in the event that a controller was broken in the process. With small profit margins, it's possible to wipe out all profit with a single event.

My brother used to buy broken Xboxes, refurbish them and sell them. The problem being he was an enthusiast and not an actual repair shop and despite only selling to friends at discounts eventually one or two of them broke again and they came demanding their money back he eventually found that it wasn't worth his time or bad blood between his customers.

That isn't to say this would be your experience of course.

Thank you for mentioning that, I've been doing some math with current eBay listings for broken joy cons and I didn't really think about buying spare parts in the even that I break something, only thing I was considering were new joysticks as that's usually the failing part of joy cons. Might need to invest in rails and maybe some batteries as well (ofc also other components too like ir, rumble, etc...)

If I only bought the joysticks though I'd have to sell them at $88 to break even. So I'm gonna take a shot that if I bought some other parts that might be prone to breaking I might be at like $90-$100 to break even with that, which isn't too bad I think.

 

[Youngsie]

The other cost to consider is your labour.

I've done a bunch of tech support freelancing for friends and family in my time and I've often undervalued myself because it is something I enjoyed doing at the time to later regret It when everybody began swarming to me for help.

I'm currently swamped with university work and have come to value my time more than anything.

 

[Hayato213]

Don't forget that if you make more than $600 on ebay you have to report that as income.

 

[ButtonMarkedErase]

The other cost to consider is your labour.

I've done a bunch of tech support freelancing for friends and family in my time and I've often undervalued myself because it is something I enjoyed doing at the time to later regret It when everybody began swarming to me for help.

I'm currently swamped with university work and have come to value my time more than anything.

This is going to sound a bit sad, but I currently don't do anything when I'm not at work and I only work part-time right now, so cost of labor isn't really a thing for me as I have all the time for labor haha

Don't forget that if you make more than $600 on ebay you have to report that as income.

I didn't know about that, guess I'll sell it in back allies then!

Just kidding, but eBay is more of a testing grounds to see if someone will buy it. If all goes well and I end up wanting to do this in the long term then I'll setup my own site to sell these ^^

 

[Hayato213]

Just kidding, but eBay is more of a testing grounds to see if someone will buy it. If all goes well and I end up wanting to do this in the long term then I'll setup my own site to sell these ^^

I don't even know if it is profitable, keep in mind you are reporting in the 1099-k the sale amount price not the difference in the amount you make after the sale.

 

[Youngsie]

This is going to sound a bit sad, but I currently don't do anything when I'm not at work and I only work part-time right now, so cost of labor isn't really a thing for me as I have all the time for labor haha


I didn't know about that, guess I'll sell it in back allies then!

Just kidding, but eBay is more of a testing grounds to see if someone will buy it. If all goes well and I end up wanting to do this in the long term then I'll setup my own site to sell these ^^

I don't think it's sad.

I currently don't work I just do uni work and play games so no judgement here.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I think it's an interesting idea. Something to keep in mind when considering a service like this is the cost in the event that a controller was broken in the process. With small profit margins, it's possible to wipe out all profit with a single event.

My brother used to buy broken Xboxes, refurbish them and sell them. The problem being he was an enthusiast and not an actual repair shop and despite only selling to friends at discounts eventually one or two of them broke again and they came demanding their money back he eventually found that it wasn't worth his time or bad blood between his customers.

That isn't to say this would be your experience of course.

His mistake was selling to friends/family. Friends/family (who are not techies themselves) will blame you for anything that goes wrong even if it happens long after. If you were an actual repair shop providing services to customers, you would have a limited warranty (say a month or a few months or even a year) and anything happening after that would not be your responsibility.
Of course it wouldn't stop people from leaving bad ratings so you would still need to do a good job so that the bad ratings wouldn't pile up from devices constantly breaking. Half assed fixes that aren't likely to last would be a bad idea.
A small number of devices breaking again after they have been fixed isn't unusual and might not have anything to do with the original issue or the repair that was done.

 

[Youngsie]

His mistake was only selling to friends/family. Friends/family (who are not techies themselves) will blame you for anything that goes wrong even if it happens long after. If you were an actual repair shop providing services to customers, you would have a limited warranty (say a month or a few months or even a year) and anything happening after that would not be your responsibility.
Of course it wouldn't stop people from leaving bad ratings so you would still need to do a good job so that the bad ratings wouldn't pile up from devices constantly breaking. Half assed fixes that aren't likely to last would be a bad idea.
A small number of devices breaking again after they have been fixed isn't unusual and might not have anything to do with the original issue or the repair that was done.

It was in such a small volume that selling on a wider scale wouldn't have been viable and was done as a hobby but in general I agree with you.

I've become jaded over the years and now refuse to deal with family as they make the worst customers.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've been thinking this over the past month or so, but do y'all think people would buy shell swapped joy cons and pro controllers for a premium, say $20-$40 more? I kinda had fun shell swapping my joy cons and think that if I get a bunch of parts and buy broken ones I could sell them for that price or even match Nintendo's pricing... That is if others would be interested in buying them. What do y'all think?

Maybe. What you'd be doing is selling refurbished controllers. I don't think anybody is going to want to pay the same or more for a refurbished controller if they could buy a brand new one. Doesn't matter that the shell is brand new, it's not an original part and may not be the same quality, battery may be worn, shoulder buttons (which are not included with replacement shells) might be visibly worn, used sticks, even if working fine, will not last as long as brand new sticks, and for that matter, 3rd party stick replacements probably won't last as long as original sticks either (unless you buy hall effect sticks but that will eat into your profit margins)

You may be able to make a small profit if you buy new controllers and swap to GuliKit hall effect sticks and optionally do a shell swap. You can sell the controllers as new (other) since all the parts are new and price it at a premium with the promise of no stick drift.
And you will be able to recoup some cost by reselling the brand new original sticks and shells you end up with as a result of the swaps. Nobody is really selling original parts and many would buy them over some no name Chinese brand.
Buying broken or worn JoyCons makes it a refurbish and people are going to want to pay less and you won't be able to charge a premium.

If you want to fix up broken/used JoyCons and sell as refurbished, then you will have to get them cheap in order to sell at a reasonable price and still keep your profit margins good. Buying promising bulk lots and watching eBay for listings going below the average price, that sort of thing. The price can vary a lot.

 

[ButtonMarkedErase]

I just bought a pair of joy cons and everything to resell is for just under the msrp of a pair. Did some math and I'd have to list it for $98 to break even. I'll post it for $110 and see what happens. Gonna be about a week til I get those used ones.

I also didn't mention it but I did already do this as a test with brand new joycons (only cause I'm a bit skeptical fixing used controllers in case I can't fix something) and those are listed as well. It's significantly higher than the price I wanna list these used ones.