What other stuff should I carry

[wwwMEMORYnet]

I was thinking of expanding a little on gamers.memory.net. Maybe trying to find sources for Joysticks, mices and stuff like that. What stuff do you guys think would be apealing to gamers?

[TheFeniX]

The two most important/expensive pieces of hardware for a gaming machine is the RAM and video card. You already handle one of those. It really depends on who and what you are targeting.

Are you after the casual gamer or the hardcore gamer or both? Do you want to sell just accessories, or make it so you are the one stop shop for everything PC gaming related.

For a reference, I buy almost all my parts from two local OEM distributors in town. They have good prices, a nice selection, and the comfort of knowing that if they screw me I can drive 15 minutes and rip someones head off down there. I tend to stay away from specialty places and buy from a place that can offer me anything and everything for my PC, because I hate shopping around for different parts, then having to worry about 5 different places of something is DOA.

[wwwMEMORYnet]

I think everything for both types of gamers. Except PCs (might see if I can list some for LeeJo though)because as an online business the risk is high when selling something that valuable.

Video Cards is an awesome thing to carry though, thats one that should have smacked me in the face right away.

[CaveDog]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

I think everything for both types of gamers. Except PCs (might see if I can list some for LeeJo though)because as an online business the risk is high when selling something that valuable.

Video Cards is an awesome thing to carry though, thats one that should have smacked me in the face right away.

Is the mark-up for these items really high enough? I kinda thought that both memory and video cards were pretty cut-throat. Also seems to be LOTS of competition.

I would think that your average "casual" gamer wouldn't be that interested in buy, say, memory, as most people can't justify not just buying a new computer from Sam's or something like that. If you are targeting people that will crack their case, I would think you would want to sell most of the basics for building/upgrading the entire rig. That would mean to me: motherboards, video cards, CPUs, hard drives, etc. I also like vendors that offer combo packages: buy all your components and get a price break, type of thing.

With HDs, I imagine that it would be hard to be some of the current rebate offers that the big retail stores offer.

I would hesitate to buy just one thing from many vendors, I would often rather pay a bit more for one thing and get a decent average price from a single vendor. Less to worry about, and often shipping doesn't eat you're lunch as bad. Mostly more of a convienance thing.

[CaveDog]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

I think everything for both types of gamers. Except PCs (might see if I can list some for LeeJo though)because as an online business the risk is high when selling something that valuable.

Video Cards is an awesome thing to carry though, thats one that should have smacked me in the face right away.

Oh, and I will say that these things age terribly. A video card only carries a premium price for a very short time. This goes for CPUs as well. But, I'm sure you are already familliar with that, as I'm sure it comes into play with memory.

[Wintermute]

If you are targetting "case crackers", many of them will be into overclocking and modding. Stock water cooling kits, neons, fans, custom cases etc.

EDIT: just looked at memory.net for the first time. Why do you have to buy by brand name? It means you have to look at every single brand to compare prices. Where is the search by price and type?

[wwwMEMORYnet]

ok I think you guys are on the money with that.

I am going to start researching all the add ons a case cracker could want. And see if I can get sources for them. I put in an app with ATI today.

Any specific brands you would recomend I carry?

Also what are the hot one stop shops for gaming systems and upgrades?

[flux]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

Also what are the hot one stop shops for gaming systems and upgrades?

newegg

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

ok I think you guys are on the money with that.

I am going to start researching all the add ons a case cracker could want. And see if I can get sources for them. I put in an app with ATI today.

Any specific brands you would recomend I carry?

Also what are the hot one stop shops for gaming systems and upgrades?

NewEgg is a good example of a small shop that got real big, real fast by offering low prices and excellent customer service. I first started shopping there in 1999 and that company has a very loyal customer in me... I think that NewEgg got lucky, however. It operated with a very low margin and managed to slip into the www.pricewatch.com crowd early on. I'm sure that volume allowed them to continue to operate on such a small margin and that precarious balance, fortunately, lasted through the bankruptcy of so many other web businesses.

Another success story that you might look into is OCZ. I believe that they started out at an overclocking enthusiast (hobby) site and started selling modifications. Now they're a hot name in the memory business. I don't know that their memory is really any better than any other name brand memory, but they stick those neon pink spreaders on their sticks along with a fancy logo and people start buying them... OCZ found a niche market that grew quickly.

[TheFeniX]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

Any specific brands you would recomend I carry?

ASUS and ABit (in my experience) make some of the best hardware out there.

[wwwMEMORYnet]

Originally Posted by TheFeniX

ASUS and ABit (in my experience) make some of the best hardware out there.

Just applied with ASUS, I'll check out Abit today. Thanks for the input

[Emanon]

When I say I want to upgrade my PC 4 things come to mind that usually require all of them to be replaced at once to get the full potential out of each.

CPU
Motherboards
Graphics Cards
Memory


Alot of the other things people dont think about when upgrading, they only replace them when needed or broken, so i wouldn't recommend you carring these:

Towers
Powersupplies
Harddrives
cdroms

[wwwMEMORYnet]

We're thinking about games also... seems like a good idea right?


good call emanon.

[Emanon]

Originally Posted by wwwMEMORYnet

We're thinking about games also... seems like a good idea right?


good call emanon.

LOL here is a sales pitch.


Get HL2(or Doom) with all your needed hardware to run it like a champ. Only 600 bucks.

[wwwMEMORYnet]

exactly... something a long those lines, also buy HL2 and receive X% off hardware... I emailed Nova Logic but I am still looking at how to get to EA. Who does Ghost Recon and other games I should sell? (I'll be looking all day but any suggestions are appreciated)