VOGONS


First post, by mkjudo101

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the forums, so go easy on me. 😀

I'm doing a project for my college class, and my project concerns new business ideas. Me and my group decided on an online vintage electronics resale site. I know our direct competition would be with ebay and such, but I wanted to get input from a community on whether something like this would be feasible. We'd focus on making sure we had repeat customers, and we'd try our hardest to diversify our product.

Would this have any place today?

Responses wanted, badly.

Reply 1 of 5, by swaaye

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I've moved this thread over to the Milliways forum.

Reply 2 of 5, by cyclone3d

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

There are sites like this already that have been around for a while so I would say it would be feasible.

https://classiccomputershop.eu/

http://www.legacycomputersnparts.com/catalog/

https://www.sellmyretro.com/category/all-categories

https://www.recycledgoods.com/ - techincally not vintage only, but they always have a lot of retro/vintage hardware.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 3 of 5, by mkjudo101

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
cyclone3d wrote:
There are sites like this already that have been around for a while so I would say it would be feasible. […]
Show full quote

There are sites like this already that have been around for a while so I would say it would be feasible.

https://classiccomputershop.eu/

http://www.legacycomputersnparts.com/catalog/

https://www.sellmyretro.com/category/all-categories

https://www.recycledgoods.com/ - techincally not vintage only, but they always have a lot of retro/vintage hardware.

Oh wow! Thanks bunches!

Reply 4 of 5, by SpectriaForce

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

You can start an 'online vintage electronics resale site', but as you may have already figured out is that most (small) businesses focus on a specific category, for example vintage audio equipment, vintage computers, vintage console games, obsolete test and measure equipment etc. I am active in my professional hobby/business for well over a decade now. I can say that it's not easy to make enough money (from scratch, how I started), but it's one of my passions. The trade of old electronics is also full of 'pitfalls'. You'll need to know exactly what you can easily sell and what may need (costly) repairs or where you shouldn't want to burn your hands on. Over time you get experience and start to learn the tricks of the trade. You'll also need to go into lots of technical and some legal matter.

By the way, eBay is not your competitor, because they are in the business of earning fees with online market places, not in the one of trading old electronics. eBay attracts both private and commercial electronics sellers, some of them also have websites.

What do you mean with 'diversify our product'? To paint it and glue some diamonds on it to make it sell or what? 😊

Reply 5 of 5, by tayyare

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I think a specialized "ebaylike" service would be more chance of getting of. Focusing on not buying and selling vintage electronics, but being a platform that happens to be a place for people who wants to buy and sell vintage electronics.

Look at this one below:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/main.page

It is for another hobby, Lego, but might give you some ideas. It started around 2001 as an obscure web site in which a handful of Lego fans buying and selling their items. What it had become today is awe inspiring.

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000