I need your opinions and/or advices

Msigaming

Hi people.
Im new to this forum and i did a bit of research about the thing i was thinking lately.. I moved to Ireland a month ago, and i am a pc entushiast and at some point im planning to open a pc shop/service and lots of other stuff in one shop. It would be all related to gaming,workstations,custom pcs in every possible way (custom water cooling etc),online shop and lots of other things in mind. Maybe i am on the wrong forum and if i am please excuse me for that. But this was the only place i could find about this sector. So i was checking the pc shops here (im currently in Cork city) and i found out that all the shops are pretty expensive and actually i cant understand why... So i would really like to give a try about that, but the main question thats on my mind is: is there a lot of people that you know that are gamers or enthusiasts here? Do you think people in Cork or any place in Ireland are crazy about gaming? Because in the country where i come from people are crazy about it and pc shop owners are having a really good time. So if you could just share your thougths about this i would be very thankfull.
Sorry for the long post and i hope my english is not too bad
Thank you in advance.
Cheers

K.O.Kiki

Ireland is the worst place to set up shop for boutique PCs; we don't have the warehouses/buying power to keep up with UK/mainland prices, and the vast majority of people want either cheap-as-chips laptops, or play on console.

Msigaming

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Ireland is the worst place to set up shop for boutique PCs; we don't have the warehouses/buying power to keep up with UK/mainland prices, and the vast majority of people want either cheap-as-chips laptops, or play on console.

Oh damn that doesn't sound too good.. Well anyway i want to see other opinions too but thank you so much for your reply.

Inviere

Another reason shops are so expensive is they've to pay stupidly high rent, rates, and insurance etc. It's very rare they can compete with the big guns like Amazon, Overclockers, etc

MADFI5H

i think the days of bricks and mortar shops for stuff like this is coming to an end, they cant compete with the like of amazon,
i think shops main customers in this sector are older generations that havnt got on the online bandwagon yet,
imo gamers would be one of the leaders in online store users

all that being said not every gamer can/wants to build there own pc and the options for reasonable pre-builds arnt as good, so id say its possible to for this to be successfull but risky

Tony H

It can be done , but I think you have to start small , there is a guy that started on adverts when he was still in school and he had great customer service and would go out of his way to help with any problems , now a few years later he had a pc maintenance / phone repair business here in Cork that seems to be doing well at the moment .

Digital Solitude

PC Maintenance and phone repair realistically isn't the same as selling custom built PCs. Much higher demand for fixes and repairs than for custom builds.

Msigaming

Ok thank you very much for all your replies and advices. So for the final conclussion, how many of you would say go for it or don't? (Just click thanks for yes) And more advices are welcome all the time.
Thanks

Digital Solitude

I think most of us would think there's no market for high end custom PCs, water cooling solutions etc. If you were to stick low end and do repairs etc it may work.

Tony H

I would go for it but only as an side part of a main business,
Being honest if I had a local shop where I had an option of someone else ordering the specs I wanted and building it for me I would have been prepared to pay an extra 150-200 ,
but most people that would buy a decent spec system would probably only do so every 3 years or so .

TerrorFirmer

I think aiming at high-end custom markets, like watercooling, is a even more obscure niche in Ireland that would not amount to much at all.

The only real viable market is a sort of hybrid setup, where you offer Gaming PC's at all price points both new and 2nd hand, as well as home desktops, laptops, repair service (very important), custom builds to order, components, etc.

But actually hinging it on high-end stuff would be doomed to failure.

farna_boy

Your other problem in Cork is that there is already PC Maestro on Princes Street that sells a lot of PC components aimed at gamers.

I picked up a keyboard in there a while ago and it was at a relatively competitive price.

I had a quick look there and some of their stuff would still be at a relatively competitive price so it might be a worth a call in to see their stuff and have a chat with the owner as he was a nice guy and seemed to have a fair idea what he was talking about.

Balmed Out

Why not start very small at home through adverts and see how you get on?
Most of the country seems well covered with people selling upgraded second hand pc's and workstations except the south especially Cork just from looking for a PC recently.

BloodBath

The harsh reality with a lot of good ideas and passion pursuits is Ireland is just to small a country for niche and boutique products for the most part. You can make money doing it. Just not a lot.

Custom gaming PC's are a niche within a niche really. Yes most people have some form of computers these days but it's usually laptop, tablet or phone. Most of us who are into the custom PC stuff build our own but there are plenty of newcomers who often want pre-built.

There is a market but you would be better off tapping into it though a business that mainly deals with laptops, phones and tablets. Then you can try and covert some of those users to the PC master race.

Have a shiny custom build in your shop to show off what PC's are capable of to anyone coming in for the usual stuff.

Sure you have access to the EU market as well but there's a lot of competition and you will soon realise that you can't compete in areas of customer service and returns and shipping costs will be a pain in the ass and your masterfully constructed PC will be in the hands of couriers and customs to feck up.