20 April 2010

Any local computer markets?

| Sam82
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Hi, I’m new to Canberra and was wondering if there was a swap meet for computer parts set up locally.

I’ve looked around at the stores and they all seem to be rather pricey. Is there anything where they sell individual parts, not whole computers, for cheap? Like a flea market kind of thing?

I’m on South Side but am more than happy to go to the North Side.

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I’m one of those people who builds and maintains computers for my family and friends and thus I visit the computer markets linked in the first post regularly. If you attend them frequently it won’t take you long too work out which stalls are the best. (There is also a competing computer market that comes to UCan less frequently, they have fewer stall holders and often slightly higher prices)

Hint: Avoid any stalls that don’t place price tags on their goods and require you to ask – if you float around the stall you’ll notice they quote different prices to different people which makes it difficult to haggle with other stalls.

In addition, I always attend with the MSY best price parts list printed from here:
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/msy.htm The fair prices fall pretty much within +- $10 of the msy prices – thus a good indicator of rip-off vs competitive stalls.

I’d agree that at times you can get cheaper prices from online resellers, but it is not consistent, and you’ve got to take postage into account.

Care to name any, harley?

The biggest trade off re: computer fairs is working out when to shop. You’ll find cheapest prices near the end of the fair (2:30pm usually) on opposite weekends to PS payday. But if you shop early on the day you have the benefit of being able to return to the fair to exchange faulty goods on the same day (rather than the next time they are at the fair). I am not implying that goods are often faulty at fairs, just that the peace of mind for people I build for is good.

screaming banshee8:39 pm 20 Apr 10

Can be worth your while to cash up before you go, some of the sellers have quite high eftpos fees.

Thoroughly Smashed4:30 pm 20 Apr 10

AussieRodney said :

Prices are competitive & haggling over a matter of a few dollars is normal.

Fixed it for you. Margins there are wafer thin and in my experience it’s usually not worth your time to even bother haggling over the commodity items.

harley said :

I’ve found the local prices at the markets to be 5% – 20% over that of online resellers. I’d rather order on a Monday and get it delivered than wait till an overpriced market shows up.

Computer fair? Overpriced? You must live near the Narrabunah area where all the meth lab fumes are giving you brain damage bro o_O

http://www.msy.com.au is usually the benchmark for the cheapest prices. The trade off apparently is low stock and poor customer service.

Also check out Principal computers in Fyshwick.

I’ve found the local prices at the markets to be 5% – 20% over that of online resellers. I’d rather order on a Monday and get it delivered than wait till an overpriced market shows up.

AussieRodney8:19 am 20 Apr 10

Check out the Computer Fairs, which cycle between the Woden CIT campus, the Old Bus Depot & EPIC. Not a swap meet, but you will definitely find people selling components. Prices are competitive & haggling is normal.

There are regular computer fairs in Canberra check here for the latest info

http://www.computermarkets.com/cm/

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