SellGPU Offers Trade-Ins for Your Old Graphics Cards
John Williamson / 8 years ago
It’s been quite common over the years for hardware enthusiasts to sell their existing components and put the funds towards a wide range of upgrades. Usually, this involves selling the products on auction sites like eBay or accredited forums supporting a trust system. While many parts now have a longer lifespan due to small architectural advancements, graphics card performance expands at a blistering pace. Of course, selling the item online can be a nightmare if the buyer isn’t knowledgeable about graphics hardware and requests a return when they can’t get it to work or own an inadequate power supply. SellGPU is a fairly recent business venture which allows users to trade-in their unwanted graphics cards without any hassle. Thankfully, the trade-in process is incredibly easy and SellGPU provides an anti-static foam box and pre-paid shipping label. SellGPU’s founder and CEO Said Hafez described said:
“SellGPU is the first business of its kind to establish the re-commerce business model in the GPU industry,”
“We are giving individuals who need high-end graphics the power to safely and quickly sell their GPUs, making the upgrading process easier and more affordable.”
“SellGPU is attempting to do to the GPU industry what Gazelle, Inc. did to the smart phone market,”
“A market disruption from SellGPU could mean a lot of savings to gamers, and computer enthusiasts will now be able to further their ambitions in building the most up-to-date rigs.”
The success of this business and similar ideas used in other markets depends on pricing. If the end-user can acquire a much better price than SellGPU offers, then it’s not going to be very successful. This is certainly the case when it comes to selling hardware as PC gamers tend to do lots of research and find the best possible price. Granted, recycling firms appear to survive in the mobile handset market so there might be some validity to the business model. According to the press release, gamers upgrading to modern solutions have been receiving up to $92 for a GTX 960, up to $158 for a GTX 970 and up to $212 for the GTX 980. Personally, these prices aren’t great and there are people who require older graphics cards such as reviewers for articles. I wouldn’t recommend trading in anything of value unless the prices become more competitive. However, it might be useful to get rid of really old graphics cards which you can’t be bothered selling.
Do you think this is a good idea or offers poor value compared to online auctions?
If you’d like to know more, feel free to visit the SellGPU website.
