Value of my mod?

[tybrenis]

Hey guys,

Its starting to look like it's time for a new computer for me. I want to get a new compy soon but it looks like I'll have to sell my cirque du soleil mod for the cash.

You guys can check it out here:

http://mypcrig.com/rig/117/1

It's not a great computer, but I figure with the right person the case could increase the value. I'm thinking about eBaying it or something. Here are the specs:

- Pentium 4 Prescott - 3.00 gHz
- 1 GB of RAM
- 2x 120GB hard drive, 7200 RPM
- Sound Blaster Live! Sound Card
- ATI All In Wonder 9700, AGP, OR most likely GEForce 5200 FX Twin, PCI
^^Jdbnsn gave my the ATI and I think I'll keep it, it's a great card for me. Plus, I don't sell gifts.
- Gigabyte GA-8IPE77 mobo
- DVD-RW and CD-R burner

Mods and Cooling
- ThermalTake Aquarius III external liquid cooling system w/ copper CPU waterblock
- Cirque du Soleil Case
- Custom Yellow UV Sleeved Cables
- Logisys 550 watt PSU with modded red fans

So, what do you guys think I could pull for this? I want a realistc number. Thanks a ton everyone, this is very important to me. The cash from this sale will be funding a future mod, this time done with a full woodshop...

[Mitternacht]

If I were new to computers, and thought that that was the coolest case ever, and water cooling since its different, I'd pay $800-1000 for it.

[Zephik]

Yep, I would say $800 would be the minimum for how much I would personally pay for it.

What I do sometimes to figure out how much something is worth is I take how much the current retail value is and then take 1/3rd of that and that is what I would list it for.

[tybrenis]

Thanks guys. Keep the estimates coming. If I were to list this on eBay, do you think a $750.00 reserve would be a good place?

UPDATE: What if I added in the 15" monitor that I painted? It's in perfect condition, no dead pixels, flawless. I think 800 might be a bit high, other, similar computers sell for a lot less on eBay.

[Ironcat]

I absolutely LOVE your work and please please don't be offended... but... realistically, even with all you've done I wouldn't pay more than 500 dollars for it.

As a mod it is outstanding and amazing but people want the whole setup and after all the bells and whistles they are really just going to want a computer.
They can't bring it around to show their friends and say they created it to anyone that knows them and so it's going to sit in a bedroom somewhere.
You're going to have to find that 1 in a million guy who wants his computer to be just like that and is willing to pay whatever to do it.

There is no price you can put on your creativity or imagination or the hard work and dreams that went in to your mod, but there is a price for a P4 Prescott or a Sound Blaster Live and that's what people are going to be looking at.

Even if they've never picked up a Dremel in their life they are going to tell themselves "It's nice but I can buy a better computer and put some LEDs and it will be just as good."

As I said, this is just my opinion, put it out there with a reserve and I hope I am wrong, if not you can always reprice later. Good luck.

[jdbnsn]

I am no good at estimating value, I have a proven track record of being way off so I won't even try. But if you need to sell that card with it to get a better price go for it. Your new rig will not likely use AGP anyway, call it my contribution to your new system.

[tybrenis]

Thanks Ironcat, thats exactly what I was thinking. Jon, I'd rather keep this card for other systems etc. I'm only replacing my main system, I still have the CNC machine and a few more.

[Crimson Sky]

You can't value an artistic mod by the worth of the stupid components inside. anything under $3,500 is giving it away. It's all about perceived value (http://faculty.msb.edu/homak/HomaHelpSite/WebHelp/Relative_Perceived_Value.htm). Diamonds are not rare, yet they have a high value because of marketing.

Like my father told me all the time, "there is an ass for every seat"

Find some Cirq Du Soleil nut on Ebay who has money and they'll pay three times what i quoted, and think they got it cheap. Ironcat has no idea what he's talking about.

[tybrenis]

Thanks, Paul!!!

That means a lot to me. If only I could find the right person. I think that if I list this mod properly, perhaps I'll find the right person. If not, I suppose thats what reserves are for. It's going to be very hard for me to let this go, but a computer is just something that I need. With my parents divorced now, I'll be needing a laptop if I want to stay sane.

[xRyokenx]

Take a mod in the same view as say, the Mona Lisa, it's art, not hardware. If you sold a painting based off the materials used to make it, it's just wrong. A mod is more than a PC. I wouldn't pay much for a PC but for custom work, I'll give you your money's worth. Take Crimson's advice, mine is more or less adding to his and providing an analogy, like I seem to be good at doing. Good luck with selling it tybrenis, hope you get your money's worth, and a good replacement.

[Crimson Sky]

If you are hell bent on selling it, then make a whizz bang fantastic ebay page geared towards CdS collectibles. It's one of a kind, market it that way.

[tybrenis]

Thanks guys. Paul, can I quote you on that in the auction? I would love for this to go to another Cirque du Soleil fan such as my self. It would be a shame for this case to go to someone unappreciative of such a work of art with over 100 hours of work into it.

[tybrenis]

Here's what I have so far, what do you think, Paul?

Greetings!

For sale today is the pride and joy of my office, my custom modded Cirque du Soleil themed computer. This computer case and monitor alone have over 100 hours of my work put into them. This is a one of the kind computer and this auction is your only opportunity to own such a piece of artwork. The great Paul Capello, known as Crimson Sky, perhaps the greatest and most famous modder in the world, has commented on this case. Capello says that “anything under $3,500 is giving it away.”

Here are some of the many mods and customized aspects of this beautiful piece of art:
- Completely custom yellow acrylic case
- Clear Logisys 550 watt power supply with custom modded yellow LED fans
- Custom cut vinyl graphics applied to case
- Four (4) red cold cathodes installed, 2x 12”, 2x 4”
- Custom white acrylic motherboard and cable covers
- Computer is started and turned off by the turn of a key
- Custom airbrushed 15” LCD monitor
- All cables have been sleeved with yellow, UV reactive loom

Not only is this computer a beautiful work of art, but it is also a fully functioning computer. This computer sports the following:

- Pentium 4 3.00 Ghz processor with hyper threading technology, easily overclocked to 3.4 Ghz.
- Gigabyte 8IPE-77 motherboard
- One (1) GB of RAM
- Nvidia GeForce 5200 FX video card with dual monitor capability
- ATI all-in-wonder 9700 card
- Sound Blaster 5.1 audio card
- CD-R/DVD-RW burner
- Viewsonic 15” LCD monitor, custom airbrushed to match case, in perfect condition w/ no dead pixels etc.

Also included with this computer is a Thermaltake Aquarius III external liquid cooling system! That’s right, this beast is liquid cooled. The Aquarius system is a top-of-the-line system that offers variable speed control, silent fan speeds, a clear reservoir that allows you to check the water level, and digital temperature monitors to let you know how hot your CPU is, the precise temperate of the water, and much, much more!

Once again, don’t miss out at the opportunity to own this piece of art for yourself. I would love for this computer to go to the right person, someone whom appreciates this piece.

[Spawn-Inc]

i wouldn't call it a beast but other than that it looks good. i would guestimate 1000-1500 from a fan/collector of cds stuff

[Crimson Sky]

Lol sure you can drop the name if you want. Make an image with the mod in the center, and some stock pics of CdS all around it. If you need help with that let me know.

[tybrenis]

Good idea, Paul. I'll do that now, actually.

[Ironcat]

Ironcat has no idea what he's talking about.

Ironcat has EVERY idea what he is talking about. Just because you don't agree with me doesn't make either of us wrong...

I said find that 'one guy' and you said 'every ass has a seat'. It's the same thing. I even said this was just my opinion, etc, etc...

I agree that you can't value it by the components but that's exactly what people are going to do... UNLESS you find that special buyer.

Maybe try posting it for sale on a website(other than just ebay), and then googling it 500 times so people see it when they look up mods, computers, etc.
See if you can post it on other modding sites (I won't list any because I only love this one) and get some people interested in it all over again...

[Crimson Sky]

Ironcat has EVERY idea what he is talking about.


On this matter, I respectfully disagree.

In Fact, Tybrenis, you should now raise it to $5,323.00.

You've put 100 hours of work into it. Even a high end shoe salesperson gets at least 12-$18.00 per hour with commission.

[Eclecticos]

I don't know about yall but my mod is priceless. .May not be worth a dollar on the street :D, but
. . my great, great grand kids are gonna see my mods.

Looks like its right at home with the paint scheme you got going on in your house. If i were you I'd sell the house with the computer right where it sits.
Then you would really get some good money out of it.

If i had to make a estimated value I'd say $1,895 easy.
I wouldn't let it go for less than a Grand for sure.

[Crimson Sky]

Ty, Don't even let people smell it for $1,895.00.

[Zephik]

Just an idea. Since your aiming your mod towards people like yourself, why not ask yourself what you would pay for it? Put yourself in their shoes so to say.

Thinking about it now, I'll revise my estimate.

Being a Cirque du Soleil nut... $1000 -/+
Time put into it... $12/h = $1200 -/+
Hardware value... $750 -/+
Total = $2950 -/+

Just in case you didn't know what I was doing up there, the "-/+" stands for "give or take".

By the way, I don't know your hardware value currently or how much you spent originally, but thats a rough guesstimation with the monitor, keyboard and whatever else that goes along with the mod included.

My previous estimate was going off of strictly hardware value. Which would be very dumb of you to do. Whoever buys your mod, won't be buying it because its a computer. They'll be buying it because its a Cirque du Soleil mod. It's being a computer is the added bonus, not the other way around.

On a side note, I finally spelt Cirque du Soleil right without googling it first! :D lol

Good luck Tybrenis! Whether we agree with whoever or not, we are all CHEERING for you!

.......
Nope CHEERING isn't in the aussie slang dictionary (http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html). ;)

[Bucko]

we are all rooting for you!

I'm not as I don't have a girlfriend. Going solo doesn't count.
Oh, that's right, rooting means something completely different State side to what it means down under....:p

[xRyokenx]

Yeah... not the Aussie alternative, it means in the US that we are cheering you on... lol. Aren't slang terms fun?

[Crimson Sky]

Just an idea. Since your aiming your mod towards people like yourself, why not ask yourself what you would pay for it? Put yourself in their shoes so to say.


Put yourself in the shoes of a CdS fan that is very, very rich.

If you don't think like a starving artist, you will never go hungry.

[AJ@PR]

I'm really 100% with Crimson's posts on this.


It's human phsycology, and business wits.

If you offer it for $3,000... somebody will probably buy it.
And haggle for the price.

Sell it at 12k quids, and a CdSoleil nut will love it.

Hey, if they don't want to pay that price for it, don't sell it, IMHO.

I think you're selling your art work.
The hardware... wtf. You change it if need be.


If you don't think like a starving artist, you will never go hungry.

Wow. I like that quote!
It can be transposed to so many things... nice!

[Crimson Sky]

Wow. I like that quote!
It can be transposed to so many things... nice!

Not sure if I just made it up or I heard it somewhere :?

[tybrenis]

Thanks everyone - thats a great quote, Crimson. Today I unhooked the water cooling system, stripped her down and set up a sheet as a backdrop and took some pictures. I'm backing up all my files now, it looks like I'll probably be in the market for a new Dell laptop.

[Zephik]

Thanks everyone - thats a great quote, Crimson. Today I unhooked the water cooling system, stripped her down and set up a sheet as a backdrop and took some pictures. I'm backing up all my files now, it looks like I'll probably be in the market for a new Dell laptop.

Dell XPS M1210 (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1210?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19)?

Seems like a good price/performance ratio. I have a Inspiron 9200, I love it except the processor and ram isn't as good as I would like it to be, not that the performance sucks, it doesn't. Its running a Pentium M 1.6GHz and 512MB ram. heh, I remember when this baby was in the grand price range. Seems silly now compared to that XPS. ><

[tybrenis]

Thanks everyone.

This is a really sad moment, indeed. I put these components together as a young 13 year old. This computer has over a hundred hours of my time into it, and now it's up for sale on eBay. I set the price high for my expectations, at least high enough to buy me a new computer. Don't worry - I'll mod again, I hope.

Anyways, I'm not really much of an emotional person, and I don't really cry. I didn't cry when my two friends died, or my neighbor, or when my parents got divorced etc. But listing this computer almost brought up tears from me.

Here it is for all that may want to follow.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330136959718

[The Black Pumpkin]

I'm watching. :)

(steel.gourd.systems)

[Bucko]

Hey Ty, just checking out the link and none of the pictures linked from your site are working.

Congrats on the first bidder though.

[tybrenis]

Thanks Bucko. Those douchebags.

Seriously, my host is messed up. The support is horrible. Earlier in the year they lost my entire website. As compensation, I was promised a year of free service. Nothing. I emailed them a week before I was due to pay. Nothing. They invoiced me, I emailed them back. Nothing. They charged me and I declined payment and sent them another email. Nothing. Whatever - I just paid the dues to hopefully get my site back up.

[jdbnsn]

Good luck with the auction Ty! Since you are including the ATI All-in Wonder, you should mention the wireless remote and the fact that it works as a media center. Might boost the bids some.

[tybrenis]

Oops! You're right, Jon! I meant to take that out before I listed it. It's all ready been bidded on, so I can't really change it now, I suppose. I guess I'll just send it with it - I added on what you mentioned.

[Airbozo]

Thanks Bucko. Those douchebags.

Seriously, my host is messed up. The support is horrible. Earlier in the year they lost my entire website. As compensation, I was promised a year of free service. Nothing. I emailed them a week before I was due to pay. Nothing. They invoiced me, I emailed them back. Nothing. They charged me and I declined payment and sent them another email. Nothing. Whatever - I just paid the dues to hopefully get my site back up.

...bluehost.com...

FWIW; never had an issue except a slow mail server, they fixed it asap after I sent an email.