# Part Markup Percentage... Please help



## tshanks (Dec 21, 2006)

1. I am sorry if this isn't a good place to post this... But I do think that because my boss is a political *** and a ripoff genius... I figured I'd try here...

In a retail environment, what is the suggested markup for parts... i.e. like in a mom/pops computer store...

I currently work for a small computer store in the chicago land region, and my boss tells me that all parts are to be marked up at 1.67 because that is industry standard... That makes a router that costs $58, now retails at $96. Personally, I think he is full of **** when he tells us this, but I just wanted to get an idea what everyone else thinks... And yes, our parts comes from TechData, NewEgg, Best Buy, Comp USA, and other locations...

Not just routers, but everything, including hard drives, motherboards, memory, UPSs, LCD's, you name it...

Heck, he takes UPS's that he's gotten an advanced replacement thru the manufacturer, and then sold the UPSs and retail prices... I'm talking the 350 units you purchase for $39 in most stores, he sells between $69 and $129. Even if they have a remanufactured sticker on it, he takes it off and then sells the unit. He will even create fake invoices and then call up these manufacturers to get the items replaced.

So, yeah I think he's a crook, but it's a full-time paying job... I get $30K to be a technician... Unfortunately, we're out here in the far western burbs, and I don't want to travel into the city for a better paying job.

So, back to my main question, what is the standard markup for a small repair shop for parts???

Thanks
T


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

First off what he is doing is fraud. Secondly accessories have an extremely high markup on them. A cable that you might pay $40 dollars for at CompUSA when i was opened would have a cost of around $2. Computers typically have an 8% profit on them with other accessories falling within the range of the two extremes. I personally would not want to work for someone that has those scruples, but that is just me.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, in truth, what he's doing is perfectly legal and I see no evidence of fraud. If you have a business, you're free to charge pretty much whatever you like for an item. The consumer is also free to shop elsewhere if your prices are too high.

If you look around, you can find the exact item from on-line sources for a variety of prices, just check almost any device.

Here's a typical example, note that the prices are almost a 3:1 ratio from high to low. http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/17987372/sort_type=bottomline

All of this is perfectly legal, but you'd be a fool to buy that thing for $328.90, right?


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## Knotbored (Jun 5, 2004)

Lets see-you make about $30K plus the cost to provide you workspace taxes, heat, lighting etc so your cost is about $60K a year.
Lets see- that works out to $30 an hour or 50 cents a minute- how long did it take you to unpackage-put on the shelf, calculate the price and post the lable on a part? Now since not every part is sold every day-what is the cost to borrow money to store the unsold stuff?
Since the boss, his secretary and all the other folkjs also need to be paid I guess there should be some profit to get that cost from.

I would bet your boss makes a smaller percentage of profit then that cuppa java you bought this morning, or the parking lot you stored your car.
Plus he will need to pay for retraining the new person likely to replace the ungrateful tech help he presently has.


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

JohnWill said:


> Well, in truth, what he's doing is perfectly legal and I see no evidence of fraud. If you have a business, you're free to charge pretty much whatever you like for an item. The consumer is also free to shop elsewhere if your prices are too high.
> 
> If you look around, you can find the exact item from on-line sources for a variety of prices, just check almost any device.
> 
> ...


What is fraud, is repackaging remanfactured parts as new. He said he watched his boss take off the refurbished/remanufactured sticker and sell it as new. What part of that is not fraud?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, that's true, I guess I glossed over the part of repackaging parts.  You are certainly correct.


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