Aliens

Status
Not open for further replies.
Go to garage sales. (aka "Yard Sales", sometimes) LOTS of them.

Thats what I do. Every Saturday, and sometimes Thursday and Friday if I have no school.

You probably wont find jack crap the first week or two, but eventually you'll find something you can sell on ebay for a 40-50 dollar profit. I make ALL my money like that (14 bucks allowance every month gets me started hahahahaha....)

I bought a Shizload of memory for 15 bucks. sold 80% of it at one time, for 480 bucks. Got an old 486 laptop, sold it for 100 square. I own and use a 266mhz laptop that i got for a buck with no accesories but battery and floppy - a CDROM and new base unit later, and I have a nice (slow...) laptop. I usually keep my eye out for copies of Windows (even a floppy win95 copy, in good condition can get you 50 bucks) and especially MS Office.
People sell things and they dont know what the price should be, so they mark it low. Win98se Upgrade, no box, bought for 5 sold for 60. I got my copy of Windows 2000 that I keep for a dollar. (OEM) I got a Dell XPS 650 (the one i'm using right now) for 2 dollars. (no drives, or PSU) I got the case on my good rig for the same price. 24x lite on black drive - $7.50.

Although ive made a LOT of money doing this, I cant spend it all. A bunch of it went into my car/college account.
Plus, the chances of you getting a good deal are pretty low. I've went to thousands of garage sales in my life, and all that stuff was in the past year or two.

You might try it. Go to sales listed in your local newspaper, and especially ones that list computers or electronics of any sort.

Good luck.
 
Age doesn't have anything to do with it but you gotta realize there are a lot of veterans out there and when I was 14 I sure as hell didn't have a $2500 dollar computer and yeah.....I was also ahead of the class as intellect goes..I think most people here are otherwise we wouldn't be compouter nerds in the first place. My first computer was a $1500 63MHz 8mb of ram Macintosh.........

I doubt the work you say you do in school no matter how hard you think you work...at 14......no work justifies getting a $2500 computer when you could do fine with a much cheaper home built computer. Basically it comes down to the simple fact you seem spoiled with a $2500 alienware style computer =/ Hate to put it in words like that, but really as a parent (I'm NOT a parent I'm just speaking hypothetically) I wouldn't give my kid that kind of computer. There's nothing that you're doing right now computer related that would justify needing that much power.

Unless you're the next major 3D artist and you work in Maya and lightwave or softimage or 3D Studio max and photoshop all the time and are creating mind boggling works of art......otherwise if you're just gaming then honestly I'd say you dont deserve it....but then again its year of surpressed jealousy of other little rich bastards getting better stuff than me :p

In all honesty.....kids are getting more spoiled and lazy every generation. My generation included. If I were your parent I'd simply deny you the chance to get that computer and tell you 'If you want something like that you gotta wait until your old enough to handle credit and payments in the real world'. If you REALLY want a good computer..then do like everyone else said..find a job...mow lawns...rub feet....whore yourself out.. :p earn your computer

EDIT:
I do a lot of hard work in school and i dont want to brag but i am probably smarter than some of the adults in my school. I think id deserve a good computer.

........you're in what...8th grade?....yeah.......what kind of 'hard work' exactly are you doing....cause if its just keeping grades up then that should be expected......maybe if you go out to childrens hospitals and old folks home and volunteer all your time then I'd say 'Son youve been unselfish and a good person...but you still aint getting $2500 computer'

I kept my grades up...graduated with extra credits and two open periods in highscool....I didn't get sh!t...nor did I complain and say 'Hey I worked hard in getting those two extra periods and extra credits I deserve a car!' cause life just doesnt work out that way. I flew to texas to drive my grandmother back to california so we could move her out here...I didn't get anything for that...I'm helping my dads online business to try and gain more income...but so far we can only get about $1000 or so in the pocket per month and I gotta deal with it. And I'm willing to bet I work harder designing and maintaining a business webpage and learning SEO Techniques than you as a 14 year old in school :rolleyes:
 
Ok i didnt mean for this to turn out this way but here goes.

I never said i wanted one i said i dreamt of getting one and if i could pay the 65 a month i could probably do that in a couple of months. I am in the process of building my own one but i have seen an alienware and they are hot as hell. But like i said i asked my dad and he said no and i had to wait another 2 weeks to get my parts. I meant that since i am hard working and if we were rich then i would see myself with an alienware. I hope none of u are offended though cuz i didnt even think this topic would even get more than one reply.
 
I was in your position a few years ago too. I am 17, almost 18 now. I went an applied for many jobs, Dairy Queen, Grocery Stores ect.. Lol, and the employers told me that I was to young to hire because they didn't want to have to work around the labor laws (Its usually worse here in Utah). So I saved up my money for six months, while I also worked for my parents, which wasn't getting me much. I think I saved up like $400 and then I used what all I would have gotten from christmas and my birthday and bought a new machine I think it was a P4 1.6Ghz. I also bought a few parts from one of the Universitys near by, when they have all their old parts for sale. So I got a cheap monitor, must have been like 10 years old, and bought an optical drive for real cheap off eBay. I didn't even get a DVD Rom or a Burner for almost a year after that. It wasn't the best system back then, but it was good enough. I think the grapics card was a GeForce2 back when the GeForce 3's were coming out and were top of the line. Anyway, I know how it feels when all your friends all have their own computers and want you to play online with them, and your still sharing with your little brother and sister. I also know how it feels to try and get your parents to upgrade your "family" system when they know nothing about it. Believe me its not easy. So now I have my own job, and my own money, and I buy what I want when I want and I don't have to reley on my parents.... Its so nice not having to beg them for money anymore. I may not make a lot of money but I get by a lot better than I ever did. P.S. I am Grocery Bagger as mentioned up top Lol.

BTW: you may want to wait till the day after Thanksgiving to get some parts if your strapped for cash. Last year I went to staples and got a free 52x32x52 Burner a 19" Flat CRT for $100 and awesome 17" LCD for $200 that I now realsize I could have sold for $300 plus on eBay, I wish I had bought more...

Anyways I know exactly how it feels to be in your position
 
I meant that since i am hard working and if we were rich then i would see myself with an alienware.
I think if you were rich you'd get one if you were the laziest person on earth...I know thats what I'd do anyway :p being rich and working hard usually don't go hand in hand unless you've worked hard to BECOME rich. No one was offended man but you gotta realize a 14 year old with a $2500 alienware is just....ridiculous in a sense.

Out of curiosity what exactly do you do that makes you consider yourself 'hard working?'

Hard working would be like alecjahn going to the garage sales and seeking out parts to sell or blackmoore having to endure people giving him the boot cause he was under 18 and saving up for basically a year to get a decent system. Thats what its all about man. Not being able to afford 65bucks a month. Hard work is when you work your ass off mowing lawns, doing stuff for your parents, going to garage sales, and after a year being able to afford your own computer. It wasn't until the last few months that I've been able to build my own computer. I was also like blackmoore and had a 'family' computer. I've had to wait 7 years to be able to have this oppurtunity and I still don't have a top-of-the-line system or hell not even midgrade at this point. You're expecting to popinto the game with fancy hardware like nothin. Thats spoilage...if your friends have nice computers then they are lucky....but you are lucky in the aspect if you REALLY work hard to build your own computer you'll learn to appreciate stuff where-as those little bastards will fry a component and ask mommy and daddy to replace it and they've learned no lesson.
 
alecjahn, you know the key to the economy: buy low;sell high:D

Kamehameha, what grades you make? I'm 15 going on 16; 10th grade and I make straight A's (except B in english) and I BARELY managed to afford the comp in my sig. It was $800 and I think I'm a little bit in debt. My bro(18) has like a $1900-$2000 comp. He's eighteen mind you, so why should a 14 yr. old need a comp that's $500 more expensive than an 18yr. old?:confused:

heavywx,

Whatever you do don't buy a dell.

the reason?
 
Because dells are for people who are simple minded and don't know a thing about computers. They don't build them on the basis of you knowing what you are doing and being able to work the innards. They build the machines so that THEY and ONLY THEY can upgrade your system if you want to. They are a money pit. Thats why you don't buy dell you buy your own. Dell is for your mom to buy and have as a 'family' computer.

Regulus...how did you afford it? Did you/Do you have a job or do you get money just for grades? Cause personally kids who get cash for grades are just being taught a foolish lesson. Sounds like you have a very nice welloff family...be thankful for that..I'm 20 and have probably a $500 computer...so why should you a 15 year old have an $800 if you're gonna ask him why he shouldn't have one more expensive than your brother (although I do agree with that)

All in all it determines your home life and family. Some people are just luckier than others and don't realize how lucky they are. Regulus...it already sounds like you have many more things than I had at that same age. My parents had to file for bankruptcy back in '87 and that sh!t doesn't get off your record until 10 years later. My parents bought that $1500 63MHz macintosh back in like 94...that was the last time my parents ever bought a computer...I've never had a computer bought for me except a $250 750MHz duron with 256 ram that my brother bought me.

Does your brother have a good job or what? Where was he able to get the money to afford his $1900-$2000 dollar computer? But I'm gonna assume its just totalled that much after putting so much into it yada yada yada.....
 
Nubius, I originally had $350 in my savings account. Then my mom started putting in $50 per paycheck. I'm not payed by grade and I fullly agree: A foolish lesson. He got his comp for christmas. It was the only thing he got. His school years are soooooooo busy that he has practically no time for a job.
 
The bottom line is that a full-blown expensive greased-soap machine is gonna have hardware in it that few people know how to fully handle. You're putting a LOT of money into hardware you can very easily screw up by lack of hardware competence.

If all yer gonna do is play games, you can spend no more than $1200 and build a machine that will more than toast your habit.
If all you want is a machine for work, $400 will set you.

I mean, it's like buying a Formula 1 race car, but the closest you've ever come to even driving is a wet dream over a '69 Beetle. Sure the race car is the fastest thing out there...but think about who's behind the wheel...
 
I mean, it's like buying a Formula 1 race car, but the closest you've ever come to even driving is a wet dream over a '69 Beetle. Sure the race car is the fastest thing out there...but think about who's behind the wheel...

Wow awesome comparison shoobie! :D

Nubius, I originally had $350 in my savings account. Then my mom started putting in $50 per paycheck.

I got $100 put in my savings account a couple years in a row at christmas. Most expensive computer I ever got for christmas was an xbox lol. I would gladly except a $2000 computer as my one and only gift for christmas because all the parts inside make it like a total of 8 gifts! I've never even had $2000 worth of christmas stuff. So yeah......sounds like you have a nice well off family. Quite lucky.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom