Can You Actually Make Money Flipping Gaming PCs in 2026?

[00:01] skyrocketing price of RAM, M.2s, and graphics cards, it has become borderline impossible to build and flip gaming PCs in 2026. But today, I am going to show you the new meta, flipping open box pre-builds from big box companies. We

[00:17] have traveled over 3 hours to Rockville, Maryland to pick up two of the best open box gaming PC deals I have ever seen in my life, and not only are we going to review these bad boys, we are going to see if we can tear them apart piece by

[00:30] piece and flip them for a huge profit. Let's get to it. Now, this is my first time at Micro Center in Rockville, Maryland. I didn't actually drive 3 hours for this PC. I was actually just in Washington D.C. for work, and as I

[00:43] always do, I was checking the open box PC inventory at Micro Center and came across these two absolute gems. Now, this is my first time at this particular Micro Center. It's basically in a strip mall. We have to go up an escalator to

[00:57] get to this store, but there she is in all of her beauty. Now, as we walk inside, this thing is actually huge. It's literally just keeps going for bigger than my local one in Pennsylvania, mate, but that one will

[01:10] always be the goat. It holds a special place in my heart. Once we get to the their open box inventory, including cases and motherboards, and they even have a ton of sim racing open box gear out on display. So, we might actually

[01:23] have to snag a thing or two for our upcoming sim rig video. Get excited for that one, mate. But today, we are here for one thing, and that is their open box gaming PCs. Now, unfortunately, these things aren't actually out on

[01:35] models, and you have to go pick up the open boxes from the counter. But as I was checking out some of their display model pre-builds, this Alienware caught my eye. This one is absolutely massive. Look at it, mate. I'm sure it'll be very

[01:49] reasonably priced. Ah, yes, very reasonable at 5,500 United States hamsters for an Alienware RTX 5090. Mate, I'd rather get probed by an

[02:01] alien than pay for that nonsense. But, as always, if you want to see me review one of these Alienware pre-builts, get this video to 1,000 likes and I will happily let it probe me and Hank. >> What? So, enough yapping, mate. A quick

[02:13] fade to black so we can teleport down to the car park and tada! We have one of our two open-box gaming PCs that we purchased today. Now, you're sitting there probably thinking, "Mate, why did you take it out of the box in the car

[02:27] park?" And I have a simple answer for you. We didn't take it out. It literally didn't come with a box. Neither of them did. We had to literally carry both of these PCs down to our car like a loser, and they had a keyboard, mouse, Wi-Fi

[02:40] antenna, and power cord wrapped together like this. Now, I've actually decided that I will save this PC for another video because it's a special boy and deserves its own dedicated piece. I don't want to spoil it, but it rhymes

[02:52] with 5090 and was an unbelievable price for these specs. But, now it's time to transport close to 10K worth of PCs 3 hours down I-95 so that we can reveal today's PC to you all and have a sausage dog review them. How did my life end up

[03:07] dog review them. How did my life end up being like this? back in the man cave, and as you can see, Hank is playing with his automatic ball launcher. He is obsessed with this thing, but playtime is over, mate. It's

[03:20] time to work. Here he is next to today's PC wrapped in a towel so we don't ruin the surprise for you, and this is going to be a very special episode. Not only are we going to tear this baby apart piece by piece and do a full review and

[03:33] breakdown like we always do, but we are actually going to case swap all of the components and see if we can flip it for a profit. Are you ready, Hank? >> Okay. Cool beans, mate. And a one and a two and there she is, mate. Look at her.

[03:49] too close to the camera, and now the footage is all blurry. Oh, you cheeky sausage, you're ruining the shot. Get out of the way. All right, ladies and gentlemen, attempt two. Hank, can you please behave? And a

[04:03] one, and a two, and there she blows, mate. A beautiful CyberPower RTX 5080 stuffed with seven total fans in a curved glass design. Now, it doesn't look too shabby from here, but wait until we get this dumb arglizzie out of

[04:18] the way and zoom in on the PC, mate. First of all, Micro Center was kind like a jizz-stained mouse and keyboard, so thanks for that, mate. But in the future, that's a hard pass from me and Hank. Keep your crappy peripheral

[04:31] e-waste, Micro Center. The keyboard is in such bad shape that the ARGB didn't even work, so that's a great start so far for what is a pretty expensive PC with no box. But fear not, it gets even better. See that brown stuff on the

[04:44] fans, mate? That is straight-up dirt. Look at it on my finger when I rub it. Absolutely putrid and potentially a biohazard, so we have to keep Hank away there is even a bit of dust on the graphics card. Don't get me wrong,

[04:58] nothing elbow grease won't get out. But as for the case, yeah, I think this done with it. Now, the condition of this thing is not looking promising, but let's see if this thing turns on or if all the dust has accumulated so bad that

[05:11] the PC is no longer viable. And wowsers in my trousers, mate, not bad at all. It's already set to rainbow ARGB, which we love, of course. Now, if it wasn't so dusty and neglected, this case honestly isn't that bad. It does

[05:25] have a curved glass design, a ton of fans, which are all ARGB, and even has this ARGB strip down the bottom. Looking online, it appears to be a Montech case, the HS02 Pro, which is about 150 bucks, so pretty good value, but it has been

[05:38] dinged up pretty bad alongside all of the dirt in the fans. I don't know, Hank, what do you think about this? Should we tear it apart piece by piece, put it in the case with 1 million Infinity fans alongside an LCD AIO with

[05:50] Yes! >> That's the spirit, mate. So, let's start probably the 10 millionth time we have run into this bad boy. It's the RTX 5080 PNY Edition. This is actually the first ever RTX 5080 we purchased. We used it

[06:06] exclusively on our own sim rig, and it was great. Don't get me wrong, it isn't pageants, but the cooling is pretty phenomenal. When we run it under 100% load in FurMark for 30 minutes, we get an average temperature of well under

[06:19] 70°, and online, this thing is selling brand new for just under 1,300 United States rock, flag, and eagle dollars on Best Buy. So, we will definitely take this win, mate. Moving on to the rest of the components, and this is where your

[06:33] head will start to explode. Starting off with the storage, we have this T-Force G50 M.2 by Teamgroup. Now, you're probably used to me picking up PCs with 2 TB total storage, right? Well, today, we turn this fella around to reveal that

[06:46] it is actually 4 TB of storage, mate. That's right, the big leagues were calling, and we picked up the phone, baby. This storage, brand new, cost 433 United States potatoes on sale on Newegg right now. So, that is a fat W for the

[07:00] glizzy. Next up, we move up to the RAM, and your guess is it's probably 32 GB total, right? Wrong again, kind sir. Try 32 GB per stick for a total of 64 GB of

[07:13] DDR5 RAM. Yes, you heard me right, 64 GB. We got the find of the century on this PC, and you'll have to stick around till the end if you want to see how much we paid for it because it is bonkers, mate. Now, this Vengeance kit is clocked

[07:26] at 6,000 megatransfers per second, but only has a CL of 40. So, not the best in terms of timing, but it's 64 GB. Stop complaining. Now that we've got the RAM and M.2 out of the way, we can finally unveil the CPU hiding under this $60

[07:40] unveil the CPU hiding under this $60 Cooler Master Elite 360 AIO branded with CyberPower's logo. We just have to slowly undo these four screws and of thermal paste on her, but a quick drum roll reveals that after we clean it

[07:55] drum roll reveals that after we clean it off, this is the Ryzen 7 9800X 3D. Still one of the best gaming CPUs of all time and thankfully, the motherboard she is seated in ain't half bad either. This is the MSI Pro B850 VC Wi-Fi with three

[08:10] total M.2 ports, decent VRMs and a stacked rear IO with two USB-Cs, a ton of USB-As and Wi-Fi 7. So, a pretty good haul if I do say so myself. Now, to finish this teardown off, we got to flip this to its booty and I have placed

[08:24] Hank's head in the corner because the price tag is sitting right behind it and I want to do a big reveal. So, before that, take a guess down in the comments how much this baby cost. I've already calculated how much this thing would be

[08:36] worth if you wanted to build this with all brand new parts we add the Ryzen 7 9800X 3D, an RTX 5080, 64 GB of RAM and the 4 TB M.2 together, it is worth an astounding 3,263

[08:51] course, we ain't paying that nonsense, mate. This thing didn't even come with a box and literally had syphilis on the fans. In total, we paid a diabolical 2,464 United States dollars and 96 cents,

[09:06] saving us about 800 bucks in parts. So, now with that price out of the way, the last thing we have to do is take the back off this thing to reveal the power supply and good lord, we can't stop destroying this

[09:19] PC case, but lord have mercy. Once again, some very good-looking cable management by CyberPower. Good stuff, mate. We just have to remove a few panels to reveal the power supply and there she is. And because the fan is

[09:31] tell what the power supply is, but I can tell because I have used this thing 186 bajillion times. That's right. It's the notorious APEVIA Prestige 1000 W 80 Plus

[09:43] Gold TLC on the PSU tiers list. This thing is the value king 80 bucks brand new. It's currently powering my personal RTX 5090 9950X 3D editing PC and she

[09:55] runs like a champ, mate. So, if you're looking for a fight, go tell me the APEVIA Prestige sucks in the comments and we can throw hands any day of the week. So, overall, let me know down in the comments. Did we get a great deal on

[10:07] this PC? In my personal opinion, yes, we did. And just to make sure nothing was damaged during its supposed time in the Sahara desert due to all the dust and debris, we have to make sure that she also runs like a dream when it comes to

[10:19] gaming. Now, we have a 160 Hz refresh rate 4K monitor that we use for benchmarks and we were able to play every single game at just around 160 frames per second at 4K with no frame generation. All we had to do was set

[10:32] DLSS to quality and she was looking beautiful. But boy, oh boy, if you thought these games were running great, wait until DLSS 5 comes out so we can slap a lifelike AI slot filter on all of our Rainbow Six Siege operators.

[10:46] comments if you think DLSS 5 is being hated on too much or if it actually needs more hate because Hank thinks it looks terrible. Anyway, enough sitting around playing video games, mate. Our goal for this video is to prove to you

[10:59] all that a dumb long sausage boy is capable of flipping pre-built PCs from places like Micro Center, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Newegg, and so on for forward if you're looking to make a bit of extra change without having to do

[11:13] anything a little strange. All you need to do is take the components out of crappy pre-built cases that may have actually contained weaponized SARS virus like we have done, then a quick clap of the hand and there she is in the back,

[11:25] mate. Our beautiful new Infinity laced case. Now, you're probably sitting there thinking, "This is a bold strategy, Cotton. Throwing all black PC parts into The truth is I thought about doing this video last minute and I ran out of black

[11:40] cases, but we will make it work. I mean, for God's sakes, we only have the best this thing, so cut him a bit of slack. The PC case of choice today is the DIYPC N3 ARGB white edition. We have built with this many times on the channel

[11:55] because it is by far our most popular pre-built PC when we sell on Jawa and on why I love this thing so much when it comes to flipping gaming PCs is the fact that it's very affordable at 73 bucks off Newegg after you apply this coupon.

[12:10] But more importantly, the build quality is great. It comes with four Infinity fans and as you all know, Infinity sells, mate. And it has this nice panoramic design with this 45° glass piece and on top of that, it comes with

[12:24] its own ARGB fan hub and a ton of room in the back for cable management. The link for this and all of the parts that we used in this video are down below as an affiliate link. If you purchase them, you'll give Hank about 35 cents, so

[12:36] mentioned, we have built inside of this PC case in great detail in the videos linked above, so watch that after if you want to see some more in-depth tips for eating the absolute heck out of this motherboard into the case, screwing it

[12:51] all down and skipping straight to the thermal paste application, baby. Now, all you need to do is place a little X marks the spot in the middle of the CPU like so, nothing crazy. Then after that, go absolutely ape mode with the thermal

[13:04] paste. Spare no expense, you animals. >> You cannot be serious. For God's sakes, make sure you remove the protective sticker off your AIO pump or Hank will honest, you deserve it, mate. You don't

[13:17] want your PC running hot. After that, screw it down each side little by little until it's on nice and tight. And FYI, we are using this Thermalright 360 we are using this Thermalright 360 Frozen Warframe ARGB. It is currently

[13:29] $67 online on Amazon, mate. The funny meme number. We love it. Importantly, it comes with a detachable LCD magnetic screen, which of course we will throw Hank's face on. And trust me when I say

[13:42] this, just like Infinity fans, LCD AIO sell, mate. So, don't hesitate to buy value is just unbeatable. A quick look back to the past and here is the tuberculosis infected PC beforehand looking filthy with Hank scared for his

[13:57] quick drum roll before we reveal our brand new panda looking build. Black on the inside, white on the outside with 10 infinity laced ARGB fans spewing top it off, we've put the world's ugliest but best PC building and

[14:13] flipping dog of all time front and center on the screen. Now, honestly, I would turn out given all the components are black, but I am not going to lie. But let me know down in the comments if we cooked on this thing or if we are

[14:28] cooked and Hank deserves to go to the grave. Now, all we really needed to do to build this PC was add $30 of Infinity fans, which are linked down below, a $74 fans, which are linked down below, a $74 buckaroo beautiful PC case, a $67 LCD

[14:41] AIO, and these white cable extensions are 16 bucks on Amazon. So, in total we are 16 bucks on Amazon. So, in total we spent $2,651.96 include the previous cost of the pre-built PC. Now, if you want to make a

[14:55] bit of extra money, you could probably sell this PC case and AIO together in a combo for like 30 to 80 bucks to bring your price down, but I think I am just going to throw this off a cliff so it can't hurt another living human being.

[15:07] But the real question we have now is can we flip this thing for a profit in just under 1 week? It's going to be hard because PC sales are pretty slow right now, but it is currently Monday, the 30th of March, and our goal is to get

[15:19] 5th of April. So, we need to get to work. So, in order to sell all of our gaming PCs, we use two online marketplaces. The first is Jawa.gg. Now, I am not sponsored by them, but I should be because I keep giving them all my

[15:33] money in fees. I am a verified seller on their website, which really helps with sales, but I only got there because we really grinded it out on this website. I have 13 five-star reviews in total and have sold 40 PCs, and the way to get

[15:46] verified is simply by getting on and selling. Now, the only issue with Jawa, and indeed many other websites like eBay, is they take a massive fee from your sale. So, unfortunately, if you want to sell it on these websites, which

[15:58] Facebook Marketplace, you're going to have to increase the price. So, make sure you factor that into your equation when you're sourcing parts. In terms of the photos, I really don't put that much effort in. I just use my iPhone and take

[16:11] it at one side angle like so with the fan set to multiple colors. Definitely nothing fancy, but it has been working for me, but maybe that's because I have Hank here selling them, and he is the best salesman to ever live. The other

[16:23] place we sell on is, of course, Facebook Marketplace. Now, it is the wild, wild messages on this thing, but the good thing is there are no fees for selling and hopefully move it in person, so we don't have to ship it as well because

[16:37] sometimes when you ship it, the PC is likely going to explode due to the UPS delivery person throwing it as hard as they can at your door. So, I usually first make my Jawa.gg post, and then I use the exact same description and

[16:50] ideally when I'm trying to price these PCs out, if I'm selling for 1,000 bucks, I'm pretty happy making around a $150 profit. Anything over 2K and above, I am looking for around two to 250 United States French fries, and anything 3K and

[17:06] above, I'd ideally like about 350. So, given this thing cost us 2,651 United States potatoes, we are going to start it on Facebook Marketplace for bucks, which I think is fairly reasonable for the specs. But if we

[17:21] don't sell it before the weekend, we probably going to move it down to 2,999 United States turkey breasts. Now, unfortunately, on Jawa, if we want to get a payout of $3,016.61, we have to list it for 3,399

[17:37] really do much about that, mate. Now, before I buy any of these pre-builts for flipping or if I build any of my own PCs to make sure that we are competitive, I just type the parts at the top of Jawa and see what other people are selling

[17:50] for. So, in this instance, I just type RTX 5080, and as you can see, the majority of these PCs are listed for $3,000 or above. And looking at them in detail, most of them have the 9800X3D or the 9850X3D, but they only have 2 TB of

[18:04] storage and 32 GB of RAM. So, I am pretty happy selling it on here for $3,399. But if this thing doesn't sell by Thursday, we might have to drop it by about 100 bucks. So, hold on tight and

[18:16] pray for Hank. This thing might get messy. are 3 days into selling and not too bad on Jawa so far. We have four Jawas

[18:28] watching, which is pretty good for this early on, and 85 views. So, we will take that to the bank. Unfortunately, the only message we have on Jawa so far is someone asking if it's 64 GB of RAM or 32 GB.

[18:41] Uh jeez, I don't know, mate. It's only in the title, description, and specs. So, you tell me, you idiots. All right, calm down, Glizzy man. Just breathe. slower. We usually struggle to sell

[18:53] these higher valued PCs on Facebook Marketplace. In total, we have 178 clicks and four saved views and a few messages as well. For example, this dude wants to trade me his RTX 4090 laptop that has less RAM and less storage than

[19:07] my PC, and he is saying it is worth much more than my my desktop. So, take a hike, buddy, and get your head checked. Another person is offering me 2,200 are living in, but it ain't Earth. Get

[19:20] the hell out of my DMs, you bum. So, after these putrid messages, I decided to lower it down to 2,999 United States Beanie Babies on Facebook Marketplace, and I immediately getting a message asking me what's the lowest I

[19:33] can do. Mate, this is a custom gaming PC with 10 Infinity fans and LCD with an AIO, a Ryzen 7900X3D, 64 GB of RAM and 4 TB of storage. This

[19:45] is the lowest I can go. Get the hell out of here. So, before I had a complete challenge miserably, Friday night at around midnight, we got an email on Hank's Blackberry, and someone had bought that PC. Let's go. Yeah, this

[20:00] absolutely going to love this PC. And after we pay all the fees towards Jawa, we got a total payout of 3,016 United States dollars and 61 American cents.

[20:12] So, given that it cost us 2,651 spankers to buy this PC and re-house it, we are looking at a final profit of $365.61. saying, "Oh, Hank and Weenie Man, how do you

[20:26] afford all these PCs? You must be loaded." Well, this is how we do it, mate. If you want to see us start an actual flipping series, get this video to 2,000 likes. Otherwise, me and the Glizzy love you. Goodbye.