[SLL] looking for computer wholesaler in Seattle/NW area

[Bill Campbell]

On Wed, May 11, 2005, Paul A. Franz wrote:
>Harddrives NW will sell to resellers. Most of the nationals including
>Gates/FA, Compac, MicroAmerica (became Merisel), and TechData have moved on
>or dropped their local presence. You'll find that the margins are so small
>that reselling is no longer worth the trouble. The big wholesalers primarily
>sell to large retail outlets now. I quit when it was cheaper to buy from
>buy.com than get wholesale from Merisel.

About the only things we still buy direct are those we can't find locally.

>If you have a value added hardware solution, you probably can go directly to
>the manufacturer though.
>
>Don't be surprised if you can easily find retail prices on the 'Net lower
>than your price.
>
>HDNW will give you about 5% on some items depending on your volume. Speak to
>Eugene Bien at HDNW for an account.
>
>I am still a reseller and can give you sources for things such as monitors,
>hubs, switches, Ethernet cards and other networking gear where the margin
>could be as high as 10% if you're going to purchase sizeable quantities. I
>think that the cost of handling Washington State Sales Tax plus the added
>cost of B&O Tax will kill your interest in reselling unless you have a
>substantial value add.

We generally point our customers to the sources directly since (a) we don't
make enough profit on hardware to cover our costs, and (b) we don't have to
deal with the inevitable hardware problems directly.

So long as I can buy 3COM 3C905 PCI cards at RE*PC for $2.95, I don't see
much reason to buy any other 10/100 NICs.

Bill
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