Monitor cap kit service questionnaire

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I need some extra cash and have been doing local service for about a year now, so I'm thinking of opening up my business to online. Curious, what's the going rate for this kind of thing not including shipping? What would YOU pay? Last time I tried getting somebody else online to do it when I was a newbie I got an outrageous quote, honestly just looking to provide a decently-priced service for those who can't or don't want to do it for themselves.
 
Can you repair monitors beyond simply doing a cap kit? The reason I ask is you mentioned getting an outrageous quote as a newbie...which makes it sound like you have limited experience.

I'm not sure people will be happy if they pay for a cap kit and it doesn't resolve whatever issue they intially attributed to bad caps. The expectation would most likely be that you then repair the chassis if a cap kit doesn't resolve the issue.


I need some extra cash and have been doing local service for about a year now, so I'm thinking of opening up my business to online. Curious, what's the going rate for this kind of thing not including shipping? What would YOU pay? Last time I tried getting somebody else online to do it when I was a newbie I got an outrageous quote, honestly just looking to provide a decently-priced service for those who can't or don't want to do it for themselves.
 
well, with the $15-$20 each way to ship, even at $5 your cost for a kit (assuming you buy caps in bulk,) and if you charge as low as $20 for your time, you're still looking at $60+ total cost for the owner. that seems like a lot to me when i can add a kit on a larger order for maybe $7-8 and do it my self in under an hour. you could charge less for labor i suppose but then you're doing it almost for free.

really, if you have more than a few games you should learn how to do a kit (and many basic repairs) yourself. if you have only a few and don't want to be bothered then you should suck it up and pay the premium for someone like Chad at Arcadecup to do it for you, or try to make friends with other local collectors who might be able to do it for you cheap.
 
well, with the $15-$20 each way to ship, even at $5 your cost for a kit (assuming you buy caps in bulk,) and if you charge as low as $20 for your time, you're still looking at $60+ total cost for the owner. that seems like a lot to me when i can add a kit on a larger order for maybe $7-8 and do it my self in under an hour. you could charge less for labor i suppose but then you're doing it almost for free.

really, if you have more than a few games you should learn how to do a kit (and many basic repairs) yourself. if you have only a few and don't want to be bothered then you should suck it up and pay the premium for someone like Chad at Arcadecup to do it for you, or try to make friends with other local collectors who might be able to do it for you cheap.

Yeah it's a tough 'business' to be in unless you charge premium prices like $150+.

After I spend 1-5 hours on a g07, install $35-$65 worth of parts (+ the price of buying a broken chassis), and then pay to ship it. I make almost nothing at $120 shipped.
 
It is not worth it trying to be the cheap guy doing cap kits in a crowded field. If something were to go wrong, you would have your name slung through the mud for a couple of dollars.
It is a right of passage in this hobby to learn how to do this stuff for yourself.
 
I'll say one thing that I would like to see from the monitor repair field that may help both people in the hobby and people offering services. Post good pictures of the before and after your work.

The problem is we've taught everyone to do a cap kit. Now everyone thinks they are Samuel L. Jackson and they are the monitor repair MF'er. Sometimes when I'm busy or as a trade, I'll get a chassis worked on by someone else. I've used a couple of members who I'd say people are pretty familiar with. What I got back usually looks like a bear attacked the chassis. Yes, the chassis works fine in most cases, but it looks like someone with no business using a soldering iron worked on the chassis. Just bad soldering, cold solder joints, pads lifted, 10's of traces repaired, just ugly crap. All of which I have to go back to fix properly.

I'm not sure why in this hobby we don't require a little proof that people are somewhat competent for things like this. Word of mouth is not good enough proof in all situations.
 
I've sent my last 3 boards to Chad, but he is doing a lot more than just a cap kit. I'm now at the point where I feel confident doing these myself with Pac-Man being my first.
 
I need some extra cash and have been doing local service for about a year now, so I'm thinking of opening up my business to online. Curious, what's the going rate for this kind of thing not including shipping? What would YOU pay? Last time I tried getting somebody else online to do it when I was a newbie I got an outrageous quote, honestly just looking to provide a decently-priced service for those who can't or don't want to do it for themselves.

If you're capping a working monitor $75-$120 all-in seems like it would be fair and probably a price people would pay. Your biggest issue is going to be people trying to take advantage of you. They'll send you chassis that are beyond repair or attempted repairs that failed. And worse; will claim your repair doesn't work and send you another monitor to get repaired for free. You will also need to have tubes for each of the monitor types that you repair because you will need to do some "burn-in" testing before you can say you're repair is successful. Honestly you're better off sticking with in person or people you know.
 
If you're capping a working monitor $75-$120 all-in seems like it would be fair and probably a price people would pay. Your biggest issue is going to be people trying to take advantage of you. They'll send you chassis that are beyond repair or attempted repairs that failed. And worse; will claim your repair doesn't work and send you another monitor to get repaired for free. You will also need to have tubes for each of the monitor types that you repair because you will need to do some "burn-in" testing before you can say you're repair is successful. Honestly you're better off sticking with in person or people you know.

This. People will send you complete basketcases and you'll spend hours figuring out that one broken component.
 
Exactly.

To reiterate:

1: No money to be made. By the time you charge for shipping both ways and the cap kits, you won't be able to charge enough to make anything.

2: People will send you broken boards swearing they just need a cap kit. And they'll be pissed when they get them back not working.

3: Sometimes the cap kit will "break" the chassis. About 1/3 of the time when I cap a working chassis, something else blows on it. Be it the Hot or the Filter Cap or the Flyback. So now you have to deal with the broken chassis, and good luck getting them to pay for it.

4: People are sometimes jerks. Nuff said on that one.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Looks like I'll stick to local business.

The reason I ask is you mentioned getting an outrageous quote as a newbie...which makes it sound like you have limited experience.

That was early on after I joined, meaning years & months ago.
 
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