Okay, I got a DIY to get started as inexpensively as possible, and that included not getting any expansion cards. It’s been fine – my only real complaints are that the USB-C ports on the motherboard don’t seem super high quality (one only loosely holds a wire) and the edges of the laptop surrounding the slots are very sharp, all things considered, when there are no cards in there to keep the bottom of the laptop flush.
That said, I can see the value of having at least one C, A, and HDMI.
I’ve been eying the refurb expansion pack, but the shipping was crazy even when it was in stock – $9 iirc. (Ha, just checked. It is $9 even for just one USB-C card.) Also seems like some users might want to ditch extra cards they don’t use for cheap.
Is there a marketplace to find expansion cards? Do you really need all the USB-C cards you’ve got? (How about A? How about HDMI? ;)) Can’t we find a way to ship these for less than $9?
Sure, it’s easy to ship things for less than $9. Throw a card in an envelope and slap a stamp on it. Done. But that’s slow and lacks tracking information. Tracking is a requirement for any business and even used transactions (what’s stopping me from telling PayPal I never received a package and getting a refund?) Post Office only starts tracking with priority mail and that costs so the shipping charges aren’t unreasonable.
@Ruffin I’m not. Not as buyer and not as a seller. It’s just too risky. More than financial risk too since enough reports of fraud would get my account (PayPal, Venmo, Whatever) banned. I did it once for an eBay sale that went south. And it was for a similarly valued item (some old CPU as I recall or similar) so it isn’t like I’m not speaking from experience. eBay won’t be worth either since any seller there is going to markup the price considerably to offset the cut eBay will take, which is considerable. I don’t fundamentally disagree with you, I just don’t see other options.
@Ruffin For the casual buyer or seller, eBay is fine. I’ve used it for many years. If the point is just to provide a place to exchange parts then eBay works fine. If the point is to derive any real revenue from the exchange then eBay is terrible and frankly unnecessary. The CPU in question was very VERY old and quite low value ($40 if memory serves?) shipping would have cost me a considerable amount of the selling price on top of eBay’s cut so I was trying to cut corners and improve my margin but it backfired and I lost both the CPU and my money when the buyer claimed I hadn’t shipped it. Lesson learned, never sell without tracking.
It would be best if there was a better place/method of selling things/old parts here. I don’t know of anybody except maybe @Fraoch who has sold something here besides myself. The expansion cards are unique in that the value of them is low enough that shipping equates to their value so shipping costs look exorbitant in comparison to the value of the item.
I think I’ve beaten this topic to death now so I’ll shut up. I get where you come from though, I wish it were better.
