But, then what about....
I work for a customer computer company, we are called Computer Builder's Warehouse out of Boca Raton, Florida. I can tell you right now that 85% of our profit comes from service/repair, not selling custom computers. We build on average of about 100 computers every month.
But then, how do other companies like Alienware, VooDoo PC, Falcon NW make money ? Or forget those, how about Pugets Systems (or Puget Custom Computers),
www.pugetsystems.com ? They are selling pretty well.
It is hardly possible to find out how much money a company makes in profit every year, but for instance Falcon NW had sales of $5.000.000 (five million) dollars in 2006. Lets just say that they've made around $2 million in profit (judging from their markup), that is still pretty damn good. You guys can further research this companies by looking at Forbes and other online publications, most of it is public information.
All this companies are Boutique Builders. They specialize in custom computer systems. Take a look at
http://www.resellerratings.com/ and you'll see that plenty of people are buying from them.
The original poster was talking about building custom PCs, and not going head to head with the low end or budget market, where the big companies own the market. As a small Boutique Builder, you don't go after Gateway (which is owned by Acer now) and try to compete with them on the $299-$1000 computer systems. Even Gateway, maybe makes $50 in profit / system, or a little more. Or maybe I miss understood him? Well, anyway, the bottom line was (at least from what I got) that he was hoping to easily make $1000/week. Is it doable? Absolutely, but it will take all your time and energy.
Every company that tried to make a profit from "selling cheap" has had financial trouble. Gateway had to close all their stores because they couldn't sustain them anymore, and then they had to sell out to Acer. Gateways are cheap on everage, but you'll get what you pay for.
HP is the No. 1 (numero uno!) computer manufacturer in the world. Most of their profit comes from their business / enterprise sales, and the server / workstation market, oh, and printers / office products. The least of their profits comes from the low end and sub $1000 PCs. Yet, they keep a presence in that market because they and, and because they don't want anyone else to take their place in that market.
But even HP realized that there is money to be made in the Boutique PC market, and that is why they've bought VooDoo PC (and because they needed a new image for that market). They are also trying to sell custom PCs under their own name, and that is why they've created HP Blackbird 002, with "VooDoo DNA", which is just a marketing thing that tells the customer that their Blackbird 002 has been designed by the good folks at VooDoo PC, and to create a bridge between their own brand, as HP and the Boutique Market.
The bottom line is that selling computers of any kind is not the same as selling Boutique PCs. Many companies, like for instance UberclockPC are trying to promote an image of Quality Gaming PC at a low price. Again, you get what you pay for. To have a successful business you have to sell first of Quality, Service and Performance in equal amounts. Most top (the very expensive ones) Boutique builders have free overnight shipping service that is for the duration of the warranty, and their systems are built by skilled technicians. Look at a VooDoo PC "Omen" and you will see how clean and efficient it's built. I build all the PCs I'm selling, and I can tell that there allot of work involved. But in contrast to many builders, I do every and any customization that the customer asks for (of course, if it's humanly possible).
There is a gap in the market between those high end and the rest. Most people (including me) are trying to fill that gap, but if you can't match the quality of the high for less money, then don't worry about the rest of the market, because you'll never be able to compete with the bigger players.
I've wrote all this because I'm trying to explain to the original poster that he either does it as good as he can, and gives %100 and builds quality high end PCs that are nicely customized with unique customizations, or he doesn't do it at all. Doing it part time and trying to make $1000/week won't fly. Not on eBay, and definitively not in his local area.
As far as making money from repairs, that market is slowly going away to. Services like "Geek Squad" from Best Buy are making sure of that. Most folks that need PC repairs or software repair (including virus removal, OS reinstall and what not) are those that just need a "working computer" to do their stuff. They don't have high end computers, and most important, they are very frugal when it comes to spending money on PC related stuff.
This could go on and on, and everyone, including me, could weigh in with our opinions (because everyone has one and most of them if not all don't really matter), but if you're not going to at least try your best to be the best at what you are doing, then you will not succeed.
Also, this days most people can build their own PCs from parts, and it is for the same reason that there are so many builders out there. If you are going after the market of those who try to compromise (they aren't that good at building their own stuff, but they still want a custom system) then you will not make money.
And if I wouldn't be doing this, but something else for a living, then I would buy a custom Gaming Computer (because I like to play games) from one of the top builders. It is worth spending the extra coin to get a quality computer system. But if I would want to save money, I would build my own. And this is how most people think.
Thank you for reading this, and I apologize for any grammatical errors in my posting, but I type this up pretty fast.
Marc from Toratek Custom Computers
. Well not anyone "Normal" 
