Topic: Please dont let bitcoinstore fail, your action is needed just about now. - page 10. (Read 24195 times)

Of course we hope this will not be the case! But when shipping to Europe from the US, if stuff like this happens, who will pay for the additional costs and re-shipments ? If I order locally,if something is broken, I just complain and have it replaced, what if the company in question is US based ? Questions like that is what I want to have answered. If BitcoinStore said: If there's any problems, we take care of it - free of charge, then that would give me more confidence ordering with them.

It won't be a failure if they don't meet the 850k sales mark. They will just lose their current discount tier and will have to raise the prices.

We're not "donating" to Roger - he got this ball rolling for us and is charging NO markup on anything right now.

The question is simply this: do we want an online store with a huge selection of computers/components/electronics with a pricing tier that can compete with Amazon/Newegg, where we can pay with Bitcoin? If so, we have our chance, and we should support them. If not, then don't.

I personally think having this store online is important for increasing the speed of adoption. It makes my holdings more valuable. Therefore, I will support them. This is not any kind of altruism.

Bitcoin is a ridiculously ambitious project which is up to someone else to support, with nearly no economic gain at its initial stages of growth.

This. I wonder why more bitcoin merchants don't do this... would be really attractive to customers and seems rational...

I've bought a xbox keypad and a 1 year live card.. with this, we'll be able to remove our TV bill (wichh my wife pay because she's the only one who listen to TV in here), and she will be able to get all she listen to via the XBox.  Then, we save 240$/year.

The stuff bought was cheaper than local alternative, but after shipping, it cost more than local.  I dont care that much, as it will make our TV bill disapear and gives a chance to bitcoinstore, and my wife will listen less TV adds and crap.. priceless

lets hope that's not the case!

Same here, I've bought some stuff, and will ask friends if they wish something in this store over this week.

And what if it's DOA ? Who will cover the re-shipping fees ?

Thanks, lets see how long it takes to get to Canada, I ordered yesterday, and took the express shipping so I would expect in in 3 days. Hopefully all will go well and I'll be on my new ASUS in no time!

Shipped from:    LOS ANGELES CA , US
Shipped on:    Sunday, January 27, 2013 6:33 PM
Delivery to:    FINLAND
Delivered on:    Tuesday, February 12, 2013 4:03 PM
Service:    U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

Hey how long was shipping on your order and if you dont mind me asking what area was it shipped to?

I just placed an order for about 20 BTC and am curious aboth the shipping times

So let's say they somehow make the 850K goal. What happens next quarter? Do they have to do another 850K?. Where I work if you don't keep up sales each month the manufacturers drop you.

As much as I appreciate Roger Ver and his efforts for Bitcoin, I don't see how the community should be called out to help his enterprise survice like this. Setting a target of sales of 850 000 the first month is very optimistic. I think a better way would be just to start and see how it goes, and then build from there. It's not possible to start a business, and then rely on the income for the first month to decide whether the business is to continue or not. If Ver and associates has done deals that demands that they have sales worth 850 000 USD in the first month as a condition to continue their business partnerships, then that's not a very smart move imo.

From where I stand, 110K USD of sales seems like an astounding success to me, while I understand that this is far below the target, I wouldn't expect a store selling products denominated in bitcoins to have sales going through the skyes at this point.

Most businesses start out slow, and then grow by time, and bitcoinstore.com is no different. While we can help them succeed, calling on the community to make them succeed I'm not sure of will be happening.

I was contemplating purchasing from their store when doing a purchase, I wrote about it here:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/supporting-the-bitcoin-economy-when-purchasing-a-small-server-145572

In the end I decided to buy locally as I found it safer, I asked them about bitcoin acceptance, which they declined. As you can see, there didn't seem to be much community interest about the issue anyway..

This being said, I wish BitcoinStore success, and hope they will not close doors even if they don't meet their wanted sales volume for the first month!

This needs 9th degree blackbelt in international shippingjitsu

European warehouse would also increase the speed of delivery significantly, which is something I personally value, probably more than the average buyer. Speed / cost ratio is important as well.

Accepting other means of payment is perhaps the move by which Roger buys the next three month period, without meeting the quota. Who knos, this could be going as planned.
A european warehouse would be nice indeed 24% vat in my neck of the woods.

+1, I have also suggested in the past that they also take traditional payment methods.  Now, you are just artificially limiting your target audience, and the bitcoin economy/community, while growing fast, isn't that big yet.  Maybe the whole project is a year too early.  Then again, they probably put a lot more thought into this than I did, and I am still hoping they will succeed, quite nice to be able to buy all that equipment with bitcoins at a good price. (the growing bitcoin price should give a good financial buffer as well)

EDIT: European warehouse would be nice indeed.

If they had a warhouse in Europe I promise you I would be buying everything from them. I was looking at a new microwave oven and the price was fine but the problem is the shipping fees to Europe were as much as the microwave itself, thus doubling the price. I feel like the USA bitcoiners will have to take the slack on this one since the shop is obviously aimed at them. I hope the shop does well and we can get something similar in Europe soon.

Adding socialism into this discussion is completely beside the point. It's not socialism to have a community and recommend others in a community to use a certain store, and support it. It has nothing to do with socialism. Each and every one of us can, with no consequences whatsoever, ignore this recommendation, if we wish. I'm personally ignoring it but I don't think it has anything to do with socialism.

This is an interesting discussion. I have to say that I agree with benjamindees. A Bitcoin only approach in a highly competitive market has never before worked, and it seems it doesn't work here either. Even though I respect Roger Ver as the Bitcoin Jesus, but he did lose the business perspective with this store. It was insanely ambitious to not accept any other payment methods and make a deal with a supplier that needs such a high volume to keep the deal going.

I run a small online store that is completely branded on Bitcoin and sells mostly Bitcoin merchandise, and some other products that people who like Bitcoin are often interested in, and we have the possibility of paying with SEPA and Bitcoin. Even though our SEPA payments are especially inconvenient, they have to be done manually in the online banking, still 3/4 of our customers pay with it. Only 1/4 pay with bitcoins. This is just the reality right now, people need to deal with it.

I recently bought over 500€ worth of electronics, and even though I was well aware of Bitcoin Store, I didn't use it. Why? They didn't have the monitor that I wanted. Even if they had it, it would've been a tough choice. I have a very low time preference when I make the decision to buy electronics. When I decide I want it, I want it now. I got the stuff from a Finnish online store in just 3 days, it would've taken around 2 weeks from Bitcoin Store. That is extremely important as well. So Bitcoin Store had slightly cheaper prices, but lacked an important product, and it's also slower.

I'm as pro Bitcoin as anyone here, that is for sure, and I had a need for some electronics, but I still didn't use Bitcoin Store. I do think it's the same for many others. I've bought stuff with bitcoins before, it's more convenient than any other payment method, but it's not the only criteria when I choose where to buy stuff. If the store's are more or less equal, I'd be quite happy to pay with bitcoins, but I'm not going out of my way to support a Bitcoin store that just doesn't work for me, and has a bad business model.