Topic: THE Place to Shop w/ Bitcoin: BitCoinWorldMarket.com - page 3. (Read 9048 times)

Ok. I'll bite. Again.

What have you done for Bitcoin?

We appreciate your feedback and I am pleased to hear that you will be peeking in from time to time. I'm sure you can understand that the first few steps of a new business can be a bit shaky. We are working hard to roll out new features (like international shipping) and are always looking for a way to lower our costs where we can.

Please keep the feedback coming everyone!

Jonathan

I didn't bother, because honestly it's not that relevant. I posted a few items I looked at that I'd actually be likely to consider ordering online with bitcoins if I could -- and what the competition is, for my situation. (I can't drive because of a vision defect, so I can't always get to the store with the lowest prices. I can only get to Wal-Mart instead of the pet store, for example, if whoever I'm tagging along with when they go shopping is going north on the interstate, instead of south.)

It does at least tell them what the actual result of their suppliers' prices is: that they're charging more than double what I can easily find at retail.

Gah. I managed to accidentally slice the last paragraph off my last post as I was posting. :/

I do want to add, I give these people serious credit for actually making what is, to my knowledge, the first place where I can actually buy dog food and kitchen appliances with my bitcoins. And I've already added them to my long-term bookmarks bar. I'll be peeking from time to time to see if they end up having stuff I want at prices I'm happier with -- and it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a business start out one way, then evolve. Especially because they may be first but probably won't be the last, and competition is good for everyone.

It doesn't matter how many unused webstores you erect on the internet with wickedly overpriced goods if no one transacts on those sites.  This is like that thread where the guy is claiming that the bitcoin economy is doing awesome because the filesize of the page that lists bitcoin "merchants" is expanding.  Nevermind the fact that the majority of those links are broken, no longer accept bitcoin, or have never done a single transaction in bitcoins.

The price of that 16 GB sd card is VERY high it seems.

In some cases, yes.

Then again, people also pay twice the amount of money for a pot of brand-name peanut butter, while the brand-less peanut butter is exactly identical and from the same factory. That's how it works, apparently.

Ok, I thought you were comparing it to the local Wal-Mart or similar. In that case it may indeed be over the top, but did you also compare it to the price of these products on for example Amazon? From what I have seen so far, it seems Amazon is charging through the roof for things, and he doesn't have *that* much markup (which basically means he should probably be looking for a different supplier).

Yeah, for that, I apologize. It's early morning for me, and that reads, well. A lot harsher than I was aiming when I typed it. :/


The problem is, I'm not comparing the prices to Wal-Mart. I'm comparing the dog food prices to the name brand food at the "high end pet store" in my area. I'm not comparing this place to the discounters. He wants more than twice for the cans of dog food as the most expensive dog food I've seen at the most expensive pet store in my area. If I compare the prices to Wal-Mart, then it's more than four times the cost -- but that wasn't the comparison I made, because, no, I don't expect the discounters to be the first that appear...

If the price was double the cost of the store brand dog food at Wal-Mart I wouldn't have even made a post. But it's not double the cost at Wal-Mart. It's more than double the cost of the "fancy" dog food at the local pet store. More than double the cost of the most expensive brand they sell. That's not "not being a serious discounter", that's gouging.

Do people seriously pay 4 times as much for an SD card on brand?

Are you comparing the exact same products? Comparing generic SD brand #1 against generic SD brand #2 is not going to help much.

That's the reason I only compared products of a specific brand.

Merchants are free to charge what they want, and I am free to give feedback on a public forum.

There's also a reason why I compared the prices to retail brick-and-mortar stores in my area, instead of the cheapest deal I could find online. Right now, if I want to buy pet food with bitcoins, I have two options. Transfer coins to the exchange, sell them, take the money. And that takes a bit. So I'd then go to a store, not online, because I'll notice he's low on food when he's got a few days worth left, not a couple weeks. This marketplace sells food I'd be fine with feeding my dog... except with the prices being well over double what I can easily find locally I'm not about to do that.

I give them a hell of a lot of credit for making the first place (that I know of) where I can actually buy dog food with bitcoins, but... if they want me to buy the dog food there, they'll have to be at least within parity of the brick and mortar pet stores in my area.

That's also why I gave specific examples of the things I looked at. That way they know what they're competing against, at least as far as whether I'm a customer, and can either ignore it, or look into it.

The 16GB card is 5.58btc, at 14.5 USD/BTC that is $80.91. They are about $20 on Amazon. Thats a huge difference.

Now I get your point, but this:
is just ridiculous. Do you really think this is going to be the single cheapest Bitcoin store in existence? Does the fact that one store is relatively expensive (and well, it seems that's mostly due to Amazon charging through the roof, as their markup doesn't seem to be that big), REALLY say anything about how Bitcoin as a concept is going to succeed or fail?
Just think about it rationally for a second.

Things like this *will* be how Bitcoin will get bootstrapped into a 'real economy'. Yes, it may be expensive right now, but the fact that there *are* stores that sell a lot of things for Bitcoins, is something very important for the 'image' people have of Bitcoin. When some company invents something new (say, the Philips Wake Up Light), do discounters immediately have a cheap no-brand alternative for it? No, it takes time.

It will be the same here. First the 'regular' stores pop up, before serious discounters appear.

Also, this.

give this guy a break. It's a free market. Merchants are free to charge whatever they want. If his stuff is too expensive, he will soon realize that no one is buying. Either he'll drop his price to be something more realistic or he'll move on, thats how the market works.

I'm sure 99% of bitcoin owners right now are the type of people who can easily compare prices between several websites to see what they are buying is too expensive or not.

Well, I looked through the inventory, and my conclusion is ... it's a lot like a store that's near me in meatspace that I sometimes shop at.

Both are places I would almost never patronize, because the fact is, the prices on a lot of things suck. I saw a toaster oven that works out to about $88 if I assume Bitcoins are 50 cents lower than today's low. Problem is ... Well, I can get the identical toaster oven for $30, RETAIL, at five different places in my area.

Oh, and they want $45 for the toaster I just picked up at a store last month for $15.

Oh, and then there's the dog food. Yes, it's bulk. Which means it works out to a bit over three dollars a can. Yes, it's "natural", except I can get natural dog food, _RETAIL_, larger cans, for about $1.50 each locally.

Actually, what's really irritating is ... when I started writing this, I was going to compare it to a local grocery store where some stuff is much more expensive, so I only go there if I can't get a ride farther (the place is the only store in walking distance for me), but they actually do have some good specials ...

So while my roommate was cooking breakfast, I've been looking through the site, TRYING, and utterly failing, to find a single price I'd actually consider reasonable. Just started looking through the dog treats section. I find my dog's favorite rawhides there. For more than double what I pay for them when I have to go to PetsMart.

If this is the best "market" we're gonna get for Bitcoin, then boy is Bitcoin fucked. I don't feel like pointing at all the other outright gouging because I have other stuff to do today, but...

If I can look through a site for the entire time it takes my roommate to cook breakfast and not find one single item I know the store price of (they have stuff I don't buy and wouldn't necessarily know) that's within 150% of what I could pay for the item _NAME BRAND RETAIL_ ... well, swing and a miss.

I have no reason to rip anyone off, not even of their fake internet money. 

To compare a random product on this store, and its equivalent on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Sambazon-Organic-Amazon-Energy-6x4/dp/B0048IFOYM - $59,99
http://www.bitcoinworldmarket.com/products/1545-sambazon-organic-amazon-energy-6x412-oz.aspx - 4,24BTC * 14,48 =~ $61,40

I fail to see how this is an extreme markup?

EDIT: Ah, it seems Jalum is just a little pathetic troll, probably better to just ignore him.

I am getting SICK and TIRED of people posting that the products in the store are marked up! Next time, somebody better post a link where they can find the item at a cheaper cost.

And pay attention to see if the BitcoinWorldMarket merchandise comes in bulk, because I looked and some of it does.

Sounds like your wholesalers are charging more than retail prices so it might be time to change supplier.

Have you set up a store accepting Bitcoin lately?