Topic: We Need a Real Bitcoin Online Store, not "retailers" who just price gouge 15-20% (Read 5431 times)

You'd actually be surprised how many people don't realize Wal-Mart sells food. O.o

Thanks, wolftaur. Believe it or not, the way you fixed it is the way I thought I wrote it. I must have typed the f instead of the g, being that the keys are right next to each other, along with me having food on the brain when I was in brain-fart mode back then--even when I proofread it.

Fixed it for you.

So open a store that's cheaper.  You'll help out the ecosystem and actually make bitcoins instead of spending them.  I'm being serious here, not trying to be a smart-ass.

Nice looking site you have there. I do have one question. Are you from India? The reason I ask, is because I spent 3 weeks there back in 1990 touring the country. I loved India. My second wife was from India (can you guess why I was in India?) She's a good woman with two great boys. There lives are now completely different then if they didn't have the opportunity to come to America, thanks to me.

+1

They still have to mark up costs to pay Gox. The buyer gets to pay as well. They could just exchange US dollars, but I guess thats too hard ;-)
Then buyer says 'well I like to be confidential'...LOL, and I thought it was the bitcoin that was confidential, not the buyer..it just shows you what an easy target these buyers are.

And a big thanks to these buyers for driving up the maintenance requirements of the blockchain...like throwing rocks in a pond..'well look at that'.

I dont know that anything is needed,a fool and his money are soon parted. These bitcoin markets cater to socialists and criminals. Over the long run, this forces bitcoin to collapse in value so its no big deal....the bitcoins are still there, and new buyers step in. If they repeat the same mistakes...bingo.

Even if the items were sold for the same price, all that does is make the exchanges richer. You would be really paying for the items in dollars in the big picture, but also playing an expensive game of currency conversion. Fighting against the dollar is absolute nuts.You got little joe talking about how to trust Jim over a game of trading bitcoins when both of them are dependent on the US dollar. The only way to combat this imbalance is to subsidize it...with little Joe excited about sticking it to the man. Eventually he loses interest after loss after loss. Gox nervously holds onto an increasing stack of worthless bitcoins since effectively, there is no liquity for a mass sale....its like China holding US dollars, the more Gox holds the more Gox will cause the market to collapse later, but if Gox converts bitcoins to dollars, Gox is going to cause a panic and expose that the emperor is wearing few clothes.

Meanwhile little Joe is fretting over a US dollar collapse, when if it does there will just be a new strong dollar...meanwhile little joe is trying to reinvent the wheel...yeah he trusts person X, who he has no idea of who he is, but doesnt trust the US government with hundreds of thousands of soliders strong, with a open judicial system and lawmaking framework[saracasm].

I'm offering 25% discount on current exchange rates for anyone who pays with bitcoin on my eBay store (including shipping).
I've had no interest so far - I think anyone who owns bitcoins calculates their cost (ie time) in buying bitcoins and makes a decision based on that. Even a 25% discount doesn't represent the true value of the bitcoins to the owner of the bitcoins. Anyone using a 1:1 exchange in their pricing has no chance.
Bitcoins are worth more than dollars/pounds/euros even at the current exchange rate (I can just use my $£ - why waste my bitcoins?).

(If you want a link to my eBay shop message me or see my post in the trading section)

This is good information, but it is new.  Not everyone knows or has the ability to do this yet.  This should allow bitcoin shows to have lower prices long term as they can count on a pretty close dollar value from the sale.  I do see prices lowering slowly for bitcoin vendors and when we have stable prices and people are not trying to sell the hottest video cards that are in short supply we should see some good deals.

get off your high horse, All I did was point out many bitcoin stores are blatant ripoffs when held in comparison to the free market. There is already a perception that bitcoin is a magnet for scammers and operating a "service" which charges asinine prices and little to no service in the name of bitcoin is not exactly helping. There is absolutely no reason to treat consumers in such a manner unless one has absolutely no ethical understanding or morals. Are morals a requirement in the free market? No. But it won't get consumers beating down your door trying to give you money either.

The comparison to the store in the OP and newegg was because most likely he is just ordering from newegg himself and drop shipping it to the ordering address instead of his own, NOT comparing newegg and his store as a whole.


Consumers have rights and your post makes me question your general sanity if you are adverse to said rights. I would expect a 6%-7% markup to get his beak wet at most but every single item is gouged ridiculously. Especially when held in comparison to other bitcoin merchants that have stepped forward in this topic so far and advertised their services! There are great merchants out there and at the end of the day we need more of them with more business.


Merchants don't need to hedge any bets on the cost of Bitcoins as mtgox merchant api instantly transfers USD$ at the current rate with no buy or sell trade orders. If you are a merchant and accepting BTC that way, there is absolutely no way to lose money on exchange rates going up and down as you get the locked in rate at the time of the transaction. Watch an explanation from mtgox on the bitcoin show here if you have not heard of this yet: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogwrap#p/u/7/KJAiGcKFtuE

That's why I sell my wick for bitcoin!

Priced the same as, or cheaper than, my US dollar retail price.

The existing APIs can do this.

I was actually getting to that same conclusion...
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Next time, post faster. Or you could have mentioned selling other stuff that Walmart doesn't carry like...let me think for a second...I almost have it...here it is...Stuff Made in America.

btw, i wasn't dissing ur post, 3phrase--just wanted to drive my point home

What about selling the food stuff that Walmart doesn't carry?
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I was actually getting to that same conclusion...

What about selling the food stuff that Walmart doesn't carry?

If 1,000 merchants offer 10,000 products/services and keep their BTC prices 10% lower in value to their USD, EUR< etc. prices, then wouldn't that create a BTC buying momentum that would raise the BTC/USD exchange rate?

After all, if we're talking quality vendors and not quick-buck scammers, new people (not miners or current BTC holders) would want to buy these things and so they would try to buy bitcoins in order to purchase these wanted items/services.

In the long term, offering a discount for BTC payments, is profitable, by expanding the market for BTC, and therefore create a buying pressure raising the exchange rates.

I do understand the businesses that want to take no risks (I've taken quite a few in my business life, and they did hurt), but if you do believe in BTC, you have to share some of the risk with your customer. They (the customers) will be hurt in the end and they will have a sour feeling if BTC/USD rises 20% from payment time to delivery time. You (the business) will be hurt if BTC/USD falls 20% from payment time to cashing in time.

And yes, I am thinking of starting a business selling food stuff for BTC, and my main concern is how to get prices lower than Walmart.

Don't forget http://CoinedBits.com. High quality unique product at an amazing price.

And check this out. It looks like arstechnica.com is one of my customers :-).

Here is todays article:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/symantec-spots-malware-that-uses-your-gpu-to-mine-bitcoins.ars

So you mean it's a method for eliminating risk and maximizing profit? That... actually sounds like everything that every successful business does... ever...

Because the prices will both rise and fall then over the longer term (e.g., week, month or quarter, at worst) these fluctuations will in most instances cancel each other out.

If this is something where there is absolutely no margin for fluctuations, the Mt. Gox redeemable code (voucher) gives the merchant the ability to trade on the proceeds instantaneously, though this requires the customer to use a Mt. Gox account rather than the bitcoin client. This voucher feature is currently available already but for the API they are looking for beta testers yet if I remember correctly.

Additionally, when volumes become large enough there will likely be easy and inexpensive methods for lessening this risks similar to how forex protections are available.