Bitcoin Forum

*** THIS POST WAS EDITED TO UPDATE THE HOSTING INFO AND SOME DETAILS ***

I am announcing a new service I am about to implement, goal of which is to provide means to exchange bitcoins for almost-money ;) ... Well, maybe not exactly, but it allows you to buy items using bitcoins, while pretty much skipping nosy banks altogether.

Here's how it works: you go shopping amazon or newegg, and put whatever you want into shopping cart. There will be a total price for an order. Instead of paying with credit card you go to BTC Buy and order a gift card for the total sum. I have also put standard $10, $25 and $50 denominations on a front page, just for those who don't wanna type.

Gift cards are being delivered after I get a couple of confirmations that the coin is sent.

Currently, the application is in the beta state. You can access it at https://www.btcbuy.info

Not all is automated, initially I will be buying and sending the gift cards manually, therefore delivery will not be instantaneous.  I promise to process all requests at least in 12 hours max, where possible deliver right away.

At this time, maximum gift card price is $200 $500. If you need more than that, order several times.

Follow us on twitter to get real-time status updates: http://twitter.com/#!/btcbuy (http://twitter.com/#!/btcbuy)

NOTE: If you are ordering NewEgg gift cards, expect slight delays. So far, delays ranged from couple hours to almost a day. NewEgg says "1-2 business days", so be aware.

I would suggest you work on implementing a version of the wishlist bot somebody around here did; I think it's a nicer system. Surely there's room for more than one such service.

Are you talking about http://www.bitcoinexchange.cc/ ?

No, spendbitcoins.com

I think what I'm making is easier to use, because you can immediately see how much in bitcoin you need to spend to get the goods. Using spendbitcoins you have an extra roundtrip:

- "Seller" requests gift card for X dollars
- "Spendbitcoins" replies with number of bitcoins and, I assume, address
- "Seller" sends bitcoin
- "Spendbitcoins" sends gift card.

Each step could be hours delay. Using BTC Buy, you immediately request gift card. Even though it's not 100% automated right now, I could achieve pretty fast turnaround, because I already know amount of bitcoins I need to recieve and value of gift card.

You're right, my bad.

Someone else offered something where it would (say every 5 minutes) parse your amazon wishlist, then email you a receipt to buy what was on it in BTC. You'd send, and the items would go to you immediately. That was hot, and hits some of the issues you're talking about re: simplicity.

I think you are onto something here. I still maintain that buying a GC is probably a simpler way, because you need virtually no setup at all. Setting up amazon scanning, arguably is a one-time thing, but you still need to keep in mind to not actually buy the stuff, and add it to wish list instead (drag!). And what if script breaks? It has to scan a lot of wish lists every 5 min, probably use tons of resources.

Initially I was thinking to be offering the actual newegg/amazon items as in: you shop, but instead of buying copy/paste SKU and I will give you a quote in BTC. But then what about returns, RMAs, and such? Getting complex, GC idea seems like a lot simpler way to go.

Where do you get your current rate for Bitcoins?  You're site states $26.39 while MT Gox states ~$29.

I use some algorithm to calculate the rate, in general it will be at least 10% lower that mtgox rate (could be more). I do it to make sure I can cover cash-out expenses. Rates could be changed in the future as soon as I get a general feel about my own expenses

Do we get the gift cards sent to us psychically by mail or through email?, I hate wasting paper.. This sounds like a great idea!

by email of course! in which century do you live?  ;)

Lol i was just cuious becuase it wasnt instant. And i live in a tiny town full of ol folks so its kind of the norm around here

Just used it, took around 1 hour, so I'm extremely pleased. Already bought a book for my Kindle. Nice to see these kind of services develop :).

I had some network problems, so my payment came in too late and my transaction expired. But, I'm still very pleased and eager to use this service :D

This sounds like an interesting service. How is it working out? Which retailers are you providing the service for so far?

It actually been working out pretty well so far. A lot of work, almost to the point I'm having trouble at day job, but pretty exciting. I only trade BTC for amazon and newegg, ppl prefer amazon.

Dwolla situation got me sweating, I almost thought I will run our of $$$ on the credit card and will have to suspend service, but situation seems to have recovered.

Overall, I am very pleased with community reception, and hopefully community is pleased with service.

Could you do Amazon UK gift cards?  It shouldn't be too hard of you can already do US ones.

I don't mind doing it, but I am not sure what expenses might be; I will be probably charged foreign transaction fee, and yadayada. I don't mind that, since I will just factor those fees into BTC price. If you want, we can try running a one-time transaction, so that I figure the costs. Send me a private message, how much you want on the card

ALL, FYI: There are several additions to BTC Buy:

- there's a twitter to follow for status updates (@btcbuy)
- transaction limit increased to $500

Sounds like what coinpal was doing, if my memory serves me correctly.

btcbuy is back up. sorry for extended outage

Iv orderd 7 cards from him got them all fast and its been easy and fast to do.

This is really frustrating. It is a cool idea that I was excited about but I can't order, it keeps saying that price is fluctuating too much..Well..it ALWAYS will fluctuate so I don't know when I should order.  >:(

Edit: Well, trying for about 10 mins now when the price has been at 12.19 for a while...price is still "fluctuating". Please someone tell me how to use this service!

I emailed support and not only did I get a gift card 5 minutes later but support helped me find out that there was a bug with long decimal points in the BTC...Very happy with this service, will return again :)

when will amex, visa gift/prepaid cards be offered?

I have been trying to find options, but unsuccessfully so far. Those all come with caveats, which renders them useless, such as:

- must order physical card (means must pre-order, cannot issue fast)
- before usage, must register and verify name/address/age/ssn/phone #
- some will even impose monthly fee if not spent

if you know where can I get them without above-mentioned caveats, let me know, I will be happy to offer

Service moved to EC2, and we now have SSL certificates to protect from DNS spoofing and traffic sniffing. So, those who care about security, can now use https://www.btcbuy.info

I just used this site last night, and it was 100% perfect.  
 
Will use again, thanks :)
 
+1
 
oh, and my amount wasn't huge, but enough to make me nervous for my first-time:  $150.
But went smoothly.

Will be using this service in the near future for sure. Keep up the great work. And never close it down ;D.

Great service. Fast and well, fast ;D.

Thanks coga.

Will there be in the near future gift card for Amazon.de?
I would be interested

All, thanks for kind words!

Those who monitor this thread, I would like to announce that this weekend we shall have a "sale", e.g.: commissions would be halved. Have a blast folks!

+1

I would be happy to handle this folks; but the cost of handling amazon.de is significantly higher for me, so as long as there are no expectations of the same price level as you getting with amazon.com...

of course I would expect the fees to be higher as if buying an amazon.com gift card.
Could you tell as the current rate (€ for one BTC) to see if it would be interesting or not?

If I go with my current setup, I would estimate it could be ~5% more expensive than USA-based cards.

I am still researching what could be done to lower down this number, because extra 5% shuns away a lot of customers.

depends on the exchange rate which will be used. Therefore the question is whether you first calculate Bitcoin into Dollar and then Dollar into Euro or immediately Bitcoin into Euro.

I've been running a "sale" a week ago or so. This time, the price reductions will become permanent

This is good stuff, especially with the low commissions. I've been cashing out bitcoins as Amazon credit for a while now.

Just wanted to say this is a great service.  I cashed out all my bitcoins using it.

Bought an Amazon GC last week. Email response from the site came within a few minutes, and the GC came after about 12 hrs.

Anyone buy from here recently. Just want to make sure orders are still being fulfilled.

As always excellent service.

Very quick and support is above excellent, all-n-all everything is above excellent.

Thanks BTC Buy for a wonderful experience.

I searched through the thread and didn't see mention.  Any reason not to offer eBay GC's ? (other than the evil by association of PayPal  :) )

PS: Have bought multiple Amazon GC's through here, always lightning fast.  Also appreciate the updates as technical/hosting/etc. issues have arisen.  Excellent job.

Yes, problem with eBay GC's is that they have to go through PayPal, and it has been known to manage their customer's funds very liberally. I did not have trust so far, that they will not just start withdrawing money at will, base on some of their "process".

Another reason is that I was able, in this or another form, to get some sort of cashback mechanism with most of the cards that are sold. It's not much, but at least it gives me some motivation to keep the business running. It is a lot of work, and sometimes a lot of stress, and definitely a lot of risk, sometimes major money are getting stuck, and you never know if you ever see them back. Anyway, this is not to complain; it's just when there is no way I could get any kickback for a purchase, I have to charge big %% off face value for commission, which drives customer away. One of the reasons why Walmart cards are not sold.

And the last, but not least is legal: bitcoin is already a gray area, and as anyone else I would hate to find myself in a pokey for breaking some "law" that I'm not aware of. Gift cards are not money, so I feel fairly safe that I can not get into too much trouble. But sending someone actual money will bring business into completely different category. I am trying to avoid this. It probably is the major reason, why I am not getting involved in PayPal, Amazon or Google payments.

is your scripts broke iv have noticed they are showing really low btc compared to what its traded at right now it used to be only about 15-30cents off its a full 1.0 off now.
Current rate is 5.48 USD for BTC.
mtgoxUSD  6.4349

This is temporary. MtGox might have a good rate, but they have problems cashing out money lately. We switched to BitFloor for exchange, but there seems to be a liquidity problem there as well. Please hang on, this will get resolved this way or another soon.

i see still big differnce even on that site your .70 lower then price with your fees and % you take thats a pretty good chunk i know you have to make a profit or break even but thats alot higher then anything you charged befor it seems i been buying from you for 2 years almost.
Current rate is 5.48 USD for BTC.
Last Price: $6.29 Low: $6.20High: $6.29

That is correct, and it is caused exactly by liquidity issues on bit floor. For the price that a ticker shows you can only sell a couple bit coins, after that, then the price dips. So the script calculates what would the price be if we had to sell about 100. That rarely affected end price when we were primarily on MtGox, but now, on a smaller exchange it makes big difference.

I hate to offer such a bad price. I would much rather trade bigger quantities with less profit. We will try some other exchanges, and hopefully these issues will be resolved soon. Please hang on and the resolution is coming.

Update on the price problem was posted at blog.btcbuy.info (http://blog.btcbuy.info/2012/06/what-is-going-on-with-rates.html):

I am also glad to mention that the software patch was deployed, which would result in ~5% higher base rate.

See blog post for details.

First time user, long time listener . . . . . TWO THUMBS UP FOR A SPEEDY SERVICE!   ;D

Try vanilla visa.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Visa-100-Gift-Card/16513386
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Visa-200-Gift-Card/20625678
http://www.bitmit.net/en/trade/i/4842-us-500-visa-gift-card/description

PS. If you sell prepaid cards which can pull cash out at ATMs, then you will get more business than you can handle.

any eta when you might be back at mtgox i noticed they been going up and your prices are droping lol.

Not sure. At one time, it seemed that MtGox is actually improving withdrawal times, but now it is going worse again.

We did have a significant order traffic last week, and even with faster withdrawals, from our alternative brokers, it is very hard to keep up, but when there is an extra 1-2 week when your cash is held, it is virtually impossible to do business.

So, I guess the answer to your question is "I don't know"

I see maybe using mutiple exchanges same time could help keeping cash flowing in faster  btw not trying to complain just tossing out any ideas could help you i know you have to make a profit and keep enugh funds to be able to do orders.

I'm aware the prices are not at the peak now, but last few days my exchanges were often giving prices better than on mtgox. Which I'm inviting you to take advantage of.

yea i bought some cards when they were higher then mtgox i buy a card from you just about every 2 days when i dont gamble them away lol bad habit to get into.

I just want to say I used this service for the first time today, and got my code almost immediately after purchase. Thanks, I will be using this service again!

I purchased 2 bitcoins worth of amazon gift card credit and while I did receive the automated messages that my order was being processed. . . I have not received the gift cards.  it has been 24 hours now.  :-(

Edit:  Soon after posting this Sam got back to me and he re-sent the gift card number and it all worked.  Strange glitch in the matrix I guess. 

What are the fee's on a $100 Amazon gift card?

I might be misunderstanding the question, but isn't the web site self-expanatory? Here's the screenshot: http://vvcap.net/db/EHE4vOEySMaYqS4ygq7G.htp

Any possibility of offering amazon.ca certificates?

Constantly evaluating such possibility, as well as .de and .co.uk. Not yet, mainly because we have no presence in those countries, and the cost of buying certificates from USA would rack up so much commission, that nobody will be ordering. There is a chance that we will get something eventually.

Is there a reason that the rate is $84.96 right now when it used to (a week ago?) be about what the exchanges were at? (would/should be 93-95 or so now I guess)

Also: Current Amazon $2000 price is 23.56BTC. This is 2001.6576 USD at the 84.96 rate.
Should be 23.54048964218455743879472693032 = 23.54 (or 23.55 if you rounded up) not the 23.56BTC
$500 should be 5.885BTC (5.89 I suppose) not 5.9 as listed
$100 should be 1.17 or 1.18 but is 1.19

and so on. It is a small amount, sure, but it adds up when you do many transactions. Seems like it's round up to nearest .01BTC and add .01BTC although a week or 2 ago the difference was slightly greater if I'm remember right.

Other than the (now) large discrepancy in rate used vs current exchange rates and the slight, let's say, "rounding error", it is a great service that I've used many times and will continue to use once(if) rates are back to normal.

Sorry for the bad prices. Lately, we are getting a lot of orders, and we are running out of capacity. So, it's either reduce the rate or stop accepting orders altogether. If you see a bad rate, best course of action is to wait

Makes sense. That's exactly what I've been doing. Working out wonderfully so far.
Should I expect that "rounding error" to remain in there or will that eventually get fixed? Less important being able to do $2000-2500 at a time instead of 10 $500 transactions for instance but still there.

You shall. That error originated due to some javascript rounding, that caused system to false flag some orders as invalid, when they really were. But those were the times when bitcoin was worth 5 dollars, not 100, so it wasn't a big deal back then. I could see how that would cause some discontent now.

Why is btcbuy offline?

http://blog.btcbuy.info/2013/04/services-will-be-suspended-today.html

Well, that just sux.

I can recommend BTCZone for alternative (www.btczone.com)