Bitcoin Forum

1. Load a usb drive containing a file with username and password to a mybitcoin account containing bitcoins.
2. List on ebay for the price of the drive + the price of the bitcoins.
3.Have proof you posted and it was received by customers.
4. $profit ???

Is this a pipe dream ? lol

Someone else mentioned it - it sounds like a fantastic retail idea, perhaps even more so than eBay.

Problem is taking payment. Once scammers find out you have unrevokable currency they will use hundreds of stolen paypal accounts to buy your drives. Verified address means nothing, you simply order 10 custom IDs for $30 and wait outside the address to sign for it. Carders do this all the time to get laptops, or they simply get verified drops and fund that account with stolen money

You can also phone paypal 6mos after buying something, say your kid bought it while you were out of the room and transaction is reversed, seller out of luck. You could however buy an ad on ebay that redirects to your site to sell them

Also it's probably against paypal TOS to trade digital currency since it's their rival. Limited account incoming...

Why bother with a USB drive when you could email the mybitcoin account and password?

What's the point? 

I'm thinking that this would be a cool idea for in-person exchanges of bitcoin for cash.  Does anyone know of a source for cheap, low-capacity USB drives?

Why do they have to be usb drives? Can't you use a CD-R? No ability to rewrite the data stored on the disc (for fraud purposes I suppose) and they are much cheaper.

Or maybe those mini cd-r discs.

You can get craploads of 128 meg drives on ebay, cheaper by the dozen, but tere is no safe way for the receiver to know that the disk contains the info that you claim it does without actually plugging it in to his own computer to look at it.

I do wonder though, why would anyone buy it?  I can't picture myself in the mindset of being someone who has never heard of Bitcoin and thinking - WOW - I want this.  The purpose of the flash drive when I heard this at first, was to make it a plausible item for sale on eBay that would be a "tangible item" and be less likely to trip their radar.

If it were sold in a vendor booth at the next DefCon, I could see the appeal...

If I picture someone wanting to "buy" bitcoins, I picture them wanting a sort of prepaid card at 7-Eleven, sort of how they can buy FarmVille credits and prepaid cellular minutes, which they then redeem online.

for in-person exchanges of bitcoin for cash, I see two people whipping out their smartphones and doing (and confirming) their exchange that way... keeps both parties safe.

I think this is a good idea.  If you ship (with delivery confirmation) only to PayPal confirmed addresses, you're covered by PayPal's seller protection program and chargebacks are not an issue.  Even if the buyer charges back, you're not liable.  The only major risk is that PayPal decides you weren't really selling tangible goods in the first place.  In my experience though, all they really care about is the shipping address and delivery confirmation.

A piece of paper is cheaper than a usb drive .........

I think it would be great for newbies who hear about bitcoin and decide they want to try it.

USB stick is better than a CD because you could include a recent copy of Bitcoin (with most of the block chain), already configured, for Windows and Mac.

So the user plugs in the USB drive, double-clicks the bitcoin app, and they're up and running.

The seller would need to establish a reputation for no-viruses/trojans, no already-spent coins in the wallet on the stick, etc etc etc....
... all the stuff that newbies are probably to clueless to worry about anyway.

The value is both the "starter" bitcoins in the wallet AND the convenience of not having to download/install/configure bitcoin.  If PayPal asked, I'd say that I'm selling bitcoin software on USB sticks, and that the bitcoins in the wallet are just there because you can't use the software without having a few bitcoins to start....

A CD can do all of that, though. A CD cannot be erased, like a USB drive can. Also, if you are buying USB drives in bulk, CD's will be cheaper comparatively. You can also have artwork on the label of the CD if you wanted, or advertisements.

edit: I am talking about having the installer of the bitcoin software on the CD, in order to install it on the user's computer. Or, possibly having a script that copies the wallet.dat from the CD to it's respective folder on the user's computer.

How about this:

1 . Sell a usb drive on ebay that you say has bitcoins...
2 . load with autorun virus that TAKES the bitcoins from that user (since you know they are a bitcoin)
3 . have proof of mailing
4 . withdraw money from paypal FAST (because they will take it away fast as well when the buyer reports)
5 . double profit!!

The moral of the story:
USB drives from strangers are dangerous ( well at least for windows users )
PAYPAL is even more dangerous
EBAY will take a fee that is too big for anyone to make a profit

Use bitcoins for trusted merchants, in person or electronic exchanges with friends, a direct point of sale replacement for cash

Better idea: Modify autorun virus to steal their bitcoins and their ebay account to avoid negative rep.

I'm trying selling bitcoin gift certificates on Ebay:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7072.0

I know this is an old thread, but I want this link here for posterity.