Bitcoin Forum

Group buy aimed at UK buyers interested in 0.1 BTC silver plated physical coins as per:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=331084.msg3551411#msg3551411

GROUP BUY IS NOW CLOSED - FUNDS ARE IN ESCROW READY TO RELEASE TO SELLER ONCE COINS ARRIVE SAFELY IN THE UK

http://s22.postimg.org/x9grwgu2p/IMG_0777.jpg

EDITED AS PRICE REDUCED BY 10% TO 0.18!

Great opportunity to get some early bhCoins at an accessible denomination (0.1 BTC) which is important given the sky-rocketing BTC price (who can afford the early 25 BTC Casascius coins now?!). Some first and second series Casascius coins are selling for 5x their face value!

Will consider shipping to EU if tracked shipping is not prohibitively expensive.

Will only make a purchase if I get interest from enough parties to fill an order of 6 or more coins to make it worthwhile. I'm interested in 2 myself, so that's 4 (or more) additional coins.

Price will be 0.18 BTC per coin including tracked UK shipping, or slightly more for international shipping to the EU (I will charge 0.18 BTC + shipping cost, whatever it might be). Buying one yourself from the manufacturer would cost 0.19 + 0.04 = 0.23 BTC.

Terms:
Delivery: everyone in the group buy will be subject to the risk of non-delivery by bhCoin (I do not guarantee this), but I personally don't see this as a big risk (first sale seemed to go fine). When I re-ship them I will use UK tracked shipping which is normally insured up to about £50. I've never seen a UK royal mail tracked parcel get lost, but in the highly unlikely event your coin is lost between me and you, you will get whatever is paid out by the insurance once it is paid out. I will assist you in your claim.  
Customs: I reserve the right to charge extra for customs duties or couriers' "handling fees" to the extent that any are charged to me. Typically I have seen amounts of £10-£20 charged for this kind of transaction. Onward shipping will be withheld until your share of customs is paid; share will be on a per-coin (not per order) basis. Again, this would also be the case if you were buying coins directly yourself (actually it would probably be worse as there is usually a minimum customs / handling charge, and the charge would not be shared between multiple buyers).
Returns: none - I am not a business seller; distance selling regulations do not apply.

For me this isn't really a way to make money (0.18 is only a few pounds more than the cost of buying the coins, paying the postage for them to get to me and then paying the postage from me to you; doesn't really cover the cost of my time) so this is more a way to reduce my cost of buying a couple of these. If you prefer to buy direct, feel free - I just wanted to save a few of us a few pounds. If I don't get sufficient interest here, I just won't proceed.

Please reply in this thread with the number of coins you're interested in.

scotjam

EDIT:
Enough orders to proceed; any additional orders will need to be placed this evening / early tomorrow morning as I will collect payment shortly and order tomorrow.

Reservations:
scotjam
scotjam
dozerz
dozerz
scribe
scribe

As order will now proceed, please make payment to: 18i6uDLHVwZS5kRMgeYf7HogxUR6RyE16z and PM the transaction ID for your payment, plus your shipping address, to me

put me down for 2 thanks.

Got you down

Cheers

scotjam

Bumping - any others interested? It would be great if we could get another 1-2 people down and get these ordered before tomorrow

Cheers

scotjam

Really tempted to get 1 or 2, but rate rise has got me hesitating. Depends on a few things, but will try to decide soon :)

Rates are almost back down to $500/BTC now on bitstamp.

Anyone who wants to proceed, speak up; we need one more person in for 2 coins and I will push the button on this soon after; I will not wait forever for more people as this has been open for several days already.

Cheers

scotjam

Yeah go on, stick me down for 2 then ;) Will DM details through.

Great to have you on board! With 6, we have enough to make an order so I will place one tomorrow.

Price has been reduced so it will be 0.18BTC each instead of 0.2!

scotjam

thanks, paid

d897c97f41c4c71becb716d1d557ab617856ee4b2ce17615f52218df0bd5a76a-000

Thanks guys!

Just as an update, we're ready to order on our side and I have messaged aEnima (the creator of the coins) to sort out the details; just waiting for his response.

dozerz - please PM me your shipping address at some point as well.

Best

scotjam

I'll take 2 if you have any left and will post to Australia.

If yes do I PM you to confirm order?

Cheers
merv77

Order has been placed, but I'm checking whether we can add 2 more without extra shipping charges.

Shipping from UK to AUS will be about £16 (at current rates that's an extra 0.035 BTC)

Total charge would therefore be 0.36 BTC + 0.035 BTC + additional shipping charges on the group buy to add 2 more (likely to be 0.02 BTC, if any).

The reason why there might be additional charges is because we just slipped under the order size bracket where the shipping charges increase, and with two more coins we won't be below that bracket any more. I hope the manufacturers will decide that there will be no additional charges (more sales = better for them after all...), but if there are any extra charges you will need to confirm quickly either way whether you'd like to proceed.

Best

scotjam

hi scotjam,

I've PM you to confirm my interest
let me know how and when to proceed.

Thanks

Additional coins have been added to our order - thanks for the prompt payments everyone!

Update from the manufacturer:

FYI above. If you are not comfortable with this risk (noting that tracked shipment methods have £50 insurance by default) and would like to pay for a greater level of insurance in case of the highly unlikely event that the package is lost after I have sent it to you, please let me know now; otherwise I will ship with £50 insurance as per the OP.

Best

scotjam

Coins have shipped from seller and are on their way (tracking came online today).

Best

scotjam

thanks for the update. can't wait to get them.
BTW. value has already gone up. BTC on Mt.Gox passed $1000. currently just on $1000 exactly.
Cheers

hi scotjam,

any update? if you haven't got them, where are they in regards to tracking?

not being pushy but it's been 9 - 10 days since you said you received tracking number.

thanks
merv77

No update yet - the tracking info seems to only go as far as the departure from the sender's country (left sender's country on the 29th), so it looks like I'll only know once it arrives with me (we're in the dark until then). I will post here once it arrives with me, but feel free to check in from time to time (as you have done above).

scotjam

thanks scotjam
Cheers

Cheers for the update. Hope the delivery goes through OK - I know Casascius Mike funds his coins *after* they arrive, so they don't have value on import.

Also heard a slightly odd tale of someone sending a small wooden disc through the post, only to have it replaced with a circle-shaped hole on arrival. No idea if that it was a deliberate heist or some other effect, but strange all the same.

The bhCoin guys do the same thing, but they said that they have to fund them as soon as I receive them (they can't wait until you guys have them).


Sounds very weird - do you mean it was replaced by the postal service?

scotjam

No idea - didn't manage to get a photo. Almost sounded like it got "intercepted" (badly, no envelopes being steamed open) while on route. (The one sent to me was fine.) Always good to disguise coin-shaped thing sin the post, I guess.

That's surprising - was it tracked and / or insured?

I'd be happy to disguise these when they arrive and I send them out to you guys, but I would prefer to just use a safer / insured postal method.

sorry if I'm a pest, but any ETA yet?
gee, it must be getting close   :)

and, what is you postage method?  Hope it's quicker postal service.

No problem to ask (I'm as eager as anyone to see these arrive...), but there is no update unfortunately. We're in the Christmas shipping period, so there can be delays.

Tracking info (Google translate)

Date                      Ground                               History                                                   State
29/11/2013 01:04 CTP CPI-BUENOS AIRES     DEPARTURE COUNTRY
28/11/2013 21:34 CTP CPI-BUENOS AIRES     ARRIVAL PROCESSING CENTER
27/11/2013 2:29   CTP BUENOS AIRES            IN PROCESS OF CLASSIFICATION
26/11/2013 22:52 CTP BUENOS AIRES            ARRIVAL PROCESSING CENTER
26/11/2013 9:20   AG. 02 BUS TERMINAL        MAIL ENTRY

Original:
Fecha   Planta   Historia   Estado
29-11-2013 01:04   CTP CPI-BUENOS AIRES   SALIDA DEL PAÍS   
28-11-2013 21:34   CTP CPI-BUENOS AIRES   LLEGADA AL CENTRO DE PROCESAMIENTO   
27-11-2013 02:29   CTP BUENOS AIRES   EN PROCESO DE CLASIFICACIÓN   
26-11-2013 22:52   CTP BUENOS AIRES   LLEGADA AL CENTRO DE PROCESAMIENTO   
26-11-2013 09:20   AG. 02 TERMINAL OMNIBUS   INGRESO AL CORREO   

As for my shipping to you guys, I will use tracked shipping (Royal Mail / Parcelforce) unless there is a significantly better alternative that I find. For UK it will be quick, for EU also quite quick. For Australia it may take a bit longer ("delivery aim" is stated as 5 days, which isn't bad). It will be subject to Christmas delays though so keep that in mind.

Was hoping to get all of this done before we were so close to Christmas (order was placed on 23rd November...) but wasn't expecting them to take so long to get to the UK.

Best

scotjam

Good news - arrived today!

I should be able to ship them out today. I am using the original cardboard + plastic bags + airtites that they came in (cardboard cut in 3 so each set of coins gets protection) and sticking that lot in bubble-wrap-padded envelopes for you guys. I will update once shipped.

Best

scotjam

EDIT: note that they are not yet funded. I have let the manufacturer know that they have arrived safely though, so they should fund them shortly.

that's great news, I'm very excited to see them as they are my first bitcoin real coins.   ;D :) :D

thanks for the update scotjam
cheers

Tracking numbers sent - you can track at http://www.royalmail.com/track-trace

All three packages are insured to £500, but after interrogating the post office workers I understand they make it very difficult to claim (you need an invoice for the sale price, which would be difficult to do given they were bought from a seller in Argentina using bitcoins...) - so fingers crossed they reach everyone intact.

Best

scotjam

Thanks Scotjam - mine came through today. Comparing them to the Casascius coins, obvious differences are they're slightly smaller, but a bit heavier. They also don't have the public key available on the coin itself, so keep a backup of the key that gets sent along with it...

Have to admit I couldn't resist taking one out of the case. Does feel pretty good in the hand, nice weight and good shine.

Cheers again!

thanks also scotjam - picked my coins up today and were as expected. thanks for organising this group buy, well done.

mine are apparently "in transit" in Melbourne so shouldn't be to long, I think.

I'll post again when I have them in hand.

Cheers

Good stuff - keep me posted

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!

Best

scotjam

received them on 24th Dec

very nice and happy to have them finally.

thanks scotjam much appreciated
Cheers

Anybody got 1 or 2 to sell?