Bitcoin Forum

Company name: MintSpare Inc.
Parent company name: Virtual Holding Capital Ltd
Company website: MintSpare.com
Ticker symbol: MS
Bitcoin exchange: Havelockinvestments.com
Founder and CEO: Galfry Puechavy
IPO date: January 9th, 2014, 1PM EST

Overview
MintSpare provides its customers with a unique and comprehensive electronic purchasing and trade-in service in return for the digital crypto-currency Bitcoin. Motivation for our product comes from the fact that consumers purchase millions of electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, and DSLR cameras to either replace their obsolete equipment or simply because they desire to have the latest versions. MintSpare provides an avenue for these consumers to receive Bitcoins for their dated equipment at a fair market value. To use MintSpare, customers simply provide basic information about their electronic devices and are provided with a Bitcoin compensation amount and a shipping label. MintSpare promptly processes all devices received and does required repairs before selling them via various online marketplaces. Besides providing a trade-in process that offers customers a fast and profitable way to earn Bitcoin for their unwanted electronic devices, MintSpare also has a complementary and environmentally friendly recycling service for customers’ electronic devices. MintSpare’s offices and shipping/receiving center are located in Miami, FL, USA and serves customers within the United States and plans to serve international customers in the near future.

Company Structure
MintSpare will list exclusively on Havelock Investments, releasing 100,000 units at 0.005 BTC per unit, representing 20% of the company.

Units offered: 100,000
Units privately held: 400,000
Total units: 500,000
Initial offering price: 0.005 BTC
Total BTC to be raised: 500 BTC
Total company valuation: 2500 BTC

Each share represents 1/500,000th of the total profits of MintSpare.

If at minimum 50,000 units aren’t sold within 6 weeks of release, the IPO will be cancelled and all Bitcoins returned to their respective owners minus transaction fees.

If necessary, 100,000 additional units may be sold at the 30-day weighted average starting July 1st, 2014.

Virtual Holding Capital Ltd
Virtual Holding Capital Ltd consists of a company legally separated from MintSpare Inc. It is located in the country of St. Lucia. The purpose of this company is to be the legal holder of all MintSpare units.

An expert team of lawyers based in the Netherlands has aided MintSpare with the legal procedure of creating such a company.
Initial Fund Allocation
350 BTC of the initial funds will be kept in our bitcoin reserve, used to pay for trade-in electronics. The other 125 BTC will be used for funding on initial costs, ongoing costs, and future expansions. The final 25 BTC will go towards paying Havelock’s management fee of 5%.

Dividends
Each MS unit is entitled to no less than 70% of profits in dividend payouts. The remaining profits will be reinvested into MintSpare. MintSpare reserves the right to lower these dividend payouts to less than 70% if it is the best interest of shareholders. If this occurs, an announcement will be made.

Accelerated Dividend Plan
All public MintSpare units will receive twice their normal dividend rates until a total of 0.005 bitcoins per share has been paid. Then dividend payouts will proceed as normal.

Voting Rights
MintSpare shareholders do not have explicit voting rights.

Board Member Status
A board member is required to have at least 20,000 units. All board members will be able to help make decisions on voting for future expansions. Board members will not be provided advanced knowledge on whether the plans themselves were or will be put into effect, as well as release dates for any plans. This information will instead be provided through public announcements.

Forced Buyback
MintSpare reserves the right to buy back any or all outstanding units of MintSpare Inc. on Havelock Investments. If MintSpare Inc. is sold to a third party, shareholders will be compensated based on the current market price at minimum. MintSpare may not execute this right before January 1st,  2016.

Reserved Rights
MintSpare reserves the right to make any changes to this contract that represent the best interests of its shareholders.

Issuer Info
MintSpare has provided identity information to Havelock Investments as a sign of good faith, and as a means of contact.

Links
Website: www.mintspare.com
Havelock IPO: https://www.havelockinvestments.com/fund.php?symbol=MS
IPO Prospectus Paper: https://www.mintspare.com/products/MintSpare%20Prospectus.pdf

Disclaimer - Liability and Guarantees
The issuer makes no guarantee, either explicit or implied, as to the suitability or fitness for purpose of MS for any investment goal or for the needs of any specific individual. By participating in this listing, buyers of MS units assert and agree that in no event will the issuer or any person or entity involved in the operation of the company be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the buyer's participation in the listing.
Section headings used in this document are for convenience only and shall not be given any legal import. Individuals considering participating in this listing should ensure they are familiar with and fully accept the terms of service of the exchange itself; this listing is available solely through the exchange and should not in any way be construed as a direct offer or solicitation from the issuer to potential participants.
MintSpare is making no guarantee of future performance of MS bitcoin unit value or the value of Bitcoin in general as compared to any other currency, security or commodity. The investor understands that MintSpare and the exchange operations are in bitcoin only and bitcoin is in an undefined regulatory environment. Bitcoin companies, funds and units might carry greater investment risk than other types of investment funds. The investor must conduct his or her own research before investing.

Questions & Answers

When are you launching?
Our expected launch date for our Beta is February 1st, 2014. Our expected launch date for official release is March 1st, 2014.

Is your location in Miami open for visit?
We would gladly accommodate private tours of our facility/warehouse at our location in Miami, FL.

Reserved.

LOL< another stock that can be delisted at any time.. No thanks, I lost all my interest after the VTX fiasco.

Reserved.

Looks interesting

On the flip side, it's a service I would use.

Where will this service operate? The US?

Can Havelock confirm this bit? Did Havelock verify any of the information? What information was provided? Will the same information be provided to board members and/or shareholders?

Havelock Investments has worked together with MintSpare to bring this offering forward and has verified the identity of the directors of the MintSpare company.

Thank you,

Havelock Investments

reserved

500,000 totals units @ .005 BTC each values the whole company at 2,500 BTC.

in fiat currency, that's about $2,500,000.

while it seems like a good concept for a company, i have a hard time seeing how a start-up venture like this could value itself at $2.5 million. what assets would someone be buying into? there isn't even a functional website. . .

+100 Million BTC

First and foremost I would like to possibly explain how an evaluation of this type is achieved.

• Mintspare is the World’s First Bitcoin Trade-In Service period.
• The number was based off of a proven business model within the ‘Fiat’ world.
• This business model has been proven to exceed 100’s of millions in revenue per annum.
• Therefore following this business model to a ‘T’ as well as tapping and implementing original IP (Intellectual Property) from the Minds at Mintspare and marrying it to the Bitcoin world we feel that the evaluation we have arrived at is fair and solid.

Wth Mintspare being a start-up company, what the investor would be buying into is:

• Mintspare being the World’s First Bitcoin Trade-In Service period.
• Mintspare has spared no expense on research and development to be able to corner this marketplace within the Bitcoin world.
• A professionally designed customer portal fully created to draw in the consumer and run them through our ‘Easy’ process to allow them to trade their used electronics for Bitcoin.
• We then re-sell and or refurbish and resell these electronics for a profit.
• We feel that out of all trade in services in the world, Mintspare gives the greatest value (Bitcoin) to our consumers.
• As well as having a terra ferma location and processing warehouse within Miami Florida, USA.

Mintspare is real and we have taken months to arrive at this day. Our evaluation is current and solid and we feel it is just.

2.5 Mill, you guys are nuts, no sales, no revenue, no proof of concept with BTC.

Just a cash grab,

I'm starting to think you guys (james, and the others are just trying to come up with more ways to grab btc)

If you guys went on Dragons Den with this kind of offer you would be laughed off the stage!

All true, but I am interested in selling my stuff for BTC - if I was in the US I'd probably choose this over 'fiat world' services, ebay or the like.

Agree the valuation is off though.

Who is James?

What IP and who are "the Minds"?

Do you plan to sell the electronics for BTC or dollars?  
If for BTC, do you have a list of websites that you already plan to use to list the items?
If for dollars, what service are you using to convert it to BTC?

Your prospectus states:
"Stored Funds
The vast majority (98%+) of our bankroll will be kept in Bitcoin. A small part will be kept in dollars for upcoming dollar based expenses."

Will this be a hot or cold wallet, and what percentage of each?

Edit: James is the owner of Havelock.

reading through the prospectus this becomes clear:

the 500 BTC this IPO will raise is supposed to fund 100% of the development and reserve of the company. yet the IPO units account for only 20% of the equity of the company. the website and all other tangible benefits are being funded by the IPO.

that ratio seems impossibly skewed.

basically, in fiat terms, the company actually needs $500,000 to start-up but is valuing their idea at $2,000,000 (and market research?!??). yet the IPO investors incur all of the financial risk. in essence, they value the business concept at a ratio of 4:1 to all of the equity needed to execute the project.

i don't think these are ratios and valuations that would fly in a conventional business world. it does seem quite opportunistic in terms of exploiting a hot market and a (potentially) not very savvy investor retail investment community.

it will be interesting to see if anyone actually participates in this IPO.

I think this is an interesting idea. I share some of the concerns voiced above, some not.

However, what I am really sceptical about is that, according to the prospectus, you want to make a PROFIT of 2,300 BTC in one year with a startup from scratch. I find that VERY hard to believe. If you could do that, the valuation of 2,500 would be an enormous bargain and I would give you all my money.

But maybe I do not understand the market well enough. The prospectus is a little sketchy on the details of how that is supposed to be accomplished. Maybe you can add some detail on the following:
- What is the expected premium you expect to sell the electronics for, after having bought them? Looking at your excel sheet, it seems like you plan to sell them at a 40% premium. Why will the premium be achievable? You state you plan to sell the items competitively to guarantee a quick turnover, but that means that you purchase offers must be extremely low?
- Where do you plan to sell the items (before selling them on your own site)?
- What is the manpower you assumed for a) repair and b) re-sale? It seems like you will need quite a number of people for that. Do you have the technical knowledge for the repairs etc. and wherefrom?
- Why can't I find the founder Galfry Puechavy at least on linkedin?

Thanks!

Mintspare is the ‘Intellectual Property’ the whole idea of taking a proven business model in the ‘Fiat’ world and remapping and revamping it for the Bitcoin space as well as being the only company within the Bitcoin space to do so. This is the intellectual property we are putting forward to the public for consumption.

So we view this as not just an idea, we are not just a company taking an existing idea and putting it into the Bitcoin space. We are a company that is revamping the idea into a successful business through design, culture, process, technology, customer support, innovation, growth and proper staffing within the Bitcoin world.

To answer your question about who are the minds:

The minds, simply put, are the MintSpare team, composed of the Founder Galfry Puechavy (me) and other essential employees.

Do you actually have a patent or are you just calling it IP?

Model seems viable so under observation the bitcoin value rising up significantly is an interesting factor when building a Bitcoin Based Trading service.

Some models see it at 10K-50K this year from the current 1K so my question is does Mintspare believe that they can convert the assets they receive for a profit greater than potential increases in the Bitcoin currency itself, including the time it takes to ship an asset to the location in question as we do see rapid rises in currency during some periods. A small part will be kept in dollars for upcoming dollar based expenses.

The vast majority (98%+) of our bankroll will be kept in Bitcoin is a great idea, but extending on that is it possible to have an observing address for the bankroll, there should be no security issues with doing so and keeps transparency in the Bitcoin assets to back up the items held in inventory.

Other than that I like the model as it is a proven model, salvage and redistribution is a large industry, my major concern is the increases in bitcoin value exceeding the value of the electronics traded in over the same duration, although reading your prospectus I do see you have planned proper mitigation steps to avoid that issue.

I presume it is too early to ask what is your turnover rate on electronic goods so I will reserve this question for when sales start occurring.

Interesting business and best of luck, we do need more business in the Bitcoin sphere as it helps to grow the digital economy, whether it is going to grow faster than Bitcoin growth well this will be where testing the concept will kick in.

i'm sorry, I can't help myself.

i imagine the following conversation with a banker.

"we've got a great idea for a business. we're not putting any of our own capital into it. we have no collateral, guarantees or assets aside from what you put into it. we'd like you to fund it 100%. once you've put in the 100 % of needed capital into the business you'll own 20 % of the assets of the company. and of course, as these are virtual shares, it's hard to say that you even own the 20 % you think you own."

yes, maybe more businesses are needed in the virtual currency space but, this is something different. this is a handy BTC shrinking device. insert 1 btc and immediately it becomes worth .2 btc.

maybe it's an amazing idea that will flourish. but the investors hold all the risk and only a fraction of the upside. the promoters have no risk as they're only spending your btc to see if the idea works or not. they haven't even invested the time/energy to get the business started so that they could approach investors with a track record of performance and first-hand knowledge of the challenges of their venture.

this seems like the kind of proposal that you take to your rich uncle hoping that he just closes his eyes and agrees that there is "potential".

really, at the end of the day, i'm curious to know how you guys decided to value 100 % of the start-up and working capital as only 20% of the total equity. 

Gave it a quick read on the last post so looked a bit more at it after reading some of the commentary here
Based on this reply it could theoretically run as a faucet send electronics in get bitcoins out at a rate worth more than electronics if the price rise goes against the company but that's a different risk.

Bitcoin’s value has increased exponentially since its inception. Besides the easy transaction process, customers would be willing to trade in their electronics in the hopes of gaining money investing in the Bitcoin currency.

The numbers below
____

Units offered: 100,000
● Units privately held: 400,000
● Total units: 500,000
● Initial offering price: 0.005 BTC
● Total BTC to be raised: 500 BTC
● Total company valuation: 2500 BTC

Ask is $500,000 for 20% of the equity Stake in the company Valuation of 2.5 Million (Assuming Exchange Rate == $1000/Fiat Unit )

Each share represents 1/500,000th of the total profits of MintSpare.

If necessary, 100,000 additional units may be sold at the 30-day weighted average starting July 1st, 2014.

Dividends split 80 Company 20 Investors at IPO
Maximum Dilution is 40%

At least 70% of profits will be paid out as dividends. This may be adjusted in the interest of shareholders. Any change will be made public through an announcement to all shareholders of MintSpare. The remaining profits will be reinvested in the company.

All public MintSpare units will receive twice their normal dividend rates until a total of 0.005 Bitcoin per share has been paid. Afterwards, dividend payouts will proceed as normal.

Board Seat = 1/5th of all offered shares or 20,000/100,000 Public Market
Cost of Board Seat assuming IPO price is 100 BTC

350 Bitcoins of initial funds will be kept in MintSpare’s Bitcoin reserve. ($350,000) These Bitcoins are used to pay for trade-in electronics. The other 150 Bitcoins ($150,000) will be used for funding initial costs, ongoing costs, and future expansions.

Guess that's the Available data Assets ???

Havelock clearly does not have investor's best interest in mind.  This scam, like much of the Havelock portfolio, is DESIGNED to create a loss for anyone who puts money in.

1 - You get the privilege of buying these scammers a new business.  You take more than 100% of the risk* and if all goes according to their undemonstrated plan, and unproven (and unknown) team, you get 1/500,000 of the profit.


*

• A contract that guarantees you a loss
• Forced buyback for any reason
• Forced Div shrinkage of up to 30% or more (seriously read their "DIVIDENDS" section) your very thin slice of the pie you buy for them is actually worth less than 20%; at their whim
• Variable contract terms clause and NO voting rights

2 - By the time these scammers get around to even deigning to provide you with a dividend, if all goes well (probably won't even be until 2015), the value of the BTC you invested will likely be worth far more than it is today.  Anyone care to guess what the annual average value appreciation of Bitcoin itself has been?  (Hint, it scales exponentially).  

There is no scenario, EVEN IF THIS BUSINESS IS SUCCESSFUL, where suckers (Havelock calls them "investors"), break even, let alone actually earn more than they put in.  This is a blatantly obvious cash grab by scammers teamed up with the unscrupulous Havelock.

I'd actually be willing to bet that Mintspare has already raised at least $125k USD for their startup capital.  But instead of buying BTC at market they've contrived to take yours.  They don't want a business, they want the value appreciation of your Bitcoins for themselves.  

  

This wouldn't even be a good deal if it was denominated entirely in USD.

seeing IPO's like this makes me want to close my havelock account.

they should really do more to build their credibility and not expose their cliental to these ridiculous terms.

the impression, is that havelock's real clients are the start-ups (who pay big fees) and not the retail investors who need to be thought of as fools to invest in a prospectus like this.

Clarification Point: Duffer the BTC return with fiat appreciation is factored in unless they run with the coins or the security is broken even after the penetration tests then use section 2 or the case where Mint ends up in a liquidity crisis, I also presume that havelock will not retain the bitcoins in this case since all the IPO is accounted for in the prospectus.

This is why I requested an observable public address for those Bitcoins to ensure the assets held in Bitcoin reserves remain at a constant level.

I presume that there would be no issue as there is no way to break in just from having a display address, but it requires a clarification.  

Stored Funds
The vast majority (98%+) of our bankroll will be kept in Bitcoin. A small part will be kept in dollars for upcoming dollar based expenses.
350 Bitcoins of initial funds will be kept in MintSpare’s Bitcoin reserve. These Bitcoins are used to pay for trade-in electronics so activity should be provable, and verified as well as reserves being maintained.

I am discarding the worst case scenarios although it does happen in the bitcoin world I presume that the office building and address can be visited and confirmed and won't suddenly poof, and tech goods shipped to that address by someone else will need to physically go there and be converted to cash, that said someone else would need to tour the location to be completely satisfied.

MintSpare’s offices and shipping/receiving center are located in Miami, FL, USA
https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mar/4233927443.html

The Contract Says:

All public MintSpare units will receive twice their normal dividend rates until a total of 0.005 Bitcoin per share has been paid. Afterwards, dividend payouts will proceed as normal.

(Presumes this case applies to share dilution in case another 100,000 are released)

So at minimum it should cover the IPO in BTC value not fiat however that is worth confirming with MintSpare.
(Theoretically share price can drop to less than 0.005 but will be valued at 0.005 Less dividends remaining till IPO price is reached, and the time it takes to reach theoretical 0.005 which will factor into the share price based upon the average dividend)
It means it has bond characteristics all else equal

That said the disclaimer is quite thorough so if I missed a point feel free to re-clarify your point

Disclaimer - Liability and Guarantees
1.The issuer makes no guarantee, either explicit or implied, as to the suitability or fitness for purpose of MS for any investment goal or for the needs of any specific individual.

2. By participating in this listing, buyers of MS units assert and agree that in no event will the issuer or any person or entity involved in the operation of the company be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the buyer's participation in the listing.

3.Section headings used in this document are for convenience only and shall not be given any legal import. Individuals considering participating in this listing should ensure they are familiar with and fully accept the terms of service of the exchange itself; this listing is available solely through the exchange and should not in any way be construed as a direct offer or solicitation from the issuer to potential participants.

4. MintSpare is making no guarantee of future performance of MS bitcoin unit value or the value of Bitcoin in general as compared to any other currency, security or commodity.

5. The investor understands that MintSpare and the exchange operations are in bitcoin only and bitcoin is in an undefined regulatory environment. Bitcoin companies, funds and units might carry greater investment risk than other types of investment funds. The investor must conduct his or her own research before investing.

That said your other points were valid enough, just wanted to clarify that one ^^

@freedomno1:

Don't overthink it.  Every investor on Havelock has lost money.  No stock is trading above its IPO price.  Traders may have made money, but that's the beauty of trading - money could be made trading scams.  Many have made money trading Labcoin.

You seem to be trying to come up with a hypothetical scenario in which Mintspare is not a scam.  I could come up with one defending perpetual motion engines because... because Maxwell's Demon.  I'm sure I would convince those already thinking that perpetual motion is possible, and those who hope to become stinking rich backing PerpetualMotion LLC.

Mintspare is exactly what it appears to be at first glance - an ambitious money grab.  Factor in Panama, the fact that everything on Havelock is trading below IPO, and the outcome becomes pretty clear.

I don't see how it's factored.  They'll still have your Bitcoins (80% of which magically belongs to them because... screw you, pay me).  If they should miraculously be capable of achieving ROI for investors they'll just force buy back the outstanding 20% @ ipo price.  It's explicitly written into the contract that they can do that.

Hello Freedomno1,

First off we would like to say that we fully appreciate your well informed posts.

Second, we would like to say that we are huge fans of transparency within our company as well as externally as this is the whole idea behind an IPO. We would like to say that we would happily oblidge making our bankroll address public.

We at MintSpare would also like to recognize an error on our part within the release of our IPO. We failed to include the planned release of our Customer Portal 'Beta'. We are very hard at work finalizing the Beta at this time and it will be released no later than February 1st, 2014.

Furthermore to address another point that you brought up, the accelerated dividend plan would apply to any released shares.

Lastly, we here at MintSpare would gladly accommodate private tours of our facility/warehouse at our location in Miami, FL.

LMAO, why don't you address the real concerns,

1- you have no sales, no income.
2- how do you plan on hedging against the rise in BTC value while you're holding product that will certainly DEPRECIATE??
3- WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE WORTH 2+MILLION??

 

Dear Madam!

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Sincerely Yours,
Account Management Team

how morbid. pick the one sentence from the one post that seems remotely favourable and declare that to be "the well informed post". all this in the cloak of being transparent!

to be transparent, maybe you acknowledge that the IPO is mis-priced and the fine-print offers absurdly unfavourable terms to any potential investor.

i'm also stuck on the fact that Havelock is promoting these kinds of "opportunities".

**edit**

Found answers in prospectus

In case anyone's interested, I've taken some time to do a detailed write up of MintSpare's offering on my site, Coinelius.com. The link is in my signature below-

TL;DR Caveat Investor

Hahaha a novelty is you.

This thread has delivered, restored hope & so forth.

a solid review of what's going on here. really, if you're thinking of investing, read the review:

http://coinelius.com/mintspare-ipo-will-they-be-minting-btc/#sthash.EY6LDEgu.dpbs

Hello twentyseventy,

Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed and well thought out write up. We would like to provide some feedback if you don’t mind?

The board of directors will be foregoing all salaries throughout 2014. However, hiring well qualified individuals that will be able to drive MintSpare into becoming the go-to de facto standard in the trade-in service industry for the bitcoin world as bitcoin grows requires a higher than minimum wage pay.

Dividends are expected to be at or above 90% for the large majority of the 2014 calendar year. In certain situations such as preparing to launch an expansion plan, we would lower them temporarily to accommodate additional costs.

“MintSpare’s Sky-High Revenue Projections” being conservative are based off of extremely well thought out executions on every front, which we’ve mentioned in a previous post: design, culture, process, technology, customer support, innovation, growth and proper staffing. We agree that this is much harder said than done, but hope that the IPO Prospectus gives enough insight both in writing and visually to be able to showcase to potential investors the direction we’ll be taking MintSpare throughout 2014 and beyond.

The 'Gazelle' of Bitcoin! I like the idea, and it's certainly a service which I will use as often as I can.

However, this isn't something I will be investing in, but possibly for different reasons that have been voiced here already (I've only perused the thread so far).
The two biggest problems I have are:
1) The initial founder (or founders if there are silent partners) isn't putting in any of their own capital to seed the startup, or at least none that has been noted or accounted for in the financials thus far. Without an initial seed, granting investors 20% of the company seems a bit far-fetched. This also makes the offer more like a 'Kickstarter' campaign than an investment in a company, and runs the risk of reducing pressure on the company to perform as expected.

2) The big issue:

This is obviously to be expected, and certainly something I can't criticize. But what this means is that investing in MintSpare (or any other company tying their products/services to fiat) is a way to hedge against Bitcoin. As Bitcoin increases in value, MintSpare customers would receive fewer BTC for their items, and in turn MS would earn fewer BTC after converting USD from the sold product...leading to smaller dividends overall. Of course, the opposite could happen as well; lower Bitcoin price means more BTC to distribute after converting USD. I'm ignoring fluctuating Operating Costs in this example (I presume they're tied to USD as well).

I can also appreciate the fact that MintSpare is touting "first to market"; holding that title certainly has its initial benefits (e.g. market share). The problem here comes when competition suddenly abounds. Should a second "electronics refurbishing" company come to market in 2014, it may not bode well for investors. Or, if the Bitcoin price stabilizes while media coverage and adoption increases, you run the risk of the actual Gazelle adding a Bitcoin payment option (it's quite unlikely at this point or in the near future, but still something to consider).

Anyway, just my 2 Satoshis.

On another note, you may want to double check the Financial Projections chart in the prospectus. Your "Initial Costs" are incorrect.
 

Thanks for the endorsement, I appreciate it.


Sure, I'm always open to honest discussion. I'm glad to hear that the Board will be foregoing salaries for most of 2014, as they're receiving 80% of the company without putting up any funds of their own. I understand that you may have to hire some competent workers to do the repairs, but are there any other salaried positions than those kind of employees?

When talking about dividends, do you mean that only 10% will be reinvested (90% paid out to all shares)? I'm very wary of any company that allows themselves to lower dividends on a whim. Do you have a contingency plan or additional funds in case the 150BTC for setup costs has been exhausted in January and February revenues are deficient? Can you assure investors that you will not dip into the 350BTC reserved for equipment purchases?

I stand by my use words when calling MintShares' revenue projections 'sky-high'.

Can you elaborate at all on why these projections are 'extremely well thought out'? Because this:


...It doesn't actually mean anything.

I'm glad that you guys are so confident about your execution, but numbers sell shares here. All I can think that you've done to come up with a $5 Million Dollar first-year revenue is linearly extrapolated Gazelle's sixth/seventh year revenues to your operation.

Gazelle made $35 Million in year 6, so MintSpare could make $5 Million in year 1, right?

Hello Korbman,

You bring up a great point that we’d be happy to touch up on. In regards to bitcoin’s growth, there are two major positive points that will greatly benefit MintSpare:

Expenses will be reduced. Since all MintSpare expenses are being paid in US dollars, having the value of bitcoin rise would require less bitcoins to pay for expenses.

Bitcoin’s popularity. With bitcoin’s growth, not only will people want to acquire more bitcoins, but more people will want to start acquiring bitcoins to begin with. With MintSpare’s extreme focus on simplicity and minimalistic approach, we’re positioning ourselves to be one of the simplest and easiest ways to acquire bitcoins in the United States.

That combined with not only being the first company in the world to bringing the trade-in service model to bitcoin, but doing it right, is what we believe makes MintSpare an extremely promising offer, not only from an investor’s perspective, but for the bitcoin sphere as a whole.

A shipping logistics expert capable of coordinating a team effectively and efficiently to handle hundreds of incoming and outgoing packages everyday, through processes such as repairs, sorting, labeling, and packaging with attention to care on every forefront is not paid minimum wage.

A marketing leader capable of using effective marketing tactics such as brand awareness, high ROI advertisement conversions, analytical tracking for optimal funnelization, and other necessary parts to creating a successful company of the scale we’ve set ourselves up to reach is not paid minimum wage.

A manager capable of not only handling, but effectively managing large teams with a strong sense of direction, efficient implementation of concepts and ideas, and innovative vision adapted to not only keeping up, but outpacing the already fast paced technology world is not paid minimum wage.

We could easily hire very affordable employees at near minimum wage to do a mediocre job, but we’re not trying to make a company that just ‘scrapes by’. As we’ve previously stated, one of our strongest focus points consisting of becoming the de facto standard is not reached by hiring a mediocre team, but one that excels at what they do.



Yes, there will be dividend payouts where we have only kept around 10% of funds for reinvesting on our current expansion project(s). Since we’re providing a service, we have a huge benefit in that we’re able to expand with relatively low capital in most cases.

We don’t expect to ever lower dividend payouts to below 70% of profits. But since we don’t want to limit ourselves based on legal wording in case of an unforeseen major event that requires us to quickly respond, we’ve made a clause stating that we’re able to lower them as long as we provide an announcement to the public. We strongly believe that this is in the interest of the investor.


The January projections for marketing are an error on our part. We thank you for pointing this out but believe we’re unable to correct this misstep. Only around March 1st, our expected official launch, would we start investing in marketing. Since the marketing funds will be spent alongside incoming revenue and profit, we’ll be able to constantly adjust angles for optimum ROI. With that said, we have no reason to believe that we will need to dip into our 350 BTC reserve.

We hope this was helpful in alleviating your concerns.

Sean Geng is our main developer, who has been working on the MintSpare's site for over two months now. He will be directly contributing to this thread, providing insight on where we currently stand in development, future progress, and providing feedback to any questions or concerns the community may have. Since he's the main developer, he'll be able to better inform the public on the technical standing of the site. His bitcointalk handle is 'blackswan'.

Hey guys!

I'm the lead developer on the MintSpare project.  I've worked on various projects in the Bitcoin space before in the past, some of you might remember my exchange live trading tracker Kryptotrader.

To give you all a status of the site so far, I've been working with the team over the last couple months and I'm very happy with the progress we've made.

- Products and their offer prices have been uploaded to our database
- Device selection is complete (Being able to narrow down your device similar to how Gazelle does it)
- 2FA and SSL encryption has been incorporated
- All sensitive user data is encrypted in our database
- User accounts and user dashboard is complete
- Employee backend is nearly complete (we recently completed the ability to scan in received items, among other things)
- Shipping label generation is complete
- Most of the UI is complete, but this will be one of the last things to finish (functionality first!)
- Referral program is receiving finishing touches
- Email system is complete

Overall, the current development of the site is looking good, and as I've said, we've been working and planning this for a few months now.  Our hard deadline of February 1st for our Beta launch is looking very obtainable.

Feel free to ask me about any questions relating to the development.   :)

I appreciate the answer, and the first two concerns have been as adequately addressed as possible. I'm now even more confused about the revenue projections, however.

The service is going to go live in March now, instead of January? And, even if you take out the 35 BTC January Marketing spend, you'll still be spending 25-30BTC in February for overhead, which will be putting you on the brink again.

And, again, you guys really need to cut out the marketing speak. I get it - I can read it and understand it. Others may not be able to, however.

This:


might be more simply said as 'The marketing budget will be separate from revenues, so we can adjust it up or down as necessary'. However, I do still see some issues here, as I expect you to have to spend more than 50BTC on marketing to pull in sales of 300-400BTC in your first month or two.

Plus, is this just the first time that you're notifying shareholders that March 1 is now your launch date? I don't see that anywhere in the prospectus.

I find the idea good and I'm happy to see that more and more business are coming to spread the bitcoin all over the world.
However, from the investor's perspective, I would not invest in this venture for the simple reason that the web portal isn't available.
You claim that it will be ready on Feb 1st. I would have recommend you to make your beta public available before announcing any IPO.

Good luck with your business, and pay attention to the logistic point, it might be hard to manage if you're successful.

Regards.

SCAM



IF YOU INVEST IN THIS YOU WILL SURELY LOSE YOUR MONEY!

Here are pictures of our office/warehouse space located in Miami, FL.

https://i.imgur.com/mGkn2SZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wvQjqlc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LzOSyBj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/z6LnYut.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G0GvQhS.jpg

LMAO, 1 desk and a scrony long haired dude, yet you think your worth 2.5mill..


HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Didn't bother to read entire thread, because OP is investing 0% of funds, but taking 80% of assets.   ::)

If you invest, just remember your $1 will instantly become $0.20

+1

Following up to this statement, are initial expenses (salaries, rent, utilities, web/graphic design, etc) paid using investors' Bitcoins (converted to USD)?

You're not the first to come with a similar (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=185916.0) idea (http://www.gazelle.com/) and so far it doesn't seem like you are providing anything to justify the $2.5M valuation, I think you should reconsider your numbers.

it would probably be prudent (and give you guys some credibility) if you took the feedback from this board, delayed your IPO and re-considered the terms of your prospectus. in the meantime, you could roll out a (revised) business plan, build some value in your project and gain a bit of practical experience running the company that you are proposing.

this would give any potential investor a lot more confidence in your product, your ability to deliver the service, and the projections that you have laid out.

doing this would really take advantage of what can be beautiful about these forums and this community which is the ability to foster feedback from a grassroots investor base.

going ahead with the IPO anyway would be a pretty clear indicator of the long-term viability of the project . . . and a clue to any potential investor . . . to stay clear!

Well, IPO day has come and gone with about 20,000 shares sold. I'm doubting that the next six weeks are going to see an additional 30,000 sold to reach the self-imposed minimum limit of 50,000 to call the IPO a success.

It's a bit too early to call it a flop but I hope that, if/when this IPO fails, the company will realize the folly of its ways and come back with a less one-sided public offering.

i was wondering about that 6 week window too. the prospectus says that if they don't get the 50,000 shares sold in the 6 weeks they will return all BTC. does that mean that in the interim they won't be spending cash? that would really alter their expense (and revenue!) profile for January/February that they enclosed in the prospectus. is it possible that they will spend it anyway and not refund IPO investors? 

anyway, i gotta say that anyway you slice it approximately $70,000 in gross sales for February doesn't seem too likely nor does $350,000 for March for that matter.

i think on top of everything else, the prospectus hasn't really been thought through and doesn't make sense.

i wonder if they'll answer me on these questions:

1) What are the current revenue/expense projections for January/February?
2) If you don't raise the full IPO amount, how will this change your spending projections?

Lol, if 20k shares have really been sold, and the d00d has any scratch/connections, he'll buy the remaining 30k himself.  Profit.

The company/founders weren't willing to put up any capital before the IPO, why would they now? Also, if you buy 30,000 shares so that the company can acquire 20,000 shares, that's not a net gain.

You're forgetting that "the founders" will get both the coin spent on the 20k shares, and the coin they have "invested" by buying the 30k shares.  Minus the Havelock fees, of course.
That's a net gain.

*Think of it like this:
1. If 50k pennies are in the pot, you win the pot.
2. Other players have anted up 20k pennies.
3. You add 30k pennies to the pot, and rake it in.
4. Profit.  Since you won the pot, you get to take back the money you threw in.  Minus the house edge (Havelock)

You're correct, they would just have to borrow the funds for 30,000 shares.

effectively they would need to borrow $150,000 to scoop up the $100,000 sitting on the table.

they would then be able to try and liquidate the 30,000 floating stock that they hold to recuperate the $50,000 difference. but of course, there's not going to be much volume on the stock and trying to sell 60 % of the available float won't work too well.

however if a few more suckers put their money into this IPO and the ratio changes . . . say needing $100,000 to scoop the $150,000 sitting on the table. . . . now that's gotta be their wet dream . . .

op need a hand?

William T. Shiller III

<assbot> AMAZING COMPANY!

As a potential investor, I was wondering if you would consider doing recycling of electronics.  You could recycle purchased items that a beyond repair, as well as accept bulk electronics by the pound for recycling.  I know I have tons of old shit that has to be more valuable than garpage dump filler.  At the very least, there is bound to be some gold in them.

In addition, what about GPUs?  I'm sure there are lots of used GPUs in the bitcoin community that should have decent resale value.

Hello notme,

Recycling items that are beyond repair for their precious metals wouldn't be cost effective. Since we're paying for shipping on all electronics sent to MintSpare, we'd be losing money on every shipment. That's not including having to either a)  Pay for shipping to a company who retrieves precious metals from electronics or b) Purchase machinery that would allow us to retrieve the precious metals ourselves. We'll be steering clear of this for the foreseeable future.

We won't be revealing any information on potential expansion plans at this time but would like to assure you that we're hard at work growing revenue streams for MintSpare in the near future.

Hope this was informative!

Yes it really was. I am so grateful to all the contibutors to this thread as I have learned a huge amount about business and how not to do it, how to set up a scam and where and when to just leave.
op could learn sth from these guys https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=412586.0;topicseen

Have a free bump. OP!
Chin up, for every idiotic idea, there's an idiot who buys into it.
By way of thanks for my kind words of encouragement, mind telling me how much Havelock charges for the month+ of fees for this IPO?  Does it count as a month of trading?  Did you have to pay in advance, or can you IPO on credit?

Progress Update 1/17/2014

The website's fundamentals are all complete, the website itself is fully functional. There are bugs here and there which we'll be squashing on the daily. Our site developer as well as our head of security are hard at work implementing security features throughout the website for the next 10 days or so. In the meantime we're testing out dummy orders to further iron out bugs before our beta launches. Marketing is also a key focus that we're constantly working on. We're aiming to have ads published on many bitcoin related sites, which will give us an ad exposure of roughly 1,000,000 unique visitor views for the first month of launch.

Summarized:

-Bug squashing
-Security implementation
-Testing orders
-Marketing

We're aiming to launch on a Monday, either January 27th or February 3rd.

What are your expected ad costs on those 1000k viewers?

Hello Branny,

We've already locked in advertising partnerships for 3 websites, giving us a total of 55k unique visitors viewing our ad per day. We should ramp it up to around 100k a day right before launch. The pricing for these 3 partnerships is 1.35 BTC/month. We were able to achieve these rates (as well as surpassing our initial goal) through 'door to door' manual requests for webmasters to create long term advertising partnerships with Mintspare. Our marketing budget for our one month Beta launch (starting either January 27th or February 3rd) is 5-6 BTC.

As an additional note, I (Galfry) will  be present during the Bitcoin Conference in Miami this weekend. I would be more than happy to discuss with any potential investors as well as provide private tours of the Mintspare office/warehouse. If you're just looking to say hi, I love saying hi too!

What is your contingency plan if you do not sell the 50,000 shares required to make the IPO successful?

Hello twentyseventy,

It would come down to a combination of the following: private investors, scaled down operation, and some of my personal funds.

You don't even have money for a haircut.. (see pic earlier) what do you mean "some of my personal funds"

Why not put in some of your personal funds now, rather than relying entirely on individual investors (who you're screwing with a tiny % ownership/share).

I saw their ad banner at the bottom of bitcoindifficulty.com

And, actually, from the first sight i wanted to spend some 1 BTC and get 200 shares to invest for future... until I opened this thread...

My conclusion: better to refrain from such "investments".

LOLOLOL, I cant believe this is still going to happen.. Cant wait till you waste all the btc on electronics and are sitting with goods you wont be able to flip quick enough to cover the next big swing upwards in price.

Godspeed!

interesting that they are spending their money promoting the IPO and not on the launch of their service (which was supposed to start yesterday?).

it seems that the priority here is to fleece as many people into buying into the IPO as possible and not to operate an effective business. there is still no functional website and none of the meaningful financial questions from this thread have been answered.

A small amount of funds are being used to promote Mintspare at its launch. In bitcoindifficulty.com's case, we had to close a deal a few days in advance in order to lock a contract in during our launch. In order to not waste advertising space during the time we would rent the advertising spot without Mintspare being launched, we've decided to link it to our IPO. Our intentions are not to use funds to promote the IPO.

We're planning on launching by February 3rd at the latest. All functionalities are in place. The security audit is fully complete. At this point we're just ironing out bugs. Creating a website from the ground up does allow for greater flexibility on one hand, but is prone to more bugs on the other. We're hard at work fixing them.

We will make a launch announcement both on here and as an update via our asset page on Havelock Investments.

Shut up with all your nonsense. This is just a scam to take peoples money and turn it in to nothing.


[size=100pt]SCAM[/size]

since you're on-line now maybe you'll answer these questions?

in your IPO you projected to spend 102.14 BTC in January. Has this happened? If not, could you provide a revised revenue/expense projection?

There was an error in our projections as they assumed we would launch our beta at the beginning of January, whereas it was supposed to be at the beginning of February.

Our expenses are expected to be less than 40 BTC for January, the majority of this being filled by the creation of the website. We'll provide a revised revenue/expense projection plan once we launch the website. This is because we want to provide accurate revised projections, on top of not steering away from our current focus: launching.

so not only is the IPO a lousy deal for investors it's also incorrect . . . . but you're still collecting IPO funds?

really, this is just another indication of how ridiculous it is to come to market for funds for a project that you don't have up and running yet.

You're correct, our projected expenses for the month of January are incorrect. They're actually much less than what is stated on our IPO paper.

Hope this helped clear up any misunderstandings.

the IPO prospectus is in theory your contract with potential investors. not being able to deliver on this contract is a problem.

it's a problem that indicates a lack of clarity and attention to detail on your proposed business plan. as an outsider, it was clear that you weren't going to follow your business plan because the majority of your expenses were projected to be expensed before you received your IPO funds. since you aren't (according to the prospectus) putting your own funds forward as part of the business plan, it was clear that your prospectus and proposed business plan were not going to go ahead as stated.

indeed, it was, at least to some extent, a fiction. the extent of it being a fiction is unclear. however, not following through on your stated business plan (in the first month) really undermines your credibility (which is something earlier in the thread you wanted to build. . . )

my concern on this from the start has been twofold:

1) the investing conditions are extremely unfavourable to any potential investor. (granting 20% equity to 100 % of capital)
2) the prospectus that you are asking people to invest in is entirely speculative and being proposed by people who clearly have no ability to form a coherent and realistic business plan and then successfully follow it.

if your business proposal has changed, you have an obligation to the investment community to make that clear. you shouldn't come to market asking people for money with a proposal that changes a few weeks later.

you need to sit down and figure out a practical (and fair!) plan that you can follow before you ask people to fund it.

changing things on the fly is okay (i guess) when you're playing with your mommy or daddy's money but when you want to be part of an investment community and you're playing with stranger's money, you really should uphold a much higher standard of transparency and integrity.

They do not care to make it clear that the business proposal changed, they think because they spent less (due to the incompetence to follow through with prior statements) that they have no need to keep their investors abreast on the change of situation.

It because of losers like this that we need regulation in the crypto coin market.

Zevtiefenbach,

Thank you for voicing your opinion, I sincerely appreciate that.

Your concern in regards to our valuation is your rightful opinion, and I will not touch base on that. However I will note that 40% of Mintspare's profits will be directed to 20% of public shares until all shares have been paid out 0.005 BTC each.

Our prospectus was created over a long drawn out process that took many months of thoughtful consideration. We've made a best effort to provide as accurate information as possible. We ultimately made a mistake that reduced our expenses in the first month of our IPO. Taking into account the scope of our operation, and the length of our IPO prospectus, we hope that the community can understand us making a single mistake that ultimately is used to take better care of investors' funds (there is no need to spend the amount stated in our first month when we haven't yet launched). We've previously stated that the expected launch date of our beta was in February.

You are a RIPOFF

Stop trying to take money out of this community's pockets.

This is just getting humorous now.

Never mind it was a joke from the beginning.

Is this guy looking for a job in politics because this "business" "plan" and resulting actions get more absurd by the post.

Mintspare are you taking a salary?  Are you paying yourself, or anyone (partners, silent partners, pre-ipo investors, employees etc..) in Bitcoin?

You've been able to scam 127BTC by not talking about your valuation so why start now..


I suspect that you bloody well know repayment, let alone profit, can't happen (at least not for "investors").  Or if you have projected it to happen your ROI for investors timeframe extends beyond the projected lifetime of this "business."


https://i.imgur.com/NvqvU5k.jpg


I have but one keyboard, I must lawl.

D00d, using majestic plural to fleece suckers is fine - every pickpocket in this MMRPG does that.  I'm not here to judge.
I'm here to show you a handy trick -- the tilde test -- to help you cut down on typing.

It goes like this:
If negating a term makes your statement nonsensical or absurd, the original term is unenlightening (redundant).  I'll show you:

"Our prospectus was created over a long drawn out process that took many months of thoughtful consideration."

1. a long drawn-out process negated becomes:
    a short drawn-out process - nonsense.  Scratch.

2. thoughtful consideration negated becomes:
    Thoughtless consideration - nonsense.  Scratch.

We're already down to something more manageable, without losing any information:

"Our prospectus was created over a drawn out process that took many months of consideration."

Wait.  That reads funny.  Did we delete too much?
No.
We simply exposed another fuckup -- another shitpile of words to delete.
Without losing a rat's fart of content.
Observe:

"The prospectus took us months to write."

See?  The meaning intact, less typing.

Some might argue the statement itself is bull -- the "we" stands for an out-of-work d00d from Florida, the "prospectus" is a forum post that was typed up over a slice and a can of Bud, etc., etc., but that doesn't bother me.

you should note that the prospectus states that any distributions made will be done at your discretion which sort of negates any commitment to pay-out any investors . . . at any rate . . .

furthermore, are you actually thinking that offering investors 40% of profits when they are putting up 100% of capital (and risk etc.) is a good deal?

i think you can see that the overwhelming majority of people in this public group recognize that what you are offering is a ridiculous investment opportunity that is ultimately offensive to an intelligent community that values transparency. we have all read the prospectus and immediately recognize that it's not practical, full of errors (as you have already admitted) and offers terrible prospects to any potential investors. yet instead of taking the litany of feedback you've received here and revising the terms into something that makes more sense, you continue to push forward hoping that there are enough idiots out there who will throw their money at you.

one of the great things about the crypto world is the ability to have a grassroots investment community that can give feedback to, and help form effective projects. your dismissal of the consensus feedback that has been gathering here indicates an utter lack of respect to many of the underlying values that this community holds as valuable.

this is why the comments will become more and more aggressively negative towards you. why be part of a open-community when you disregard the intelligent feedback you are receiving?

you may have spend months working on your IPO document. but, it's error prone, unpractical and offers terrible terms to investors. everyone sees that and so wouldn't it make sense (if you were interested in building credibility) to acknowledge the feedback and make some changes

Basic grammar and writing skills help for random teenaged retards aspiring to pose as businessmen. Commendable, and quite amusing.

You know what MPOE, you are sometimes very amusing :D

A must read for anyone who's considering investing in this BS SCAM


http://coinelius.com/mintspare-ipo-will-they-be-minting-btc/#sthash.mG7YtLEq.dpbs

Let me level with everyone.

Almost any investment has risks involved including Mintspare. To top it off, Mintspare's business model will operate almost solely on bitcoin at all times - the risks involved are enormous! That being said, you can't have great reward without great risk. My vision is that Mintspare could be the gateway for thousands and/or millions of people around the world to have access to their very first bitcoins/crypto-currency. We hope to become the standard.

I've invested roughly 40 bitcoins of my own personal funds in Mintspare so far. That doesn't include the 12+ hour days and sometimes sleepless nights of time and effort I have contributed over the past couple of months to make sure I can deliver a successful service. I will not be paying myself back my personal funds spent until Mintspare has paid out 0.005 BTC per share to investors first. My yearly salary consists of only $1. I want everyone to know I'm in this for the long haul.

As for the company’s valuation, it was derived from a variety of factors: the current trade-in industry market value in the United States (this is just one country - we hope to grow to a worldwide service), bitcoin’s expected growth in 2014 and beyond, Mintspare's unique and refreshing ease of use - you can have your electronics shipped to us in just three easy steps and upon arrival you receive your funds in minutes, not days. Additional revenue streams that are already identified will be introduced and realized later on throughout the maturity of Mintspare. Innovative back-end hedging processes are in place to protect the business in times of significant upward or downward volatility. Furthermore, we will be the "first to market" to offer this service for bitcoin which we will use to our advantage to become a brand name that stands out from future competitors.

We’ve got great news with respect to our launch: the website is complete but it would be a disservice to stakeholders if we launched today. A first impression is everything in the bitcoin world and especially to skeptical consumers, so we’ll be hard at work doing some final verifications and bug hunting today and throughout the weekend so we can launch on Monday, February 3rd!

Whether the terms of the IPO prospectus are favorable or not is your rightful opinion. I will always place investors’ interests before mine - I want to reward those who believed and contributed to Mintspare. Let me be clear: these words mean nothing without actions to back them up. As a matter of fact, all these paragraphs are worthless without any actions to back them up. Actions speak louder than words. I could type on this thread around the clock but at the end of the day, that’s not what moves Mintspare forward.

I look forward to launching a successful website in the coming days along with a top notch customer service experience so Mintspare can deliver maximum shareholder value back to those who believed in Mintspare’s business model throughout this journey.

Sincerely,
Galfry
Founder & CEO, Mintspare

You may have good intentions, but your valuation is totally out of wack. In my opinion EVERYONE and ANYONE who invests in this will lose 100% of their money, not because the business model wont work (although I think it would be tough as hell to pull off) but because the guys (YOU) behind the business model wont be able to pull this off.

Its a very dangerous game buying iphones and such with btc to then sell the iphones and such for fiat or bitcoin and try to make profit in there as well.

We all know the next few months will be a roller coaster of a ride, big banks will be throwing mega money into BTC, infrastructure is being built, ETF"S ect.

Anyways, You may have good intentions but good intentions are just that, INTENTIONS!

Thanks for the update and I hope you're genuine. Look forward to seeing the launch. Good luck!

I for one believe that intentions are important. I do not think it is wrong to question a business plan, but I believe that it should be tactfully done. I think the valuation is high at this point, but I do not believe this is an outright scam as you suggest in your other posts.

As a possible future investor in this venture, I wish Mintspare the best for their start on Monday Feb 3.  :)

I totally agree that intentions are important, but you cant pay the bills with intentions unless the intention turns out to be profitable, which might I add is not guaranteed.

I may have been a tad outspoken when I called it a scam, but I still fully believe that anyone who puts any money here will surely lose it!

I hope though that I am wrong as I dont like seeing people lose money, especially when those who lose are members of this community.

There is no clear line between scamming and laziness/ignorance/incompetence.
If I promise to build you a spaceship, charge you a few hundred grand ('coz that's how much I think I could get you for, tops), and use the proceeds to rent an office, a company car, and hire my GF as CFO and...
Have I scammed you, or ???

Any scammer worth his salt will structure the scam to be indistinguishable from a failed business.  That's what makes scamming so attractive - no consequences when it all turns to shit.

Look, I'm glad you've decided to stop the 'marketing speak' and talk to us all honestly. And hearing that you've actually invested your own funds in this venture, and hearing about your personal pain, is refreshing and reassuring.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't justify your business plan. What you need to do is get an MBA or VC involved, get them to revise your plan with you and resubmit your new prospectus to Havelock.

Something along the lines of 80% public ownership would be a start, given how large a risk this business is and how much you're intending to raise at angel stage.

You guys have a chance - don't blow it by being selfish. Owning 1% of Apple is better than owning 100% of Tandy (a computer brand which went bust before you were probably born).

well galfry. it's hard to believe that you will place investor's interests before yours. it's an impracticable assumption. the kind of thing that a politician may say which no one would ever believe. the best an investor could hope for is to have their interests aligned with yours.

unfortunately, the way you've structured the IPO, this is not the case. since you are withholding 80% of the stock from the marketplace, investors will always run the risk of you dumping more shares into the market undermining the share value.

let me explain:

your interest is to build the share value so that you can sell the 80% you hold at a greater price.

naturally investors will also want an appreciating share value.  - so far so good.

however, if the share value begins to sink and you start to realize that you want to get some of your capital out of the project (to recoup the 40 btc that you've loaned the business for example). you'll have an ability to release a new swath of shares at a price that invariably will be below market value (invariably because if it were above market value new investors would just buy from the market instead of you). at that point you effectively freeze out retail investors from being able to sell. this scenario is not "if" scenario, it's a "when" scenario.

so when you say that "actions speak louder than words" i simply reflect on the terms of the prospectus (your action) and acknowledge that the placating you do on this board "your words" are pretty meaningless.

if you want to have credibility your action (taking money from an investment community) should not be so blindingly one-sided.

it's clear that you have developed an investment platform that is overwhelmingly favourable to you and gives your investors only nominal upside despite assuming 100% of the capital risk. So, to date, regardless of how well you sleep, your actions do speak volumes.

no matter how well your business does (and i doubt all of the projections that you have made), an investor in this equity is highly unlikely to profit in any meaningful way. and far more likely, they will end up losing most (or all!) of their investment.

and in my post, i assumed that you were trying to run a legitimate business despite the fact that the way the IPO is structured, your greatest opportunity to profit is to fail the business (sometime) after you've received your IPO funds.

this is why, it's far more credible to invest in an existing company as opposed to a start-up and why when you are investing in a start-up you would receive way (WAY, WAY) better terms than what you've offered to investors here.

like the investors who are assuming 100% of the risk should receive like 80% of the company - not the inverse. incidentally,  this would start to align your interests with the investors interests because you would have a virtually unlimited pool of shares to flood the market with any time you want to raise some cash for yourself. you would be far more inclined to see your 20% holding as a long term investment.

Dear current & future Mintspare Fund holders,

It’s been a wild ride for me since I came up with the idea for Mintspare, “The World’s First bitcoin Trade-In Service”.  I have been personally involved in the Bitcoin world since May 2013 when I bought my first bitcoins on Coinbase and dabbled into the mining scene with GPU’s for a little while. I immediately became consumed and obsessed over the next several months with the implications of learning about the potentials of the protocol and the currency.  One day in September, I was trying to sell my old iPhone for bitcoins and became frustrated with finding a reputable, fast and simple service that would buy used electronics in exchange for bitcoins. That’s when the idea for Mintspare was born. Since then, I have made it my mission to provide this service.

Today I am proud to present to every holder of the Mintspare Fund a private beta test invitation to surf the site, test the features, sell up to 2 items and provide any feedback; compliments, criticisms, bug findings, security flaws, etc (details on our bug bounty program will soon be released). A beta invite will be sent to your Havelock associated e-mail account at 2PM EST. Further, all fund unit holders will receive a 10% bonus per account for this private beta test to be put toward the items you sell. This 10% bonus will be subsidized from my personal bitcoins holding and not from Mintspare’s funds.  If you have friends or family that want to surf the site or sell items or just try the beta, I’m going to reserve additional beta test invitations for the first 100 people who e-mail me at galfry@mintspare.com.

I understand that the site will not be 100% perfect which is why I am asking for your help to get Mintspare ready for the official launch in March. I appreciate all the support from friends, family, the Havelock team, the talented engineers and new team members as well as everyone else that showed their support and criticisms along the way. My hope is that Mintspare will eventually become one of the quickest and easiest ways for people around the world to get direct access to Bitcoin in exchange for their used electronics.

Thank you,
Galfry Puechavy
Founder & CEO of Mintspare

So you don't intend to address any of the specific, business-related concerns we've raised regarding the percentage risk to be borne by investors vs. owners?

Of course not, why would he?

I'm not sure why you guys continue to blast this IPO offering. If you don't like it don't invest in it...it's that simple. You either have some sort of personal vendetta against the way he has presented the IPO or you're trolling.  Either way, it's exhausting to continue to read it...you have made your opinion of the offering very clear and it seems Mr. Puechavy has made it clear that there will be no changes to the offering since he continues to not address your questions. To be quite honest, your speculation about what he plans to do from this point on is just as speculative as buying shares in the company. I invested in MS, NeoBee and Seedcoin - not much but a few btc worth - enough to not sweat it if they fail although I wish them all the best and I like what they are doing. How do you even know Mr. Puechavy owns the remaining 80% and plans to fail it purposely? Have you bought shares in MS also and if so have you seen the beta site today?

I wish I had the time and entrepreneurial ability to come up with a bitcoin company myself, but mining is the only thing that I've managed to do thus far although I keep brainstorming. One of the main reasons your bitcoins only have value because of the infrastructure that companies like MS and others build or try to build. Why continue to bash them when you can simply not buy their shares...but a never ending rant is a waste of time to read through.

LOL, its your second post and you think you can call us trolls because we look out for our own..

get a grip man, no scams/ripoffs/shitty ipo's will fly by us.

Admitted lurker here and I appreciate you looking out for the community, but I just think that you've gone overboard. It almost feels like yo're ranting to yourself. All I was saying is that I got the point and I think anyone else who reads through this thread gets it too - in fact I think you would be more effective if you were less dramatic about it - a witch hunt makes it look like you have an agenda or you look biased.

I hear ya, maybe I went a bit overboard, but in all fairness I was just looking out for others.

All good, I appreciate it and I know others do too - there's a bunch of scams out there. I like Havelock listed companies because they have a decent vet process it seems like. That doesn't mean it's even close to fail proof, but I feel comfortable enough to diversify some of my btc holdings and make some of my crypto work for me....at least I feel like I have a better chance than playing satoshi dice lol. It's all a gamble at the end of the day. I have my reservations, but I like the fact I too have found myself wanting to sell my old iphone 5 after I got the note 3 and I listed it on coingig and bitmit for btc and it was a shitty experience. I like knowing I can sell it immediately in a non-auction/instant offer process now...I think that has value. Whether or not he can execute is a whole other story and is going to be debatable until failure or success.

Your crypto isn't going to work for you if you invest in pretty much anything Havelock offers.  They've designed it to make sure that won't happen.

I had you on ignore not too long ago, but I'm going to venture out on a limb here and entertain you.

Explain how Havelock is designed to fail.

And as for originalbaby - it's quite clear you haven't analysed their IPO in any detail or you would also see that offering 20% of a startup company for 100% of the financial risk is NOT a good proposition.

I have analyzed it and more importantly, I analyzed the business model. I also read the founder's thoughts behind the valuation and even though I'd buy only half of the BS at best, based on the business model it would seem only logical to IPO a minority of the stock at a high valuation because he is going to need to stay btc heavy in the beginning to buy up product until cash flow positive which would leave him with ample equity room to bring on engineering/logistics talent and VC involvement/guidance.  I also looked at Gazelle which I used maybe a year ago for an iPad and the margins on this type of business model are pretty nasty and the overhead can't be much more other than shipping costs. I also like the fact that it may get someone who hasn't owned btc before enough incentive to easily get their feet in the water. Real tangible products for bitcoin which btw could take off pretty nasty if MS opens up to China - staying in btc as a business will allow an edge against competition like Gazelle and others who may not be able to tap into other countries as easy although I admit I don't know what other countries if any at all Gazelle serves. If he tanks it to keep the btc then I will be the first to take it on the chin, but if it were me I feel I would have more to gain by trying to make it work...there is something potential here.

I didn't say havelock was designed to fail.  I'm saying their offerings are generally designed to ensure that no investor will see a return.  The only people capable of winning here are The Panama Fund S.A. and asset issuers. 

That's a great service, I hope you don't mind the trolls who seem to be expecting 300% ROI in a month.
I'd like to know, do you plan on accepting videogames and/or musical instruments?
Thanks

Thank you for your support!

We're looking into accepting additional products in the second quarter of 2014, there are a few goals that are currently of higher priority.

Sorry, who wants 300% ROI in a month? It's never been mentioned on this board and is a dishonest form of argumentation.

Critics of the IPO have been confounded by the fact that Galfry is asking for 100% of the capital required for the project and yet only offering 20 % of the equity. It's an extremely poor ratio (especially since the business is a start-up with no track record) that undermines any investors ability to achieve the potential "upside of the venture".

The other main criticism is the business plan itself which seems to be wildly optimistic and, as Galfry himself admitted, is no longer accurate or representative of the business.

The "trolls" have taken the time to read the prospectus, analyze it and inform the community about the nature of the business venture in a comprehensive and reasoned manner.

Actually, public investors will start with 40% equity until their initial investments have been paid of. That seems quite fair.
Of course it's risky like all bitcoin-related investment and it might always remain niche, but if it achieves visibility, which by the sleek look of the website, the usefulness of the service and the dedication of the founder I think it will, it could become quite lucrative.

Nope you're wrong. It's 20% equity (equity is the term used to describe ownership) with 40% of revenue (at the discretion of the owner). So investors fund the start-up at 100% of required capital and own 20 % of the company and MAY get 40 % of the revenue (if and when there ever is any after paying his friends salaries etc.)

These terms do not give potential investors an opportunity to share in the upside of the company - even if the venture were successful.

Well Lynn, I'm glad they've got a sleek website because that certainly makes or breaks a company in this day and age...

But seriously - 100% risk for 20% rewards (max)...I'll pass.

Indeed your criticism if valid, and thanks for clarifying. Giving at least 30% would be more fair. But I thought it was a shame, to see successful fund-raisers on kickstarter who give 0% equity, then seeing this great concept getting blasted for giving 20%.

There's another reason one would profit for investing with Mintspare: it will give visibility to Bitcoin, and allow newcomers to receive and hold their first coins, or to spend them in the Bitcoin-economy which would be even better, thus raising the value of all of our digital assets.


When coupled with a useful concept, a dedicated and ambitious team, and the necessary funds, I believe it does, yes.

That's because people *donate* money to Kickstarter projects.  Just like they do to a bum, Salvation Army or the guy playing slide dobro on the subway.  The Florida d00d passes this off as an investment.  If he billed this absurdity as performance art, fewer people would laugh.  As it stands, he's selling illegal, unregistered securities through an unlicenced Panamanian exchange.

Sure, I know you see unregulated exchanges as your ninja way of sticking it to Da Man.  Sadly, each time someone (predictably) loses an eye, bitcoin "investors" turn staunchly law-abiding, quoting the same chapter and verse they laughed at just days ago.
...only to learn that nanny state is neither eager nor able to make their fuckups all better.  The press points fingers and laughs.


Bitcoin has enough scams and dumbass ventures.  We don't need another idiot child losing/making off with your coin.
I'm not here with misguided altruistic designs to save you from yourself.  I am doing this for purely selfish reasons.  The media paints us with broad strokes; if i don't want rats scurrying in front of my house, i have to make sure my neighbor isn't breeding them next door.
thx

exactly. this is the sort of "prospectus" or "business plan" that you take to your rich uncle and hope that he funds because it looks like you might finally be turning your life around. this is not an investment opportunity to take to the public-at-large.

my personal mandate here is to try and create some financial literacy so that the btc economy can have more credibility more investors and consumers alike.

my hope would be that people would eventually come to the market with fair deals for investors because the community of investors demands it because they are knowledgable, read the materials and understand the parameters.

i think the case here with mintspare should be used as an example of how not to approach the market . . . with a poor and wildly optimistic business plan that offers terrible terms to any potential investors. . . whether the idea (or website) are good or not, is irrelevant. the terms (and business plan) are lousy making it a very poor investment. . .

Think this is overvalued, but I went ahead and picked up 300 shares.. First day of trading probably will not be pretty but who knows. This is a killer idea though, at a 50% discount I would pick up a lot more! I wish you the best of luck with the project- definitely will use this service personally, and as stated elsewhere I think this is a perfect tool to get people their first Bitcoin. I print a magazine (yBitcoin) and would be interested in seeing how we could partner and if we could help your (our!) business grow.

/db

this is what i don't understand, if you know the equity is overvalued and will likely tank when it hits the open market, why buy? why not invest in lottery tickets or something . . .

Because when I have a passive interest in seeing something succeed, I have no problem investing a bitcoin or two.. If I'm doing something purely to make money, I wait until the math makes sense... Here I like the idea, so I want to contribute. I probably wont make money but who knows.. when the math makes sense I can invest at a much greater scale.

That's a fair investment a lot of people made a killing off the Facebook IPO after the panic selling and holding on long, and a lot of individuals will make  money off Twitter holding long and getting positions in now.
That said it's far from a Bitcoin return or loss but the premise does hold at a certain valuation they do become valuable to sideliners where the market determines X to be is the unknown.

What you're doing has nothing to do with the word "investing" as it applies to finance.  Investing is an act of committing money or capital to an endeavor with the expectation of obtaining an additional income or profit.

Your type of "investing" is one of the things that makes bitcoin securities so attractive to scammers and bottom feeders.
"If we do it in bitcoin, we don't even need to convince the marks they'll make money!"

If you must feed the rats, do it with fiat.

Whoa, sane noob of the month award right here.

Profits are not only measured in fiat. Yikes, didn't mean to offend anyone with my investment! I know this is the internet and more specifically BTF.. but it does seem a bit uncouth to accuse a company of being a scam when the only crime you see is a high internal valuation… I meet over zealous entrepreneurs every day, doesn't mean they're a scam or that I don't want to see their venture succeed.   

        https://i.imgur.com/YDG4i5L.png

Mintspare Update - Friday, February 14th

Open Beta
We’re excited to announce that we’ll be moving from a closed beta format to an open beta format starting today. Visitors will be able to browse and explore more of the website without actually making an account although they will not have access to many features without creating an account.

Website Link: www.mintspare.com

Lowering Costs
Our costs have been and will be significantly lower than projected, in part due to significantly budgeted furniture & computer equipment, opting out of a cargo truck and instead using an employee vehicle, and paying some employees fully with my personal equity instead of salaries.

Security
Over the past week, we’ve been working on setting up an affordable yet effective cold storage system. The majority of bitcoins in our positions are already placed in cold storage. We’ve set up strict security implementations/protocols at our location. We are now trying to take it to the next tier of cold storage security and implement multiple levels of redundancy.

Dividends
Dividends will be held back until our official launch in March. They will then be paid on a weekly basis.

Marketing
Small marketing initiatives have begun while the site is still in beta.  Last Friday Mintspare’s post on r/Bitcoin made it to the front page and garnered us many new users.  In addition to this
we are proud to announce that we also had a mention in Business Insider!

Here are the links:

http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-bitcoin-apple-protest-2014-2

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1x6yhu/with_all_the_iphone_smashing_going_on/

Marketing is extremely important to our goal of building Mintspare’s brand. Once we launch at the beginning of March, we’ll be implementing many simultaneous advertising campaigns with different sites from within the bitcoin community among other initiatives which we will announce at a later time.

Inside Bitcoin - New York City
Galfry Puechavy, the founder and CEO of Mintspare will be attending one of the largest expected Bitcoin conferences in the world to date: Inside Bitcoin. He will be speaking on behalf of Mintspare at the April 8, 10:45 am - 11:30 am Panel: Creating and Funding the Next 100 Great Bitcoin Companies  

Work at Mintspare
We are growing rapidly and are constantly looking for talented people who are passionate about bitcoin! Part-time or full-time, feel free to send us your resume at: Jobs@Mintspare.com

Cool beans, I'll have to check it out.

EDIT: I'd like one infinity bitcoins please! :D

https://i.imgur.com/soV1VOf.jpg

Still offering Infinity BTC?

Hey Korbman,

Thanks for the bug report! We sent that off to our developer. We should be completely bug free once the beta closes and we launch officially in March!

If you find any other bugs don't hesitate to email us at report@mintspare.com.

You'll be able to redeem your infinity bitcoins shortly!  ;)

that's nice. how's the projected gross revenue of 71.43 BTC for February looking? still thinking you're going to be generating around $50,000 USD in sales?

We'll be releasing financial figures shortly after our official launch in March and every month thereafter. They will be provided as an update on both HavelockInvestments.com and this thread.

okay. but why release a "guidance" that trumpets lower costs without mentioning that it's highly unlikely that you'll meet your projected revenue? Boasting that you're reducing costs is kinda irrelevant (and misleading) if the income that you projected isn't going to come. . .

Sounds good, and happy to help. I'll play around on the site some more and email you guys directly if I come across any other issues.

        
https://i.imgur.com/YDG4i5L.png

Mintspare Update - Friday, February 28th

Key Acquisitions
We recently hired two additional individuals, one full time developer and one part time content marketing expert, both with extensive knowledge in their domain.

Site Development
The site has undergone a large amount of work in page loading efficiency and bug hunting.

Official Launch
Mintspare will be officially launching to the public on March 3rd, with all beta restrictions removed, including the activation of the referral system.

Traffic Sources
We will have three main traffic sources for the month of March.

1. Nationwide PR release
2.  Advertising on Bitcoin related sites
3. Content Marketing (Mintspare Blog)

Blog
Mintspare will have a blog that will focus on constantly releasing interesting news about Mintspare as well as the Bitcoin world.

Inside Bitcoin
If you're interested in meeting or hearing Galfry (Founder & CEO of Mintspare) speak at the Inside Bitcoin convention center in NYC on April 8th, we strongly recommend buying your ticket/hotel now.

Here is the registration page: http://www.mediabistro.com/insidebitcoins/new-york/?c=ibcadflex

Here is more information on the topic of discussion:

https://i.imgur.com/86S6QE0.png

Hey Galfry,

It's now near the end of March. Any thoughts on releasing your financial results for February?

Did you hit your projected income of 71.43?

You had also mentioned somewhere that you were bankrolling project expenses with your own equity. What does that look like? Can you commit some numbers to the community to account for your project as you suggested you would?

Amazing.  Simply amazing!  :(

i think this is thoroughly predictable.

from the prospectus it was clear that there was no way that investors were going to make money on this. it was also clear that the operator had little experience in the market place and the financial projections had no basis in reality. never mind the absurd valuation of the company. . .

this IPO was not an investment but a cash grab by the operator. those that "invested" should learn a lesson here.

i found this on coindesk:

Being a bitcoin-based business means Mintspare has to offer prompt customer engagement and education. Many people are still wary of BTC, so providing a level of comfort is important. Puechavy is aware of this, and told CoinDesk:

“[Mintspare is] very transparent, the entire process. It’s a huge issue.”

which is very amusing given the complete lack of financial or operational reporting to their own investors.

does anyone know their wallet address. i'd love to know if they've burned through their IPO funds yet. . . 

Havelock releases the funds as necessary / as billed, so there's no public wallet to check

Sorta like doling out allowance to a kid.  Does Havelock tell the "investors" how much of their money was necessary billed burnt through?

If I recall I think I asked for a public display address but forgot to follow up on that to see the balance they had on the account

Ah yes found the post guess I can ask
@ Havelock can the public fund address for the bankroll be revealed to the public. It was recognized that they would perform due transparency on this fund once the IPO was completed to ensure the funds are managed properly and so investors can know the current state of affairs.

if i held any shares, i'd be hitting the bid pretty hard.  no point in waiting to see the value drop by another decimal place. . .

We don't really know till the financials come out or we see the public address but the drop in Bitcoin didn't help much in the short term
I guess in the long term if they sold for fiat at around 700-800 and had a lot of units come in they have more coins and if they turnover fairly quickly now can build up some coins as well.
Still needs observing more or less although the securities section in general is fairly quiet sometimes to our detriment

At first glance, this IPO seemed to offer very poor terms to investors, had a preposterous evaluation of itself and had financial projections that were absurdly un-plausible. An "investment opportunity" that you take to your rich uncle with the hope that he takes pity on you. Though evidently a very poor
"investment", i resisted the temptation to call it a scam . . .

Now, towards the end of April, with still no financials from February or March, with no operational updates, no projections/guidances, one has to wonder about the operator of this project, Galfry Puechavy. He has reneged on his promises to supply reports and transparency and has effectively disappeared with a good chunk of this communities BTC.

At best, he is woefully irresponsible and incompetent at overseeing a publicly traded company. At worst. . . another BTC charlatan.

Anyone in and around Miami that could take a look and see if anything is going on at their physical premise? I think earlier in this thread, Galfry had posted details of where he was setting up his "operations" . . .

Oh Jesus, don't tell me this guy ain't 100% legit!

http://s23.postimg.org/jktkddxu3/Capture.jpg

Sent Mintspare some of my electronics, and they've yet to credit me with BTC. It's been over a week...

Hate to be the bearer of bad news on this one, but looking pretty obvious this asset was never really on the level :/  Best of luck to you though.

Mintspare := Scam_balam;

Edit: I wonder if that's your ipad in the window reflection?  (sorry, bad joke, doesn't even look like an ipad)

Leads me to believe that this thing is cooked. My guess is that all of the coins that were set aside for bankrolling purchases are gone. I wonder what accountability Havelock has in this? They made a tidy commission on an IPO that has now has all appearances of being a scam - not that it didn't seem shady from day one.

I think it would be highly appropriate for Havelock to take some kind of proactive role in this . . . Like a statement saying something to the effect of: "we have requested Mintspare to provide financial statements and an accounting of all funds dispersed but, regrettably, we are no longer to contact the operator of this project . . . "

At what point does Havelock de-list? Maybe they'll just continue to collect more commissions as this thing trades down to 0.

And . . . Galfry Puechavy . . . remember the name . . . I have a feeling there will be a next time for this guy . . .

I asked the same question re: NeoBee, got no answer.
The funny thing is intervention by Havelock is the last thing MS "investors" want.
If Havelock halts trading, "investors" are left holding teh bag. 

@Havelock:  Perhaps add "Q" to the ticker, denoting Mintspare's uncertain future?  MSQ?

the longer-term solution is for Havelock to hold IPO funds in escrow and to actually do something proactive to protect their investors and build credibility for their exchange. a start-up goes to the public market for capital fine . . . let's just have a bit of oversight and have Havelock turn-over the funds on a draw-down basis that would comply with their published prospective. . .

other controls. . . a requirement for a publicly viewable wallet and monthly/quarterly financial statements. it seems pretty basic but, if a company doesn't comply with these requirements, they would risk de-listing. these kinds of controls exist on other exchanges and they make sense.


someone is always going to be left holding the bag. . . but is it really ethical to be offering a forum (and collecting commissions) where people can buy MS when in all likelyhood MS does not really exist? based on the information on Havelock's website, one would think that you are buying into an existing operation. . .  and Havelock, while collecting commissions, and having promoted this company, takes no responsibility in helping "investors" determine whether this company actually exists or is just a fiction. . .

We have been working with Mintspare closely during the past few months and they have a bright future ahead of them. They should and will start to post and respond to requests on this forum.

We do hold the Bitcoins raised during their offering in escrow and only distribute those funds as needed.

Please make a statement regarding delisting NeoBee[Q].

Re. "bright future":  You've been wrong before.  Pretty much every time :-\

If and when we do make a decision in regards to NEOBEE[Q] it will be made through an email to the Fund's unit holders and via the Fund's overview page.

We offer Companies the option to raise capital through our Platform. Those are early stage companies, some will fail, some will make moderate income, and a few will provide a great opportunity to the people who took a chance on them. Just because they are related to Bitcoin does not make them a success or a failure. Hard work, some luck and the ability to survive and adapt to the market will determine which companies will make it and which won't.

And what about COG? Is that now controlled by a mystery man from the Netherlands?

To be more precise, all but one of your offerings are trading below initial listing price, most substantially lower (including your own), and some simply ran away with the coin.
 

That's reassuring. Could you let us know how much of the 310.82 raised via your IPO have been distributed to them?


This is a little curious. Are you implying that you have inside information of a material nature? We, the rest of the investment community, has no access to any information on this company whatsoever. Do you guys buy and sell these stocks?

We don't disclose the exact amount of funds currently held in escrow for each of our Funds. We don't have any inside information that is not made public. We are in constant contact with them to make sure the company is active and making progress.

"The public" has been lead to believe that this forum would be the definitive place for accessing information on this company. Questions have been posed, no answers of any kind have been posted (for months!!!). So clearly you do have information that has not been made public. Ridiculous to say otherwise because no information has been made public by any means whatsoever.

You never answered whether you buy and sell these stocks . . .

Without any inside information you can not possibly dole out the raised capital "as needed."

How could you possibly know how much is needed without access to the issuer's finances?

We act as a third party escrow service. And to answer your question Havelock Investments does not sell any of the Funds we currently list on our Site.

Full Disclosure: we currently own 733 Units in MS, current value is less than 1 Bitcoin. 

My question, since you missed it:

"Without any inside information you can not possibly dole out the raised capital "as needed."
How could you possibly know how much is needed without access to the issuer's finances?"

 

The companies receive Funding from us based on reports they release publicly and that we can verify directly with them privately.

Since MS has not issued any financial statements, is it safe to assume that none of the funds were dispersed?  You're still holding all of the raised capital?

Also, thank you for acknowledging that you do trade in the offerings on your "Platform."  Were the 733 shares purchased during the IPO, and/or ware they taken in lieu of fee payments?

Bump?

This is really fascinating stuff. You run the exchange, you own units of the equity, you have an exclusive and inside knowledge of their operations and you make promotional statements like this:


So, it hard to tell if you're pumping so that you can dump your shares, or if you're making an honest assessment of the company based on your inside knowledge (because the rest of us thought this company was dead based on their activity and lack of response/accountability/transparency). hard to know what hat you're wearing.

seems to me, that you should just disclose exactly what you know about the company so that you're working on par with the rest of the investors in the community. for example, we have no idea what funds have been transferred from escrow to the company . . . this is very vital material information . . . ideally the company would report this stuff and we would all know (at the same time) but, at the moment, you seem to be the only party that has any access to any information about the company.

this seems very ugly to me.

double dump.

these seem to be very critical questions to me. . .  insider trading plays the edge of a lot of ethical boundaries. how and when you're trading these stocks is critical to be able to assess the legality of what you're doing and whether your exchange has any credibility. . .

As we mentioned before we don't sell those units of the Fund that we currently own. We have not been provided any financial report by the company as of today. We have distributed funds after the IPO based on expenses. The company did not need additional funding since then.

You have distributed funds based on expenses ... without knowing what those expenses are?  Did anything prevent MS from asking for "all of it pl0x"?  How does your stewardship of funds work?  What, exactly, are the mechanics?  

Please answer the following:

1.  Did you accept shares in lieu of fees?
2.  At what point did you acquire the 733 shares?
3.  When was the last time you communicated with MS issuer?
4.  Why has the issuer failed to keep his shareholders updated?
5.  Are you still in touch with Mr. Brewster of NEOBEE[Q]?  

So what's the point in having the shares if you're not selling them? Are you hoping to cash in on a sale of the company at some point in the future? Why not just have 0.5% (or whatever) of the company allocated in the event of a sale as part of the listing agreement?

Who wins in this case the escrow holder or the statement that the bankroll would be made public from mintspare

Hi Havelock.  Could you update teh shareholders on MS' progress?  Are you still in contact with Mr. MintSpare?

*MS is currently trading @ 1/10th of the issue price.  Isn't it time to pull the plug, or at least add that "Q" suffix?

Just to be very clear. Last contact from MS was February 28th.

First financial statements were promised for beginning of March and then every month thereafter. Furthermore, there was a promise from MS to post their wallet address.

I think we're getting to the point of a material default on an investor covenant.

What happens when a company on public exchange doesn't feel their reports? They are de-listed. The public needs to know what's going on. Otherwise, the insiders who are in "constant contact" with the company are in an unfairly privileged situation. . .

I think based on the failure of the company to report anything at all about their operations, it becomes the duty of the exchange to disclose what they know.

I've been neglecting communicating through this forum and apologize for that. Although inexcusable, I assure everyone that Mintspare's team has been hard at work.

Anyone trying to reach me may do so by email at Galfry@mintspare.com. This is the best way to reach me. Although I have a lot of emails to go through, I generally answer back within 24 hours.

Bitcoin's price has caused our funds' value to drop from $300k+ to $150k.  I've had to pack a heavier work load and in turn be very calculative about where my time is invested. I would agree with everyone here that communication with unitholders via this forum is something I should not skimp out on and that is something I'll work to improve upon.

Statistics (Beta Period/Month of February)

Sales: 14.1 BTC
Profits on Sales: 5.4 BTC
Expenses: 26.241 BTC
Total: -20.841 BTC

Mintspare Accounts Made: 587
Unique Visitors: 8,339
Pageviews: 35,233

Future Outlook

Our monthly expenses are expected to be around 22 BTC per month (BTC=$500)
Rent: ~4.5 BTC
Employees: ~14 BTC
Other: ~3.5 BTC

We will release financial reports on a quarterly basis (instead of a previously mentioned monthly basis). This allows us to dedicate more time to growing Mintspare. March, April, and May statistics will be released during the first week of June. (Next report will be July, August, September, etc.)

Mintspare Detailed Metrics
We’re contemplating holding back detailed quarterly metric reports on financials so as to not provide an ‘open book’ to potential competitors.

We will always provide general updates on metrics and find a balance between being transparent and divulging our entire inside operations and roadmap publicly.

We understand that this is a sensitive point but believe it’s in the best interest of Mintspare’s future to go this route. We will reach out to unitholders in the near future via their registered Havelock Investments email to weight out and vote on this option.

CoinDesk Article
http://www.coindesk.com/mintspare-will-pay-bitcoin-for-your-old-electronics/ (http://www.coindesk.com/mintspare-will-pay-bitcoin-for-your-old-electronics/)

International 'mini hubs'
We plan on expanding to Canada when bitcoin reaches $1000+ in value. This will allow us to test out demand in Canada affordably. We will be using a PO-box and partnering under-the-hood with a commercial location in Montreal that has expertise in on-site technology repairs.

We plan on expanding to Europe by the end of the year. It will be located in the UK, with the same idea behind Canada's hub.

Funds
124 BTC (100 BTC held by Havelock)

https://www.havelockinvestments.com/fund.php?symbol=MS
lol

@Havelock:  You still holding those 100 bits, or did you dole out some moar after February?

At this point in your initial calculations (Feb), you were expecting to be bringing in profits of ~50 BTC per month; Profits, in actuality, were only 5BTC. That in itself is concerning.

However, I'd also prefer not to be dealing with 2.5 month old date - how about March? 1.5 old month data is not much of an 'open book' to competitors.

We are still holding 100 BTC in escrow for MS

^
Please hold on to it.  Or keep half if you return the other half to teh intrepid investors.  You decide.  Who am I to tell you how to run your business?

Hi Galfry,

What a disappointing update.

You promise investors monthly reports, disappear for several months and then come back with earnings that are about 10% of projection and a statement that you will now move to quarterly reports? Do you have any respect for the terms that you laid out in your prospectus or announced on this thread. You make big proclamation and then deliver close to nothing. Surely now that it is mid-May you would be able to post at a minimum statements from March?

A few questions:

How will you deliver weekly dividends if you are reporting financial results quarterly? A big part of your original pitch was to deliver 40 % of profits to shareholders (at your discretion).

Do you presently project there being any profits in the foreseeable future? When? How will you distribute them to shareholders?

Can you indicate the breakdown of how the approximately $7000/ month in salary is being spent? Can you tell us who is on payroll? Can you indicate which staff are accepting equity instead of salaries?

The projections in your prospectus seem to be wildly optimistic and implausible. Will you be releasing a revised projection that is more in-line with your operational reality?

You had promised to make your operations transparent and post your wallet. Will you do this?

Just to do a bit of math. . .

 
124 BTC (total holdings/value of company - decreasing monthly . . .) x 20 % (% of total equity belonging to shareholders) = 24.8 BTC (total equity of shareholders)

24.8 BTC (total shareholder equity) / 62164 (total shares outstanding) = 0.000398944726852 (equity value per share)

present trading value is at about 0.0013. so, in spite of being worth only about 26% of IPO pricing,  there's still a long way for this thing to drop before it starts getting close to its cash value (and the cash value appears to be dropping by about 20 BTC per month).

can havelock or mintspare let us know at what rate and under what conditions they will disperse the remaining funds in escrow? will they continue to bankrollgalfry until there's simply nothing left?

Thanks for the info
__

Assuming escrow the share price is still at 0.001608 from what is left of escrow
62164 * 0.005 = 310.82 BTC raised
Liquidation Value Escrow Only Havelock= 100 BTC Divide by Shares 62164 = 0.00160864809
126 Divide by Shares 62184 = 0.002026446931

So 184.82 BTC have been spent so far how much revenue that generated is marginal so my question is how mintspare plans to improve on that.

Assume that it was IPO funding and that they are divisible among the traded shares so not divided by 5 if not then zevtie has the right numbers

Anyways happy to see some communication :)

Guess I will see how the fund handles with the changes in Bitcoin Prices

An interesting case is a dilution at the 30 day average but we will need them to communicate to get a better status on the operations.
If necessary, 100,000 additional units may be sold at the 30-day weighted average starting July 1st, 2014.

So second question would be the plans to acquire more funding and do you see a need for more capital and units to be released coming in July.

Would send an email to your communicating address but these questions would likely be of interest to more than just me.

Lol.  Happy trading, everyone!

http://s4.postimg.org/6me80opq1/MJFROG_DANCING.gif

P.S:
@Havelock, consider starting the sale on the 4th instead of the 1st, it's a thing in US.  Fireworks and shit!

There are no plans to release any additional units of the Fund.

Everyone understood that the success of this company is heavily depended on the Bitcoin price and popularity.

If and when Bitcoin makes a "comeback" in price, so will the customers that want to trade their electronics for Bitcoin.

You're not releasing any additional units because Mr.Mintspare doesn't need any more coin, or because you no longer feel that...

...or are you going to approve releasing additional units if Mr.Mintspare wishes, and simply aren't planning???

??? $440/BTC is a pretty damned good price. Businesses don't stop trading because their currency might be worth more/less/the same in the future.

they don't pay out order 2169 received on the 12th still pending. Stay away from this junk.   

What employees are costing 14 BTC per month? Are you paying yourself this? $7,000 a month is ridiculous. Your business should have 1 employee currently. You. You only had 14 BTC in revenue! If 1 employee can't handle $7,000 worth of merchandise per month, that business won't stay open very long.

You shouldn't be accepting any pay until your business is profitable. Its a money drain right now. If you try to BS about the cost of the site, your site isn't even functioning when viewed from my laptop, and you could have a website built for ~$500 that works perfectly.

Terrible company, would stay very far away from

ok So my order that was recieved on the 12 has been paid now I am going to try and withdraw btc.  wish me luck

Just making a general note so that I remember to check this thread next week when June begins to get a better feel for this asset and how it has performed over the period.

As with the above also curious how the projection will be revised and how many people use the service
@ Stan good luck :)

@stan

Sorry about that, we had to switch servers and a small amount of orders were somehow temporarily lost. If anyone has any problems with orders feel free to contact me directly at galfry@mintspare.com with your order ID.

Mintspare's 3 month financial report should be out by the end of the week.

--Daddy, what's penny stock?
--Well Snoodles, it looks like this:


Market cap: 32.79 BTC

IPO price: 0.05 BTC

Market price:  0.005  BTC

Total buys: < 0.5 BTC

-- Daddy whats a scam exchange?
-- Well Snoodles, it looks like this:
http://www.mpex.co/
Claiming an average of 751.7 BTC volume per day on their OWN offering. Find that hard to believe  ;D


Back on topic:

MS should do its investors a favor and close down operations. Currently there are more BTC in holdings than the current price of MS reflects, by quite a bit. With the amount of BTC your draining in expenses that are not in the best interests of investors (You should not be paying any salary: You need to be working for free until investors see a return), do everyone a favor and close down. You said there was what, 200 BTC in holdings? Thats over 6x the current market cap.

Prove you are legit and close. If you keep running your business havelock should restrict trading and issue the 100BTC they are holding back to stock holders

Many things are hard to believe, though not all of them are related to  Mintspare (MS) Bitcoin Electronic Trade-in Service.
Non sequitur, clever as they are, have no place in this supa srs bznz thread.
ty

No reply on those employee salary profiles eh?

This is a business that could comfortably run out of a garage in one guys spare time.  Instead $7000 a month in salary, another 4 grand in rent & "other", like paying himself to use his own car, all on shareholder dime.  It's unbelievable people keep buying into this shit.

RIP Mintspare, Sept 2014.

Buying it actually doesn't seem to terrible at its current price. Havelock is retaining 100BTC in funds they raised, yet their current price has a market cap of 33BTC. If Havelock distributes the funds back to shareholders (As it should: This is clearly a scam listing) would 3x investment. Havelock said earlier on this thread they don't plan on releasing the funds to MS.

But if you do some math 100BTC / 62164 shares = 0,001608BTC per share, no divs from the starting ipo, and the starting ipo was at 0,003BTC

so for the early adopters of this company (ipo buyers) if havelock will liquidate those 100BTC and close the asset, it will be a 50% loose, not a good deal....

It was ฿0.00500000 (https://www.havelockinvestments.com/fund.php?symbol=MS)


The shares are already down almost 90% since the IPO, do you think it can get any better with the high costs they have, and with the little revenue that their "company" brings in?

He is talking about if you buy shares now, not if you bought at IPO

@Havelock:  Any plans of distributing the remaining 100 BTC among MS shareholders?   

If they dont im never using havelock again. This security started out with a good idea, operator is a complete dumbfuck who pays himself a salary that is equivalent to the entire revenue. I might buy some shares, would be a nice 3x cash

Does Havelock link wallets that hold escrow?  I would like to see all the wallets in which havelock is holding escrow. Every IPO they escrow should have the escrow address listed so that the share holders know that havelock is not taking advantage of having a extra 100 btc.

@Havelock:  Don't do this: http://s15.postimg.org/v2h9qthcr/vanishomer.gif

Havelock?

Update is under review by Havelock.

^How's it going bro, all good?

Update still under review? That's a long time for Havelock to sit on some pretty important information . . .

Well a week has passed it does seem like a good time to ask for an estimate of when it will be updated
Happy 4th

and now another week? is havelock really sitting on material information - for weeks?

someone's just gotta pull the plug on this one . . .

Last trade was on 2014-07-06


MS has a deadbeat operator, and no liquidity. Not generating Havelock any profits so I don't see why they bother to keep it up, only losing them face

Havelock is holding 100BTC from the IPO if we're to take his their word seriously.  It's sorta hard, 'coz...


...and then disclose the amount currently held in escrow:

Is no one going to respond to this? chop might troll but they do bring up a valid point.

Very valid point

Mintspare founder should be ashamed.

I am sure Havelock will respond and take action on this as promised before the end of the year.

@KarmaShark:  Did Havelock mention "end of the year" to you, or are you ad-libbing?

A half of a year is more than enough time to deal with this situation. Assuming Havelock wants to run a legitimate business through a model that doesn't impoverish its customer base or expose them to fraud, they will do something about this eventually. If they continue to remain silent they are making a much more powerful statement to their customers than any "we try our best to vet each company we bring you" canned response could ever make.

Legitimate business :D

Lol their own terms of service specifically prohibit US persons from using their website:

http://s30.postimg.org/lde50qxtt/Capture.jpg

https://www.havelockinvestments.com/havelock-tos.pdf

MintSpare is located in Miami, FL, US.  Mr. Mint is a US Person, issuing unregistered securities through an unlicenced exchange.  Havelock, in breach of its own TOS, has vetted, vouched for, solicited funds for and is still allegedly holding a portion of the raised funds.  All this for an American company, operated by a US person from US soil.
And is too cheap to give said funds back >:(

Please understand that I'm not against scamming, simply against artless, incompetent, lowbrow scamming that trips over its own shoelaces and contradicts itself with every word.
A man should strive to excel at his craft, regardless of whether he's building a skyscraper or conning some coin from clueless rubes.  

The fact that they know it is illegal in those country's and still accept them, makes it conspiracy and aiding and abetting securities fraud.

Conspiracy charges are charges that a person has entered into an agreement with another person to commit a crime or an illegal act. A successful conviction for a conspiracy charge requires that an act was taken to begin carrying out the agreemetn. Before a defendant makes any final decisions about how to proceed with a conspiracy allegation, they should understand the nature of the charges, any possible defenses, and the penalties associated with the charge.

Aiding and Abetting Under the Federal Securities Laws

To establish a claim for aiding and abetting, the SEC must plead and prove: (1) the existence of a securities law violation by the primary  party; (2) the aider and abettor’s knowledge of the primary violation; and (3) “substantial assistance” by the aider and abettor in the achievement of the primary violation.

Panama is very extradition friendly with the USA as well. This also puts all U.S. security operators on Havelock at risk. I would like to know how they can explain this one.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hzM3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2851#v=onepage&q&f=false

They pretty much sealed their illegal actions with those statements and then allowing U.S. company's to list or allowing U.S. residents to list.

FYI, if your a U.S. citizen just because you have a offshore company does not give you impunity from U.S laws. Ex Buying a Shelf corp to skirt U.S. security laws.

so is this dead?

no replies to any questions. no financial reports. nothing.

at what point does this thing de-list with funds in escrow going back to shareholders?

Im starting to guess never  ::)

Good news everyone!  The value of your holdings has just been tripled!

http://s28.postimg.org/3v9nbu1v1/Capture.jpg

http://s27.postimg.org/4kdbkj143/kitteh.jpg

at this point havelock really needs to make a statement. investors have had no credible information, no answers to any questions and the promised reports have never been issued. this is getting really embarrassing to all involved. at this point, one has to assume that the company doesn't exist and Havelock should post an update on what it intends to do with the funds in escrow.

given that Havelock owns shares in this . . . their silence and withholding of material information is very . . . troubling from an ethical point-of-view.

This asset is illiquid a statement from Havelock is required here
Mintspare shares have pretty much froze trading with an empty orderbook can a user make a motion for liquidation?

wow. still nothing from havelock?

Pretty shitty business on Havelocks part, why would you put money on a exchange that can not even handle a simple problem like this. Even Cryptostocks will delist a asset after 1 month.

Havelock has big expenses... 165 btc per month :D :D :D
They must need the 100 btc for other purposes

Past month - month and a half has really lowered my trust in havelock. From not responding to questions to letting shitty IPOs run on their site (ie SHAT and the other one that failed to raise more than 5 btc  ::))

Pretty pathetic if you ask me. They clearly don't read through issuers business plans or give a shit about initial valuations, the idea with investing is that it will grow.. You don't pay for what the price would be after it grows.

The worst is their expense report. How do they have 165 btc in expenses? They need to clearly show their expenses to their shareholders.

The silence in this thread is deafening.

Havelock.  How broke are you?

The silence in this security really is deafening
Nothing since May 12


And June 26

Market Cap    ฿19.8950


Edit:  Havelock, you should add a few more decimal places.  It looks like you're worth 0.0000 BTC :D
http://s9.postimg.org/hde11nlzv/Capture.jpg

Though you do have something to take pride in:  You're worth 3x as much as Mintspare :D

Bump.

Did anyone see that post on Reddit a week or so back about somebody sending in a couple packages of used electronics to MintSpare that ended up getting marked by USPS and returned to sender for an undeliverable address?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2ika6d/psa_mintsparecom_possibly_out_of_business/

"I recently submitted three devices for sale at MintSpare.com and promptly shipped them out via the prepaid USPS labels the site generates. Upon checking the tracking numbers today, all three packages have been "Returned to Sender: Addressee Unknown"."

Havelock Investments, whats the plan for resolution here?

Clearly they are not the least bit concerned about this...(not that it wasn't already obvious.)

MS is still operating. They have lowered their expenses. As long as they are providing a service to their customers we don't see any reason why the MS fund should be closed.

gg, Havelock, gg :D

Any proof they're still operating?

You're an incredibly shady exchange. No vetting of new IPOs, no recourse for fraud (NEOBEE), and no de-listing of failing businesses (MS).

MS is in constant contact with us by phone the same way you can contact us by phone. We answer all phone calls and concerns. Judge us as an exchange not for companies that are start-ups and have a very high rate of failure in the real world and in the Bitcoin world.  Havelock is a crowd funding platform denominated in Bitcoins. We do our best to protect both the companies which list with us and the users of our platform.  If you feel that we can do better please feel free to contact us and provide us with your input.

Are you still holding the 100 BTC you have promised not to release to Mr. Puechavy?

According to your financials, (https://www.havelockinvestments.com/reportdownload.php?id=124) you have been operating in the red ever since you have gone public.
How much longer will you be able to afford this? 
Will you warn your users before filing for bankruptcy with the Panamanian authorities?

I'm actually agreeing with Havelock on this one. I know there have been issues with this asset from the start, valuation, business model etc, etc. However it is probably better just to let Mintspare trade on Havelock and see what happens... Who knows what will happen in a few years if it hangs around - it may make money if bitcoin takes off again and more people want to trade their stuff for coins???

Nice shill account Havelock. Mintspare isn't even operating anymore, there was a reddit user saying he sent goods into Mintspare and had his package returned. This is a scam. Mintspare founder ran off with large amounts of BTC and havelock is either "holding" (who knows what they did with it) 100BTC, or they lied about holding it in escrow and the Mintspare founder has an extra 100BTC in his pocket.

Hi thanks for your info, I didn't know about that reddit user. I understand the frustration regarding the 100BTC, clearly things should have been different. Sometimes I get things right, sometimes I get things wrong...

btw - i'm not a shill for anyone...

How's everyone doin'?  Everything cool?

http://s11.postimg.org/43lggrzxf/Capture.jpg

@havelock:
Bump.

This shit is FUBAR lol.

I bet havelock used those coins, thinking they would get them back with a huge amount of new listings. When that failed they will just keep saying MS is still operating until they fold or can find the coins.

Hi Havelock, what's up with this?  The price is now 1/50th of IPO (that's 2%).  Total market cap is 6 BTC.  No word from the issuer since can't even remember.  And you are still holding 100 BTC in escrow.
How about keeping your word?

http://s21.postimg.org/udwas6dkn/Capture.jpg

Bump.

Additional Bump to this topic
New Year and All

Havelock?


This is the boy who took your coin:
Mom: xxxxx xxxxxx Puechavy, 58, FL.
Pop: xxxx xxxxx Puechavy, 63, FL.
Puechavy, Galfry (also Gaudry) registered to vote using the address 17405 SW 84Th AVE, Miami, FL.

http://s7.postimg.org/bqfm0vy6z/Capture.jpg

Alibaba contact addy:

Telephone:1-812-23335329
Address:5300 SW 153rd CT
Zip:33185
Country/Region:United States
Province/State:Florida
City:Miami

Bump, Havelock :)

So out of curiousity, how long should shareholders in a company go without any contact from Mintspare regarding its asset or news at all in terms of its progress, even a confirmation from havleock that the secruity is active before we can call it dead.

Seeing as its been around 1 year since any meaningful communication has occured, I can't say this asset has been providing any service to its customers or its shareholders.  

In this days, I was thinking too, about this dead company and what about our shares on HAvelock.. Pease Havelock tell us something !!!  ::) ::) ::)

Well the website is no longer working I presume and can basically conclude that this asset is dead.

Everything listed on havelock has turned out to be made of fail and AIDS. Even ASICminer which was once regarded as bitcoin's only blue chip stock.

Havelock doesn't hold any liability if their offerings are garbage so it should be no surprise when they fail.

Never go there

Well not all just the majority
Dealcoin has been keeping its promise of two years of dividends just burned the IPO purchasers
RentalStarter still has it properties but your right for the most part it's been burned pretty hard.
CBTC is still around but volumes are negligible.
Cavirtex ran away then got bought out lol.

Isn't this kind of meaningless after half of your offerings since your inception have gone belly-up, leaving investors out to dry?

It seems they are finally delisting Mintspare.

And the first of March passed away, where is the delisting with buyback of this asset ? You are not keeping your promises...... bad, very bad Havelock....

Taking 2 years of fees form your users when the company is MIA is the level of scumminess I expect from a bitcoin business. good work assholes.

Yeah they are worst and ever more worst as time passes away....