Bitcoin Forum

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/01/10/overstock-com-processed-bitcoin-orders-124-000-usd-after-just-21-hours/

Very well done to all those who went there to spend.

Keep up the good work America.

As soon as they deliver to Europe I'll dive in the game myself!

If you have the time post something, specs, photos, anything, about what you bought please do so at: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=407448.40

yup I be doing some shopping there too when they go international

This number doesn't really have that much significance. Obviously every bitcoin user is going to rush and make an order the first day to test out the system (or inflate the numbers). But what does it say about sales over a whole year? Or how many new users it'll attract?

??
No one has made that claim.
It's initial sales data from right after they started accepting a niche new payment system with lots of fanboys. I think most people realize that $124,000 in 21 hours says little about long-term effect.
But Amagi Metals isn't complaining and they've been accepting for over a year IIRC. There isn't exactly a slew of companies CANCELLING their bitpay accounts so I think that says enough to satisfy your concerns ;-) No one's forcing them to do it so a reasonable assumption is that it remains profitable.

When your margins are as low as they need to be in order to compete in this market, adding something like an option for Bitcoin payments, which is paid for by the customer during checkout (processor fee), is a no-brainer.

I do not have an account at overstock. I never planned on having an account at overstock, nor did I plan on ever making a purchase on overstock. Yet, I am now a potential new customer thanks to the fact that they've added an option for Bitcoin payments.

You can argue that attracting bitcoiners is like tossing a pebble into the sea, but when there is no drawback in doing so, it only makes sense. You might consider how quickly the bitcoin user base is growing as well. These are long term plans.

Another company that I would have normally never considered, yet became a customer of simply because they began accepting Bitcoin payments.

Oh ye of little faith!  ;)

It's simply a question of jumping in and supporting the initiative.

We're only at 10 Jan 2014 - not even one full business week out of the holidays. The business world is like a vast unexplored playground for Bitcoin - almost inconceivably large and diverse compared to where we are at this moment. The US government is giving its stamp of approval for Bitcoin to run out and play right now! With all the start ups kicking off and anyone who wants to jump in and start a Bitcoin business able to do so without the restrictions they would have to navigate if the software wasn't open-source, things are poised to go very viral...

I made that claim and for some reason my post got deleted. ? ?

I basically said other retailers will jump on the bitcoin bandwagon seeing that overstock had a profit increase as a result of it. TERA was responding to my statement.

It's 100k more than they had the day prior.

Even if it only generates 50k for the remaining months (Only figuring USA )

That's 700k

Good for them

Yeah but you have to admit it's a pretty nice way to kick things off.  :)

That said,  I do agree that solid annual numbers would be of more significance.

Its an extra 124k in sales (on 1 day!) for little effort, little cost, and little risk. why not except btc?

You're preaching to the choir bud!  :)

I just hope Amazon is keeping a close eye on this. Probably safe to assume they are. But also probably safe to assume they're going to want a bigger sample size of data (as Tera is alluding to)before jumping in.

Just FYI Holliday, I made a purchase there yesterday with no account. They have an option to check out as guest, so it's pretty easy for us bitcoiners.

Thanks for the info!

I just can't get excited about this what with all the Chinese language sources confirming so much bad news.

Wow that's some serious money flow right there. I wonder what Overstocks average daily turnover is?

Aren't you freaking out?

That is 124000 USD more worth of probable coldstored Bitcoins that are heading straight for cash out on exchange!

SELL SELL SELL!

Indeed. Then bitcoiners who purchased items at overstock get a huge discount when they buy their bitcoins back at a lower rate. ;)

Well to get it up and running so quick apparently the CEO did have to lock 40 people in a room for 10 days - software engineers, graphic designers, a lawyer, an accountant, etc. - slipping them pizzas under the door (in his own words). But I happen to think it was well worth it!  :)

I'm just saying people seem overexuberant about the initial number as if it may indicate every day in the future. The CEO even used the term "wow". Will he be adding dogecoin too?

You are correct, but the uber-bulls don't get it. The current price is sustained largely by hoarding, keeping the ask sum and coin sales
low on the exchanges. Overstock and other merchants have to sell the coins for fiat immediately, this is bearish news.
They probably won't sell on Gox, because of the withdrawal issues, but Bitstamp may see more seller pressure.

124k can't do shit to the rate. 1.24m can.

LOL

So bullish long term but bearish short term because the current btc price is a float lockdown play.

Yes, on the one hand it stimulates the adoption and on the other hand it stimulates the hodlers to unhodl.

This assumes that a BTC holder does not hedge their fiat exposure beforehand, by for example transferring fiat first to an exchange in order to purchase enough BTC to cover the intended purchase. In this case the result is that the holder will increase their BTC holding slightly since the hedge is never perfect and the purpose of the hedge is to avoid exposure to being short BTC. 

in order to get return customers, you first need first time customers. i never bought anything at OS before yesterday. 

This may indirectly reduce volatility.

For example. I am an evil Bitcoin hoarder. Besides a few test cases (Amagi and local friends) I've simply sat on my Bitcoins for years. I believe they are extremely undervalued.

Yet... there have been multiple times where the exchange rate was simply going up too far, too fast (even for Bitcoin). I do not trust exchanges enough to play these extremely volatile periods, so in a sense I'm contributing to the volatility (by being an evil hoarder).

Now, when already established (meaning I can trust them) companies start accepting Bitcoins for goods and services, I can safely make purchases with Bitcoin (when I feel the exchange rate is going too far, too fast) which I would have normally made with fiat. During the following correction, I can repurchase those coins (locally) to replenish my evil hoard (after all, he who dies with the most bitcoins wins).

So... I will be patronizing merchants which accept Bitcoin. I will be reducing volatility by "selling" high and buying low. I will be getting goods and services at discounted prices.

Win, win, win.

Although, I will have to actually speculate that I'm correct about the exchange rate going too far, too fast. I guess I will be an evil speculator as well.

There is no bearish scenario for more merchants accepting Bitcoin. Sorry.

I never realized how evil I was...  :)

I didn't either until countless freaks on this forum have made it quite clear that hoarding and speculating are both the Devil's work.

Edit: But now that I know, I embrace it...

Bwahah... bwahahahahahahahahahaha... bwahahahah... gasp... choke...

"Hoarding" is the WORST argument of all time. I've been hoarding dollars every year (even though I shouldn't because dollars are economic turds) since the year I was born.
 

I spend my bitcoin, and when I do I instantly replenish my wallet on the majority of occasions.

But... but... Fucking deflation man! Economic death spirals, and shit.

Aren't you frightened?

Yes! "NOOOO MY MONEY IS WORTH MORE NOW, WHY DID I PUT MONEY INTO THIS SHIT!?!?!"

Literally every morning I wake up, think about buying in at $5, and think "I should have bought less... way less... this deflation shit is really getting out of control."

In the short term, sure.  The holders indirectly liquidating, forcing the price of Bitcoin down.  However, you are overlooking the role that money velocity will play.  People will revert to converting USD -> BTC instead of liquidating their BTC savings accounts.  This velocity will end up driving the price of Bitcoin higher due to the lag between inflow and outflow per transaction.  Beyond this, major retailers jumping on board mean that powerful people have a vested interest in Bitcoin, potentially mitigating the threat of future regulation.  If you position the powerful to benefit from a technology, they are unlikely to regulate it.

Oh man, we've made a big mistake guys. The key to success is not to let any more people find out about bitcoin and discourage it's acceptance for services. Then the 25 of us can refuse to sell any of it to each other for less than a million dollars each, and tally up our riches!

Reasons to be a bear:
1) "No one is spending bitcoin!"
2) "No major retailers accept bitcoin!"
3) "Bitcoin isn't well known enough!"
4) "Too many people are spending! Ignore reason 1. Logical contradictions are ok!"
5) "I sold all my bitcoins!"

$124,000 is a lot? Divide that by $800 (lowball price) = 155 bitcoins.

155 seems like a pretty small number to crash the price in any way to me.

Yes, I know it's just started, but damn we have to spend some of these things to make it worthwhile to merchants and new investors, don't we?

In the meantime, keep a nice stash for yourself, and spread a little bitcoin love.

 

 

+1

 right!

6) Introducing some FUD here and there price will go down and I'll buy some coins cheaper...

Sometimes, well actually a lot of the time, I question why some of you are even registered on this board. A HUGE online retailer just started accepting bitcoin and you're complaining that $124k of sales in one day using a new, never before seen cryptocurrency that has a lot of growing to do isn't enough!?

How do you not comprehend the whole idea of natural growth? Nothing just comes out one day and is at 100% percent mainstream working status. When all of the major retailers start accepting btc and it has grown to an level never before seen, then you'll all complain that it's too big and will fail! Ridiculous.

::throws acorn at the ground::

"Where's my damn tree?!"

Is it using gox price?

This is pretty accurate.  8)

So 40 people 10 days.  Let's assume 100k average salary which I think is probably high.  So (40*100k/365 days per year) * 10 days is kind of the amount of money spent on this effort -- although in practice how productive would those people have been doing other stuff right after xmas?

But I digress.  Total cost = 109k.  So in the FIRST DAY revenue (124k) was greater than development cost.  Anyone know overstock.com's markup?  Retail varies widely from 100% down to clearance items at 0%, but internet stores tend to be on the low side.  Let's just make up a number.  Say 10% markup.

So 12k profit, or ~10% of the cost to develop the feature was paid back in one day.  That's some pretty amazing numbers, regardless of what happens tomorrow.


PS: to all you people who think that people buying stuff will crash the price.  I generally hate to be so blunt but you are freaking morons, even if you are just saying it because you are short.  If enough product was sold to even depress the price it would be the top financial news item worldwide.

Holy crap.....epic!

Their margin is 2%. CEO said btc was attractive because it's frictional cost is lower than credit card.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-28/overstock-ceo-bitcoins-gold-austrian-economics-and-zombies

What? He didn't send any miner fee. That bastard!

we need more "evil" speculators. the smart ones profit and reduce volatility while the dumb ones give us money!

update: OS refunded my funds after the glitch...in bitcoins! even though the price went up.  will be buying from them in the future.

Went to buy something but they don't accept BTC internationally? That's strange, BTC is completely borderless, surely its the easiest way to accept international orders?

Oh well, I'll wait until I can spend my BTC there, and then every time I want to buy something I will see if I can get it from overstock.com before looking elsewhere.

yeah, I don't get that either. They could have done 200K in one day easy.

Maybe it has something to do with international finance/trade laws? Can anyone knowledgeable opine on this?

OS has already said they are working on it.

LOL

Hey goat, are you single handedly responsible for $124 000 of orders?

Hmmm what else shall I buy...? Ah yes, I've always needed one of these:

http://www.overstock.com/Main-Street-Revolution/Old-Modern-Handicrafts-HMS-Endeavour-Model-Ship/7826992/product.html?refccid=LTK55THNBJI25T2PVHESWOXAQQ&searchidx=1

lol as you can see it's all chumps buying useless crap to prop up the myth that "bitcoin is a currency". Come back and see if they dare to publish sales statistics in a year.

Anybody remember wordpress, humble bundle or reddit? Yeah their figures haven't been stellar overall.

Still hard to believe that is only 11 btc.

One who buys only 900 USD worth of merchandise with 1 BTC obviously does not believe that 1 BTC will be worth 10,000 USD in 2015...  ;)

Got to get the economy going. It's part of the whole thing. If Overstock adopts Bitcoin and has zero sales what do you think will happen then? People spending now are doing every other Bitcoiner a huge service!

so , thanks to all overstock-bitcoin -customers

Sorry, something like this is commonly said but it does not make any sense. $ and bitcoins are interchangeable. You can simply buy more bitcoins after spending them, to get your desired investment level.

Using that logic it does not make any sense to buy anything with dollars or any other currency, as you could put that money into bitcoins and it will be worth more later.

But clearly people need to spend in the meantime, and the only difference is that its easier to spend with bitcions, and your supporting the economy  ;)

I agree with this but it makes more sense to buy the additional BTC before spending the BTC in order to hedge the short risk. One way to do this is to deposit fiat in an exchange first, and then buy the BTC just before the ecommerce purchase.

Simplest strategy: Buy BTC. Price goes up 10x - spend 10% on stuff you need. Price goes up another 10x - spend 10% on stuff you don't even need  :P

If Bitcoiners all follow a strategy along these lines, the economy will continue to grow, and we will end up with lots of Bitcoiners with plenty of money just itching to spend it somewhere (which ought to encourage businesses to add it as a payment option). This is kind of the situation we have, because most Bitcoiners have the mental capacity to figure this out.
Unlike the people who argue that somehow Bitcoin will be worth zero due to its deflationary nature ???

no, because as the btc worth goes up, the utility of the HODL amount goes down, eg, hodl 10000 coins 3 years ago, I can spend 100 coins now and It doesn't effect me much, that BTC goes into the market with much more buying power. The other way to look at it if you have only $100 spending $75 is a big deal if you have 1 Million then spending $75 is nothing. The more you deflate the for you can spend

Academic interest only? With posts like this, you're going to have to change that sig.

What is that supposed to mean  - We're all supposed to refrain from using bitcoin for years until it's reached its ideal valuation? You're telling bitcoiners not to use bitcoin? What sense does that make? No thanks. And that's not going to help the btc economy. If nobody used it then it wouldn't be worth anything. That's a paradox!

He's not telling you to refrain from using bitcoin, if you really have to. There are drug dealers posting in these forums that need to use cryptocurrencies,
but the Average Joe (well, assuming he doesn't use illegal drugs) doesn't need bitcoin to do online shopping. Someone who buys now some expensive stuff that
he doesn't really need with bitcoins, through a retailer, has the same effect on the market as selling on an exchange and using the fiat for the purchase.
So he can claim that he holds tight, but he just takes advantage of the opportunity offered by the retailer instead of dumping (the retailer will dump).
I encourage the holders to buy stuff (even what they don't need) with bitcoins, this will bring more coins to the exchanges and the price down.

Same with Bitchick.  She accidentally overspent .68 and got .7 in return.

how does this work?  anyway to get some free btc?

Too late. They fixed the glitch.