Bitcoin Forum

You'll notice you cannot connect to Cheaper In Bitcoins any more - I've closed down the server due to some arising circumstances I will be looking for alternative products to sell for the a new website.

-That is all.

This sucks! http://postimage.org/image/aias32ppz/

I'm sorry to hear this hasn't worked out as planned. I'm sure you've put many hours and capital into this project.

~Bruno~

 :'( man this is disturbing when a brilliant site like CIB can't make it ....

What arising circumstances ?  :(

I think my idea was right its just the execution was wrong. It was kind of over zealous of me to think I could compete with amazon or other popular stores just by going off the pure Bitcoin purchases support. The idea was that people would at first support my site just becuase it was a good way to go with Bitcoins and buy things. Then with the profits I would put it back right into the store to lower prices by finding better options as far as suppliers go.

But I'm not letting go of it just yet just changing the execution. Looking for niche Bitcoin products... things nobody can purchase with fiat money - PM me if you have somthing good.

Glad to hear you are coming back bigger and better!  ;D

The first thing that comes to mind are those small independent artist (indies). Last count, there's upwards of a million of them. Re-branding to Only With Bitcoin is also an option. You're a bright guy who's not afraid to take risk. I like that!

~Bruno~

Starving artists, garage bands, first edition books, and the ever requested gift debit cards are a few. They are all things that are either going to be small payments or something you don't want charged back.

Also you were going up against them http://bitcoindeals.com/  ?

your probably right the best kind of retail business for bitcoin would be a small store specializing in hard to find / high quality products.  

good luck

It's definitely a problem, there isn't much you can't buy with fiat.  Opening a regular store (except with bitcoins!) is pretty much doomed to failure before it begins.  Digital goods like indie music and games is a good idea, but getting the word out to enough people to make it worth it would be difficult.  There's also the issue of the libertarian stance on piracy/intellectual property rights, that would hurt business.  Steam did a lot to curb piracy on the PC with their sales and easy installs/downloads but it took a long time and a lot of money for Steam to get where it is now.  

Not if what is being offered only accepts payments in Bitcoin, and there's a huge demand.

Example:

Say, for the sake of argument, the builder of an Angry-Birds-type-game is a Bitcoiner, and he just released the app, which is free to play. Free, until you want to upgrade, that is. And who doesn't want to upgrade? To purchase the upgrades, you must have Bitcoin. The players will figure out in a damn hurry where and how to get Bitcoin. Then somebody else comes along and makes it even easier to transfer fiat into Bitcoin so that the popular game can be played some more.

After reading the above, I'm sure other examples have now popped in your (the reader) mind(s).

That's why we're here!  Discussion is always great for getting new ideas, hard to see things when you only have one perspective. 

With the proper marketing, any product or service that's offered and paid for with fiat, can be purchased with Bitcoin. Yes, several 'except Bitcoin only' products and services have come and gone within the past year plus, but remember, I stated 'with proper marketing'. Remember the hackneyed adage, "He could sell ice cream to Eskimos during a blizzard"? That guy wasn't a salesman, but a marketer. He didn't just set up an ice cream stand in the middle of Canada (bet you thought I was going to say Alaska) with a big flashing neon sign that read 'Ice Cream'. He announced beforehand that he was coming, thereby a line of Eskimos were already waiting for him. He announced his soon arrival in such a way that those Eskimos mushed their dogs for hundreds of miles to be there, hoping all the while they don't miss the ice cream man. Here's the kicker. There was nothing special, at all, about that ice cream, but one thing--you could only pay for it with Bitcoin.

What's your (the reader) opus? More thinking outside of the box is clearly needed!

buy some silk road products and Imagine your self outside the box :o

Or get inside the box and pretend your driving down Silk Road.

  I think I just ate the b0x!  :-X

 vrroooommmmmmmmm

Bitcoin will start to really get bigger when we have known and heavily marketed sites adding Bitcoin as a payment option. We are getting closer and closer to this, it's possible that we will have the first one in 2012. Regardless of when it happens, the rise of Bitcoin could be pretty fast after that. We are still taking our baby steps and have basically gone nowhere yet.

The thing is, I'm a Bitcoin enthusiast but I haven't actually bought a single item or service with bitcoins except Casascius coins which are a unique Bitcoin product and best bought using bitcoins. On top of this I have donated a bunch of bitcoins to a number of organizations and individuals who I think deserve it. And I've handled some small transactions with my friends using the mobile clients.

But that's it. I simply don't see a need to buy products with bitcoins if I can do it more conveniently and/or cheaply from a known store that accepts a wide variety of regular payment options. This would all change if these regular stores I use would start accepting Bitcoin, I would pay everything in bitcoins immediately. But the whole issue here is a complex one, it's not enough to be "cheaper in bitcoins", what you need is to be competitive from the perspective of the supply of goods and marketing value.

In fact I'm quite sure that the variety of the supply and most especially the marketing aspect are at least as important as the pricing. If we really want people to start using Bitcoin a lot, we need to be successful in all of the same things that is required for success from a regular merchant. Even though it's nice and all that we have had a lot of small Bitcoin merchants popping up, the truth is that for Bitcoin usage to increase it would be a massively bigger deal if a known store started accepting bitcoins.

Xenland, I hope your next effort will work out better. It's important to not get depressed from failures, rather learn from them and go forward. I'm a starting Bitcoin enterpreneur as well and I already know it's going to be a big challenge. It's going to be hard for all of us until we reach the stage where Bitcoin has more acceptance from known merchants and organizations. The Internet Archive starting to accept bitcoins for donations was an important step in getting there.

The thing is, people sell amazon gift cards for bitcoins. So any store eventually just competes with amazon by proxy.

The best would just be a storefront that sells giftcards to all of the major sites. Put on a markup of a $1-$2 and you have yourself a profit model without the messy details of physical inventory.

Also, make it so others can sell giftcards on your website. A lot of people get unwanted gift cards for christmas. This will make it so you don't have to handle dollars.

Unwanted gift cards! That sparks an idea. I got to think more on this.

CIB AIN'T DEAD YET... YOU PEOPLE AREN'T LISTENING LOL..

Looking forward to the reorganization of your business Xenland.

There are ton's of products that ONLY Bitcoiners will buy, and I promise you most of these people don't even know it yet  ;).

The genie is out of the bottle. It's time to start thinking outside the box. I know it sounds corny, but you ain't seen nothing yet.

Hello,  btcinstant essentially sells giftcards to all of the major online websites for a couple of dollars. Also, you can re-load them to spend them again at that particular merchant.  Unwanted gift cards are pretty big on the internet this is true. It will be good to CIB back in action!

Good first effort. I look forward to CIB 2.0

Another problem for stores selling physical items is that Bitcoin users are all around the globe. I am in Europe so I would have to pay a lot to ship items here.

And don't forget about our beloved customs office, they love to charge us 23% VAT and storage fees ;)

I just want to say two words to you,

Two words. Are you listening?

There's a great future in Alpaca socks. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Interesting! So if one supplied item in the manufacturing link chain were purchased with Bitcoin, would that make the final cost lower for company A, who's competing with company B, in regards to the pricing concern, alone? Brand recognition or quality of product does not come into play when answering this question.

I thought about it. Let's take the Alpaca Socks niche one step further. Would you rather put on your next sock puppet show with an ordinary sock, or with an adopted one-of-kind Alpaca Sock Puppet. No two are alike, just like the Cabbage Patch Dolls. And you can only purchase them with Bitcoin.

http://www.makingjunk.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/puppets.png

I'm not sure I understood your question. The problem here is that bitcoin business are in the US and Amazon UK has free shipping for Europe (and since the items come from within the EU, we also do not pay the 23% extra). This means that I don't pay anything extra to order from Amazon and I get my item in a couple of days. Unless an european store starts accepting bitcoins, this is really to compete with.

My reply stems from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax

Bitcoin is a nerdy geek project. And most of the people using bitcoin don't have much use for too many physical goods- my entire belongings fit into one backpack. And many geeky people from experience are poor.

There is one shop already accepting Bitcoin. http://loja.pmakordeoneditora.pt
Only ships to Portugal tho, and ofcourse, Amazon should be cheaper for several reasons(VAT, quantities sold, etc.), but the alternative exists ;)

It could if you invested and owned lots of Bitcoins and want to make Bitcoins more attractive.