Bitcoin Forum

OK, we will pool our monies and bulk buy some coins for the conference (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=40272.0). Maybe have a poker home game with them or something ;D Buying in bulk is cheaper. Then afterwards the coins are split proportionally and you're free to do whatever you want such as resell them.

Post your pledges below and I'll update this OP. I'll get the Casascius (https://www.casascius.com/) guy to respond here. We'll bulk buy the coins and have them sent directly to the conference venue to collect.

Not sure how much I'm going to pledge yet, so for now say that I'm 0 BTC.

1LKaLcEjmyaKRvCnoyxoBBm5yQkmQ799tg

I thought one of the big advantages of Bitcoin was the whole digital thing.. and that one would want to let people know about those advantages..
rather than encouraging them to buy overpriced novelty* items.   :-\

I see memory dealers is currently selling those physical coins for more than twice what one can buy BTC for at any exchange.   :o

But I suppose if you can find people who will actually buy them, more power to you.
I just don't see how it really helps people understand what Bitcoin is really about. 

Just my opinion.

--

* "novelty" in this sense: an article of trade whose value is chiefly decorative, comic, or the like, and whose appeal is often transitory: a store catering to tourists who loaded up with souvenir pennants and other novelties.

The Casascius Coins are valued as BTC Spot Price + minting and format cost + value of tangible product + novelty + speculative collectors' value + profit for all parties involved in creating, designing, and delivering it to you.

So if that equation doesn't add up to be worth it in your mind, that's fine, but these coins are pretty damn cool and one shouldn't assume that the only value is the distilled BTC value.

For goodness sake, the marketing effect these coins have had already is pretty substantial. Lots of articles. Lots of tweets. Great conversation starter and great way for people to start understanding Bitcoins better.

I hope Casascius and Roger both get rich this holiday season selling these wonderful trinkets! =)

I am having a hard time keeping the 1 BTC's in stock, but the 25BTCs are a bit easier.  Anyone who wants to order 50+ of them, I can give a significant discount to.  I imagine you will sell out of anything you bring to the conference.  Same goes with the 100 BTC bars.

You still have to pay the BTC up front, but I will withhold loading the BTC on them until you actually receive them, just so you don't risk paying customs on the BTC value.  Sorry, it is not possible for me to sell empty coins (unless you want them without the hologram).

+1

The crazy thing is they are still in demand at the increased price... How sweet it could be if I could offer the coins for half the markup... I just wouldn't have any left. Actively looking to do something about increasing the supply.  I spent much of today doing more 1 BTC coins and preparing orders.

Ok, so I'd like to buy

• 5 Casascius coins
• 5 "0-Bitcoin (Non-Denominated) Gold Plated Bars"

These bars sure make for great Christmas presents!

If everybody would add his/her intended orders in this thread we could get a better picture of which price we can expect because as it stands now, it is very difficult to decide how much to pledge.

Genjix, maybe you could add pledge addresses for the different products and give an estimate of the shipping cost as well as the approximate bulk discount rates.

Ok, so I'd like to pledge:

25 x 1BTC Casascius coins
2 x 25 BTC Cascasius coins
10 x 0-Bitcoin (Non-Denominated) Gold Plated Bars

But i am able to load those Bars afterwards right?  ..I plan to buy lots of btc from one of the exchangers at the conference ant then send them to my bars ...^^

You have to tell people something really exists first! Only after that, if they express interest, you can tell them what it is really about. This is exactly what casascius bitcoins are - souvenirs! People just can extract additional value out of the souvenir (if there is a hologram sticker) if they understand what bitcoin is really about.

Casascius bitcoins is great idea. Just wondering, however, what would be the 'temptation' level for casascius to 'monetize' all unclaimed private keys and run away with money?

Just to address my "temptation" level:  I am already quite independently wealthy before coming along and doing anything with Bitcoin.  For me to steal BTC wouldn't improve my life much, would just cause me legal trouble and would bring a lot of people looking to kick my ass, since I have made it fairly easy to find me. 

That said, the non denominated bar is meant for you to provide your own private key.  I will provide one as a sample (it's secure too), but presumably you want to generate your own and not care about having a casascius hologram because it is more a way to store your own BTC in a shiny wrapper and not to transact it face to face.

Be careful with this technique of you are crossing borders.  IMO, it's better to send them to a private key that's harder to identify as something to confiscate.

Ur quite right bro ...but first I know my borders here in germany pretty good ^^ and of course they won`t be loaded with btc (at least not the bars) while I go through customs (if i have to....i am traveling by car)..

@ Cascasius ..u really should visit prague too and open up  shop there :D

I pledge one 1 BTC coin and one broken 1 BTC coin.

It helps them think. The human brain is like an iPod: touch-activated.

I think they are pretty cool and I would like to incorporate them into the conference as some kind of prize.

The numbers are starting to heat up now but ill make my pledge at the last possible moment once i know what i have to work with. 
When is the last possible moment by the way?, I guess they will be 1BTC coins.

We also have some big news tomorrow about the conference, it's not as big like a conference in Pattaya big but its significant

Free ticket to cascasius if you can make it to prague for coming up with such a clever novelty, physical, promotional, cool, souvenir.

+1

great line :D

I like the sarcasm in the first sentence and the generous offer in the second :D

Looking forward to prague !

here is the news :)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51349.0

I'll take 10 to 20 small coins, and a broken one. 10 is for sure, the other 10 depend on what the price is gonna be.

I just wanted to clarify that my ability to provide a discount extends to the 25BTC coins.  The 1 BTC coin is super expensive only because I otherwise can't make them fast enough to fill the orders for them - something that can't be helped by offering discounts on large orders.  I am looking to increase production capacity and will definitely make an announcement if I am able to produce the 1 BTC's faster.

bump!


so are there gonna be a few coins for sale at the conference?

Cascasius will you be there? did you get your free ticket ?

I briefly talked to genjix on IRC and sent a mail to casascius with the estimated demand (partly with the information from this thread) and asked for a price.

Unfortunately I didn't get a response from him yet so I really hope somebody else has made a deal with him and bring some coins so that we can buy them at the conference.

Count me in. I'll buy 3 25BTC.

It doesn't seem reasonable to expect they would arrive on time even with casascius' prompt shipping.

So someone would _have_ to bring them, right?

It'd really be nice to have coins at the conference, especially many 1 BTC coins. I'm sure everyone will want at least one!

True, I sent him a mail 4 days ago, asking him if he thinks he could still ship on time. I guess the answer is no :(

+1

I did get the message on my iphone, sorry I did not respond, I should have later when I was back at a computer.

However, I felt I had sufficiently made clear in the thread that the ability to provide a bulk discount applied specifically to the 25 BTC coins, no discount was possible on 1BTC coins.  The e-mail I received was to ask if there could be a discount on 52 1BTC coins and 2 25 BTC coins, and 20 non-denominated bars.  I regularly get single orders larger than this (except perhaps for the 20 bars, which happens but is much less frequent as a single order) and this wasn't what I had in mind as being a bulk order.

What I had in mind was that some enterprising person who perhaps already had a vendor table would pick up 50 or 100 or 200 of the 25 BTC coins at a discount, and make a nice little profit selling them.

If anyone in the US is going, I can reliably overnight something for Tuesday delivery to anyone in the US who might be going to the conference.  But for orders like 50-100 1BTC coins... may as well just order them like normal.  I can mail up to 2kg for USD $13.25 anywhere in the world.

Even then, unless I did express air shipping (e.g. DHL), a regular mailing to Prague wouldn't make it reliably in any amount of time.  Some of my international orders arrive in 4 days, I have had one take 34, with 10-11 days being the norm.  If I were to use DHL right now, it would probably still be in time for the conference if sending all the way to Prague.

I'm sorry - must have been a misunderstanding. I somehow read the "discount extends to the 25BTC coins" as to not excluding the 1 BTC coins but re-reading it you're right of course.

Well, that's something which would better be arranged directly with the organizer of the event instead of over a forum thread. But I'm sure Mitchell already had enough on his plate ;)

If somebody could do that it would be great of course, but given the tight schedule I think our chances are slim.

No worries though - shipping is not that expensive - I think we're probably all best off ordering separately (or teaming up with some of your local Bitcoin group).