Bitcoin Forum

If you have USD and want to buy BTC, do NOT send your USD to Mt Gox. The current asking price at Mt Gox is $6.55. You can buy BTC much cheaper at the following exchanges with the current size and asking price:
Intersango 520 offered at $6.28
BitFloor 103 at $6.33, 190 at $6.34 and 73 at $6.35
CampBX 116 at $6.43
Be a smart buyer and buy low.

All those exchanges are not connected to BitInstant and basically dwolla only (meaning US customers only).
So to put it another way, by artificially limiting the customer base, sellers get only a lower price for their bitcoins.

Well, BitFloor doesn't use Dwolla at all. Instead BitFloor accepts cash deposits at Chase bank branches in the US and accepts USD via international wire, among other deposit methods. No one is forcing the sellers to enter orders at lower prices. I see it more as buyers at Mt Gox being too lazy to consider using another exchange.

Yep, exactly, all those are very US centric, which is at little ironic in case of Intersago, as this exchange is located in Europe, still you cant use their USD exchange from Europe.
And international wire vs mtgox: do I pay the mtgox "fee" (more expensive coins) or to I pay the huge banking fee? Because eventually I will have spend the same amount of money.

Whoa! I see the 24-hour low at BitFloor was $5.41. Somebody bought some cheap coins. If I had more USD I'd put bids in on BitFloor.

It's difficult for somebody outside the US (like myself) to fund these exchanges, hence we don't really have as many options as you think

Many of these exchange accept LibertyReserve, which charges 2.5 to 7.5% in fees (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89535.msg987727#msg987727) and these percentages explain the price difference you're seeing.

None of BitFloor, CampBX or Intersango accept Liberty Reserve. BitFloor accepts deposits from those outside the US via international bank wire transfer. However, I can see where most of those outside the US would have no option for depositing USD to CampBX or Intersango.

ingdirect customers get free deposit via person2person transfer to bitfloor, have some money going there, and some other money headed to campbx via dwolla.

Right now:
Bitfloor last price: $6.34
Mt.Gox last price: $6.33605

Of the three (intersango USD, campbx, bitfloor), campbx seems to have the lowest average trade price. I think bitfloor's liquidity rebate approach hurts their volume. I'd prefer to see it 0.15% each side rather than 0.4%/-0.1%

I find CampBX is too limited. From their website:


Do they even accept international wires? Now imagine sending a wire of 1,000 USD, after banking fees they might receive and credit you only $950.

In other words, their BTC just got 5% more expensive (6.20 would actually mean 6.50/BTC).

Liquidity rebates actually promote volume. Why would you prefer to be charged for putting your order out there for others to see? The rebate is in place to give you an incentive to put your order on the book and keep it out there.

I'm not really complaining about the rebates, I just think it favors size of orderbook over volume. (e.g. it takes longer for two parties to come to an agreeable price because they both want to be the maker not the taker.) In general I tend to do limit orders regardless of where I purchase, so as a policy it favors my trading style.

-bgc

I think offering rebates is one thing that BitFloor is doing better than the other exchanges. But there are other things they are doing better as well. Such as
1) offering better methods of depositing and withdrawing USD
2) processing deposits and withdrawals more quickly
3) faster responses to support questions and better customer service
4) better website
5) better API (I'm told, I haven't used it)
All of these are reasons the volume on BitFloor has been growing. If BitFloor continues to do better in these areas, I think there volume will continue to grow on both an absolute basis and on relative basis when compared against other BTC/USD exchanges.

Prices are still low at BitFloor compared to Mt Gox. All you traders in the US make a cash deposit at a Chase branch, or use ING Direct P2P or PopMoney and get some USD over to your BitFloor account and scoop up the bargain bitcoins while they last!

That happens on any exchange, regardless of how the fees are done, because of the spread. However, placing your order on the order book to save a few cents/BTC is far more riskier than outright buying, if you are hoping on actually doing the trade.