Already looked at local bitcoin for sellers, closest to me is 75 miles. Maybe the next way to acquire is to sell something for auction or something like that.

So what is the best way to acquire coins if you don't mine?

First of all, thanks to the founders of this forum.  This site seems to be the best starting point for all that is Bitcoin.  I'm jumping in after seeing all the hype on TV here in the US.  After spending time here and reading through all the threads, I've come to the conclusion that Bitcoin will be a worthwhile medium to long term investment.

I have seen many threads of what you should not do when jumping in as a newbie.  What I don't see much is firm concrete steps of what you should do.  Where do I start?  I got a wallet from blockchain and then opened an account with coinbase.  So now I have 2 wallets?  Can I physically transfer my wallets from blockchain and coinbase to my pc?  I just bought 2 whole coins from coinbase which will take 4 days to get to me and now I have seen so many alternatives, makes me wonder if I did things right.

I hope this thread will help guide us newbies specifically from the US.

Thanks in advance for your replies!!

Just today on coinbase I bought my first 2 whole coins charged to my bank acct. Cost only 1% but will take 4 days to get it in my wallet.

With nothing to stop that, someone can get into your trust network and build up trust over a long period of time and when the time is right, or when you and your network is plump and ready, he can then slaughter everyone there.  Scary thought.

Hi, newbie here. Just read most of this thread and had one question.  What's to stop a scammer from creating multiple id's and building up trust between his own fraudulent network?

Would be great if you could do a virus scan and find out the virus signature.