Hello! I recently took to these forums with the intention of being apart of this online community, learning more about peoples outlook on Bitcoin (biased and unbiased) and also to stimulate the Bitcoin economy.

Since joining, I've been met with a surprisingly large amount of resistance when it comes to trade. I've been hit with negative feedback from a user that I have never even interacted with (which is an interesting flaw in the 'trust' system, but whatever) and I've had users heckle several different posts our mine because I'm a new user and because apparently there has been many scammers on this site in the last few months. I feel like I just walked into Salem and the witch hunt is ON. Just like Salem, this method of burning (flaming) a witch (supposedly me) to see if they'll survive is an old though process. Rarely is it confirmation of witchcraft.

Obviously, I'm facetious. But seriously. I don't feel like I deserve half the slack I've received since getting here, but hey! That's the internet!

I do, however, want to change some of your minds;

I'd like to hold a discussion on safe trade options available for Bitcoin. Everybody is screaming "Escrow, escrow!" at once, but escrow services can be just as unreliable as any 1 person on the internet! Lots of the services I've been recommended are no longer conducting business because of to many issues with customer information security and transactions not getting where they need to. Additionally, services like these reinstate one of the main principles we rejected by simply using Bitcoin -- not having a third-party governing your money when you want to make transactions.

To the people that have read my other posts, I can't use escrow. My company hasn't found a single company that we can give 100% of our trust to not lose or steal ours customer and company information/currency. Honestly, I don't trust them either.

TL;DR: Ruling out escrow services, what are some safe ways to trade items for Bitcoin? How often to do you use them? And considering my company did adapt an escrow service for our business, which one would you personally choose and why?

I've learned very quickly that escrow is a big deal on this site; I've brought it up with my superiors, but until I get an okay this is how I have to do business.

Again, yes, I am selling these items, but I'm working for a legitimate company with rules, regulations and guidelines to doing business. PayPal is another option we sometimes utilize because their service is able to reverse funds and they have a great support team dedicated to finding scammers.

Short story time: I was selling an item direct through Paypal and the customer sent faulty emails titled as Papal from a random email address confirming funds sent, obviously a phishing attempt. I reported the email addresses/alias associated with the incident. ALL of us have been in a situation where a random person on the internet has tried to get over, yet here we all are :]

I'll keep you both posted about escrow options however, I want to conduct business with as little stress on the customer and my company as possible!

My company has researched many escrows services used for Bitcoin and has not felt confident in any of the available options, as such, we do not offer an escrow service at this time. Like our site, many escrow services are new and hard to trust while keeping the interest of the customer and the retailer.

We're right there with ya.

In light of this fact, we do offer a 30-day return policy with free shipping both ways, we rarely have a return trip. We hope that we can still earn your business!

$570/2.32 BTC

I understand your concern with scammers. Me, being new to these forums and all, it's a bit intimidating. I work for a company, a legitimate company that sells top of the line technology, internationally. With such comes rules; my superiors do not believe that there are any escrows services that can guarantee customer information security enough for us to use their service. At this point in Bitcoin history there is a lot of uncertainty in many of the service related to the currency, all we can do is have a little faith.... and maybe wait for a reason to batter someone on serveral post before doing so ;P

I can see how drones and iPads can be similar, so your feedback is definitely noted and appreciated!

There are scammers on the internet -- I understand. I hope that you wouldn't let the actions of a few influence your thoughts on many! Our company, like Bitcoin, is new and not trusted by everyone because of just that fact, but we are a legitimate service, we strive to prove that in the coming months :]

Unfortunately all of the products I will have for sell will be direct from my retailer, so taking a selfie will be quite impossible. I assure you -- all products are brand new, never been opened in original packing. Just as you'd expect to receive them if you had purchased directly from Apple.

As a courtesy, I always offer a 30-day return policy if for any reason you're not pleased with your purchase and I pay for shipping both ways (have yet to pay for a return trip ;P).

I appreciate you checking out the website! Yes, we are new site, so things are a little wonky right now, no doubt about that, however our service is 100% legit. We've been doing this long before we had a website!!

As far security goes; SSL is not necessary for Bitcoin payments (one of the reason I love Bitcoin!). The only way someone would be able to intercept a payment would be to physically have access to a hard copy of your private keys, which we store securely, offline.

I hope that you will see that while we are new, our service is one of a kind! Thanks for your feedback :]

Hello! Unfortunately we do not offer an escrow service at this time, just our 30-day return policy (plus shipping) which is an instant refund considering it's Bitcoin. Additionally, we are technically a "Value Add Reseller", although not much "value" has been added these first couple of weeks -- discounts are store-wide for the launch of our site.

We don't mind taking a bit of a loss to earn your business!

Also available in different colors/more or less memory for models iPhone6 and iPhone6+. Prices may vary.

For this model/color/memory size I'm asking $650 or 2.67 BTC

Brand new, never been opened.

MacBook Pro – 2014

13.3″ Screen, 2.5 GHz IntelCord i5 Processor (3rd Gen)

8GB of RAM and a 500 GB HD. OS X 10.10, Yosemite, preinstalled.

$900 or 3.66 BTC, 30-Day Return Policy, Free international shipping both ways

Never been used, never been opened.

Hey guys, I'm Tyler from BitsforMacs.Com; if you read the title, I'm sure you can imagine what we do. If you made it here without reading the title, well, we sell Apple products for Bitcoin.

We've been doing this for sometime in online auction houses, Bitcoin forums and direct sales, but, this week we launched our website and I encourage you all to take a look!

Macbooks, iMacs, iPads, iPhones; all brand new, as if you bought them direct from Apple. Being apart of the Bitcoin community, however, allows for interesting discount prices on these items and many more. I have several promo codes available for people interested in making purchases. We have a firm 30-day return policy, we cover all shipping costs, even on returns, and we ship internationally.

And that's the bulk of it! Check us out today -- if you need a promo code, respond below or message me directly for more details.

That's a shame! I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for places.

Hello! I've been looking for new and trusted marketplaces/auction websites for Bitcoin only sales, preferably with escrow.

I've been using CryptoThrift, but it seems like traffic is pretty slow there, maybe I'm overlooking a couple of sites? Let me know!