[Current Status]

Hey guys, just as a preface this is a cross-post from the Ogrr trading forums. Thought I might get a little more attention here as I provide the best discount for private buyers buying with BTC on the market.

Pricing is based off of competitive USD rates from other websites, then it's matched to any of my competitors actively selling in BTC currency.

First-come-first-serve, recommend that you PM me for a quick trade.

Current Status:

Today's Current Stock, Pricing & Availability (08/06 9:30 AM)
Current Stock: Out of Stock Diablo III US Softcore Gold
Availability Today: Should hopefully have supplier issues resolved by tomorrow with more stock.
Current Pricing:
•  Quantities Less than 10mil: $2.24/mil (/mil)
•  Quantities 10+mil: $1.95/mil (/mil)
•  Quantities 20+mil: $1.82/mil (/mil)

Please see rules in root post before contacting for trade so you know what the deal is! Thank you for your consideration and time.

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ Diablo III Gold for Sale (Competitive Pricing+BTC Only Discount)

Current Stock, Pricing & Availability
Please Check My Latest Update Post!

Contact Details
Skype/BitCoinTalk PM/Ogrr PM/mBTC Address: xioustic
BTC Address: 1PoYbp44vcvZ9XeT3gMsDtEHtoWZ2GWoYq
Please see rules below before contacting for trade so you know what the deal is. Only add me by Skype username, and only send funds to the BTC/Ogrr address listed above. I highly recommend you send me a PM for quick service, as this notifies me by mobile. My BattleTag may change from time to time and I also do not wish to post that publicly, so that will be given on an as-needed basis for trades.

Why trade with me?
• My delivery will be quick within my posted availability times each day on a first-come first-serve basis.
• I'm a huge promoter and believer in BTC currency and prefer to keep all transactions I can in BTC.
• I base my pricing first off of competitive USD rates, then I pass the savings on to you as a result of me doing business in BTC (see "This Post's Pricing Based Off Of" at bottom for details).
• I will give you rep/feedback when possible and post here for each of our completed trades if you want. I hope that you return the favor!
• At time of posting I'm working towards Level 2 Verification on Ogrr.
• I speak English as a first language which might be a welcome change if you're used to dealing with some other "competitive" sellers.

Rules (Please Read Before Contacting)
1. I deal in mBTC (aka Ogrr's FG) or BTC only. PayPal/Moneybookers/Etc transactions do not get the Discounted BTC Rate and are reserved for people that I trust and/or have been doing business with for awhile. Honestly, mBTC is best for both parties as the transfer is basically instant and if there's any funny business it's likely that the admins on here would stop me before I cashed out and get your money back. Keep in mind, I keep screenshots on file of EVERY transaction.
2. You go first. If this makes you uneasy I'm willing to do transactions in as little as 1BTC/1000mBTC increments. If you're a well-reputed member or a regular customer I may waive this rule, but if that's the case you won't need to ask.
3. Pricing may be subject to change. This clause is really only if BTC Exchange Rate or Gold Pricing fluctuates significantly during the day. I plan to typically repost my rates, stock and availability each day that I'm selling to try and be as transparent as possible.
4. Contact me before sending me funds. This allows me to confirm my availability to trade and my current stock meets the needs for your order. This will also generate a precedence for the transaction which protects both parties.
5. In general: first come, first serve. For example, if you show an interest in purchasing 13mil but you don't follow through quickly, I will not reserve the 13mil for your purchase at a later time if a buyer comes along to purchase my remaining stock on an immediate basis. This rule is not meant to excuse rudeness, but rather it is intended to promote that everyone's time is valuable and I do not want to set here waiting to sell gold to you all day.
6. I probably won't buy your gold. If demand is high enough I might, but the pricing will only be only slightly better than the rate my competition pays if the margin is acceptible. More than likely, I'll make a separate thread if I'm looking to boost my stock.

Standard Procedure for Gold Purchase
1. Contact me using the methods posted above to let me know how much you're interested in buying so we can negotiate/confirm a final price/quantity. At this point you will also give me your BattleTag or Battle.net E-mail Account (whichever you prefer).
2. Upon mutual agreement, send mBTC to me on Ogrr or send BTC to my standard wallet address (1PoYbp44vcvZ9XeT3gMsDtEHtoWZ2GWoYq).
3. Upon confirming receipt of payment (should be near-instant), I will add you as a friend in-game, invite you, and trade you the gold.
4. We're done! I post feedback about the trade on this thread (unless you request otherwise). You may do the same.

[EDIT: For the sake of saving you time: if you just came to answer my questions about MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal, scroll down to the heading reading "MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal" and read the bullet points.]

EDIT: For the sake of saving you time: if you just came to answer my questions about MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal, scroll down to the heading reading "MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal" and read the bullet points.

Hey everyone,

So this is my first time experience going from BTC->USD that isn't a private, in-person trade (eg localbitcoins.com). I'm doing little trial runs of trying to cash out my BTC in as many ways as possible to test out the time it takes and the net amount (compared to other methods I try to do at the same time). I'm trying to do this in equivalent amounts of $20, but of course this is difficult as the price is constantly shifting.

And before you ask why: I divvy up my investments by percent, and I promised myself I'd never invest more than 10% of my investment assets in a speculative commodity. I've dedicated all 10% of that to BitCoin at this point, mostly because I've earned so much (playing Poker @ SealsWithClubs, Mining, and selling In-Game Virtual Items/Currency on different games). However, I've got way too much BitCoin and it's throwing my portfolio's risk balance off. Needless to say, I need to start cashing in on my BTC until I get below a certain amount (in USD) to balance everything out again.

The good news is, I want to publish my results and share them with you. To most of you this will probably all be old news, but to some of you (especially since this is the Newbie forums) it might actually be useful.

If you can make these results any more meaningful by correcting me, please do! For example, I have timestamps on when I sent the BTC and when I opened each order, but I do not know how to find a corresponding BTC<->USD value at that precise time to get an expected value for each trade.

Preface for this first run: I do not have a verified MtGox Acct (yet) nor a verified Dwolla Acct (yet) nor a verified OKPay Acct (yet). When I do get those going I will try out each of those methods too. So I am stuck with "anonymous" methods. This rules out the standard line from BTC Transfer->MtGox->Dwolla->Bank, which is unfortunate because I think that's still the best way to do it? Not sure. Will probably do another trial run when I get verified.

Additionally, it's worth noting that it's the FIRST time I've used any of these services, so that might be a factor in speed in distributing funds (since I'm not a known customer)?

Methods Tested

I pulled most of these from reddit's bitcoin subreddit and reading a few of the recent (top rated) posts. If you have any other suggestions, let me know and I'll try them out. I have lots of $20s worth of BitCoin to throw around for trustworthy, vouched methods. Anyway, here's the list of what I tested:

• SpendBitCoins->PayPal
• FashCash4BitCoins->ACH Transfer to Bank
• FastCash4BitCoins->PayPal
• MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal

Trials

SpendBitCoins->PayPal

• I sent 3.01BTC, rated by the site as $20, at 6/29 9:34 AM MST.
• I received a PayPal payment at 6/30 12:06 AM MST of $20, but PayPal took their standard fee from the amount, netting me $19.12.
• The total wait time was 14hrs and 32min with an effective fee of 4.4% from expected value ($20).

FastCash4BitCoins->ACH Transfer to Bank

• I sent 3.0488BTC, rated by the site as $19.60, at 6/29 10:25 AM MST. I have not yet received a payment for this, but this is somewhat expected: ACH Transfers can take 3-5 business days. I will get back to this one?

FastCash4BitCoins->PayPal

• I sent 3.0488BTC (approximately $20?) at 6/29 11:25 AM MST.
• I received a PayPal payment at 6/29 5:53PM for a net $19.54 (no PayPal fees taken).
• This total wait time was 6hrs and 28min with an effective fee of 2.3% from expected value ($20).

MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal

• Buckle your seatbelts, I need help with this one!
• I sent 3.0488BTC (approximately $20?) over a period of time and traded over a period of time from 6/29 10:35 PM MST to 12:25 PM MST. This makes it hard to tag a value. However, my BitInstant order tracking lists amount I paid as $20.09, so we'll use that.
• I received a PayPal payment at 6/29 1:53PM for a net $17.52 (no PayPal fees taken).
• This total wait time was 1hr and 28min with an effective fee of wtfomgbbq?
• This is where things get weird: BitInstant order page displays that fees are 6.0% incl. paypal. However, it lists amount I paid as $20.09 and amount I will receive as $17.900672. Not sure how that math works, but by my math, I should be receiving $18.8846! The effective rate for this method becomes (1-($17.900672/$20.09)) = 10.8965%! Even that aside, I received $17.52 by PayPal, and not $17.90 as quoted in the order sheet. What's going on here?

Results

Fastest: MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal at 1hr,28min. Second place would be FastCash4BitCoins->PayPal taking about an additional 5hrs. Third comes SpendBitCoins->PayPal, taking about another 8hrs on top of second place. Big division here!
Best Value: FastCash4BitCoins->PayPal with an approximate actual effective fee of 2.3%. Second place is SpendBitCoins->PayPal with an approximate actual effective fee of 4.4%. Third place by a HUGE margin is MtGox->BitInstant->PayPal, with a fee I can't figure out but approximated to about an actual effective fee of 10.9%!

Let me know what you guys think. I realize this sample size is super small with only one trial run per method, but I will expand on this and hopefully provide updates as I slowly bleed my BTC balance to something more acceptable to my risk tolerance.

Thanks for reading!

[Preface]

Preface
Hey everyone! So I've been selling Diablo 3 Gold for BitCoin (BTC) at Ogrr.com, and I also have experience selling WoW items/gold/accounts in the past. I've seen the pros and cons of different payment methods over the years, and I REALLY like BTC for this type of trading. So much so that I attempt to deal exclusively in this currency and plan to from now on (as long as it's stable).

I've had quite a few inquiries due to my competitive pricing for D3 gold with the BTC discount. People want the discounted rate BUT they also want to use PayPal or some other payment method. When I refuse to do this, they get upset. In this thread, I'm going to try to outline with full transparency why I generally won't accept other payment methods and especially why I won't discount them to the level I discount BTC payments. I use PayPal as an example, but really, this can apply to MoneyBookers, Dwolla, and even Direct ACH Bank Transfers as they all have similar or equivalent issues. I've both experienced and witnessed these issues over the years, and I strongly believe BTC is the answer.

Why I Generally Avoid PayPal Payments for Virtual Item/Currency Transactions
The reasons I avoid PayPal is I typically have to pay a fee (2.9% + $.30 per transaction), but most importantly, I run the risk of a fradulent chargeback. What this means is you file a dispute with PayPal saying one of two things so that after you get the gold, you also get your money back. You typically have up to 30 days to commit this fraud, so it's difficult for me to keep tabs on it when it happens. Additionally, when it happens, my PayPal account can be FROZEN, preventing me from withdrawing, receiving, etc.

Fraudulent chargebacks can come in two types:
1. You tell PayPal you never received what you paid for. As a rule, I keep and can provide screenshots to refute my case for every one of my transactions. This works 45% of the time in my favor, and 55% in the case of the fraudster if I kept good records.
2. You tell PayPal your account was hacked and you didn't send the funds yourself. If you used an anonymous VPN (or proxy) to access your PayPal account when you sent me the funds, it would appear this was true. You win this case 99% of the time. I have nothing to prove to PayPal that you absolutely were who you said you were at time of purchase.

There is very little I can do to mitigate fees and the risk of fraudulent chargebacks other than an honor/reputation system with each individual seller, which can generally be unfeasible. This is especially true for private buyers who only want to make one or two purchases and that's it.

Why BTC is Preferred for Virtual Item/Currency Transactions
Well, basically direct BTC transfers are near-instant and irreversible. To coincide with this, transfers of virtual items/currency should be delivered near-instantly and irreversibly. Since there's generally no fee paid by either party to facilitate the transfer, I can happily discount the pricing to you since I'm saving money in the long run compared to other methods. Paying with BTC is like handing someone cash: There is no governing entity to facilitate a fraudulent chargeback against me on your behalf. This means I have 0 worry about you keeping the service/items I provided you AND the funds you sent me. Your biggest recourse would be to tarnish my reputation, which would (hopefully) keep me from continuing to scam others if your accusation was rightly so.

The Big Cons of BTC for Virtual Item/Currency Transactions
First off and most worrisome: You adopt all the risk of me scamming you. Once I have your BTC, you can't get it back. If I don't follow through on my order you're out whatever you sent me. The only counter to this is me building my reputation (for example, on this forum) and publicly publishing my BTC address I receive payments on (1PoYbp44vcvZ9XeT3gMsDtEHtoWZ2GWoYq) in every "Ad" so that nobody can steal my identity. An identity thief would never have access to my BTC address, and since I state explicitly not to ever send BTC to any other address, you can be fully confident that what you send to my published address (1PoYbp44vcvZ9XeT3gMsDtEHtoWZ2GWoYq) will be received by ME and ME only.

Secondly: Storing BTC is a little scary and foreign to people. There are no banks for BitCoin that secure your money, there are only wallets. Some "exchanges" or "servers" will hold your BTC like a bank would by using their own wallets, but this carries significant risk. If you store the BTC in an actual server, such as MtGox or Bitcoinia, those servers can be hacked and all wallets emptied (Google it, it has been done before!). The server (and culprit) could also just disappear. In both cases, you're out all your money and so is everyone else, and the faith in the currency drops. The solution to this problem is off-line and/or client-side only wallets, which is why I use a BlockChain.info Wallet. There are even BETTER solutions for getting your very own BTC wallet. Client-side/off-line only wallets are a very viable and easy answer to this issue.

Third, BTC pricing fluctuates just like any currency. People (including myself) are worried that one day, BTC will completely crash or become worthless in value. Nothing to be said about this, because it's absolutely true. However, the same could be said of any currency, especially fiat currency. At time of writing, BTC has been increasing in value like crazy vs the USD and Euro in the past few weeks. This is not an indication of strength or stability though. It could just as easily crash in price next month, or next week, tomorrow, or even in the next hour for many different reasons. My biggest worries are a loss of faith in the currency and/or high influx of new BTC being introduced to the economy due to technological innovation. The first would be difficult to rectify, the second could only ever be temporary due to the way BTC works.

Finally, and the biggest hurdle, is: Not everyone has BTC to spend. Everyone has dollars, euros, etc to spend but most do not have BTC. Going from one currency to BTC is NOT necessarily an easy thing to do at this point. Many places you can buy BitCoin from have a waiting period and significant commission. MtGox is a good place to buy it, but it takes time to receive and send money from them. m/]BitInstant and BuyBitcoin are good resources for a quick exchange, but the commission that gets charged during the process is unfortunate and the speed of receiving the BTC is always a concern. My favorite way? LocalBitcoins hooks you up with someone in your zipcode. You give them cash, they send you BTC via their phone or laptop on-the-spot. Done and done. I've sold plenty of BitCoin this way and highly recommend it.
IMPORTANT: Please note that I am not personally endorsing any of the methods listed above to purchase BTC! I do not enough experience buying BTC to be considered any sort of authority on the matter.

tl;dr
BTC transactions have no risk of chargeback fraud, virtually no fees and happen near-instantly. No other payment method has all of these benefits rolled into one. For that reason, I exclusively give a heavy discount to my BTC paying customers.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I'll state for the record that I still do virtual item/currency transactions by PayPal, MoneyBookers, ACH Transfer, etc for sake of convenience for the buyer, but only with people I have dealt with many times before over a long period of time and only when selling in significant volume to those select few.

This is a cross-post of mine from my thread on Ogrr, a mBTC-based trading community for virtual game items/currency.

I figure I might have a bigger audience here, and also, I need to fill my newbie quota!