I'l gladly explain.

Suppose a brokered sale coin is listed for $5000, and sells. Like in any normal online transaction, the buyer will send me the money (either via bank transfer or btc). Once the sale is confirmed, I take, say, $4500 the money I received and place it in escrow (not held by me; but by a 3rd party; such as you for example). Once that money (likely in BTC) is held by a third party escrow, the actual seller mails the coins to me. the escrow will then release the $4500 as soon as I confirm receipt.

In essence; I would simply be buying the coin from them for an agreed upon price, in the event that I can find someone else to buy it from me at a higher price. I belive that with time, my trustworthiness will grow and sellers of the coins will be more happy to sell 'directly to me' then deal with bitcoin-illiterate buyers who may want to use $.

So yes; to the seller; the transaction would be as risk free as any sale utilizing full escrow on these forums Does this answer your question?

No; I am not part of it. neither are sellers on Ebay, but that's not stopping buyers. Perhaps after doing many sales I can be admitted. With what I explained above about escrow and 'risk free' selling, I don't think anyone who is making a listing is taking on much risk, and there is therefore little need for me to be 'officially trusted' by the community. Ofcourse; I believe I will gain trust after successful operation.
As for the buyer; a different level of trust is needed. They must trust me/my company enough to send the money in advance, likely without escrow. This is, of course completely common place in the business world, and if me/my business were to defraud anyone, they would have every right to legal recourse. Nevertheless; as ive said; the purpose of this post is to gather listed items from private sellers (and at-least attempt to prove my legitimacy to forum members). Also; I will repeat that the site is aimed at those not involved with bitcoin, but wanting to invest in coins...It is meant to be a traditional business selling and brokering rare collectibles to the world.


As I said; Sellers "hold onto [their] coin" UNTIL the coin sells on the site AND i place the money with a trusted escrow which is released as soon as i get the coin from them.


I am aware of the concept of using a verifiable chain of custody to prove the origin and former owners of a coin; somewhat similar systems are used with things such as LBMA Good Delivery gold bars and such. As far as original plans go; I meant to not to utilize the system. Casascius coins sell continually on Ebay with no such system, and one could well 'flip' the coins over Ebay; never using PGP. Fact is; the large amount of the potential pool of buyers are completely unaware of the system and may have little interest in using it. Also suppose that a seller of a valuable coin wants to sell it without public knowledge; I believe their anonymity is important. Of-course, it would need to be revealed to authorities if a fraud investigation were to take place n the case of faked/hacked coins.

Correct; it is an idea with a visual demonstration, but perhaps you could be more generous then calling it a napkin scribble. I'm not asking anything from anyone except interest in listing their coins. As for as not sending me 'shit'; I would beg to differ: suppose I agreed to directly buy one of the coins you are selling (and sent the full amount of BTC to OgNasty for escrow), you would still refuse to deal with me?


I assume you realize that neither A nor B are common place practices in the normal, every-day business world. Do you think that a wealthy banker who wants to buy a $50,000 collectible coin as a curiosity is going to do so by sending bitcoin (which he is quite unfamiliar with) to an essentially unknown, individual person (possibly in another country) who is apparently 'trusted' by a 'community' he knows nothing about, so that this trusted person can hold the funds in trust until he receives his shipment? I think they would MUCH RATHER buy from a real, registered, legal business; against which they can take legal action if they clearly defraud him.
Seriously...try to explain the 'escrow system' we use here to somebody on wall street; they would think it is a joke.


While I have not revealed private information, you can be sure that in the event of an official launch, business registration numbers, business names, owners, and all would become public knowledge as the law requires.


I believe I have answered all your questions in good faith. I appreciate helpful criticism and my business plan is still evolving, but I feel you are being overly pessimistic and suspicious. At this point, nobody has any evidence to believe I am trying to defraud anyone. I look forward to your response.

good to know
and I mean; how deep/thick is the 8x8 block of fudge

I understand the issue of handling the coins. I figured it would provide the most 'security' in brokered deals if I acted as a middle party. Ofcourse; if I had the liquidity to simply buy all the rare coins and then put them on sale myself I'd do that, but i figured (sell coin & get money > put money in escrow for coin owner > receive coin > ship coin to new owner) system was a viable alternative. If i instead had the original owner shipping the coin to the buyer (my other alternative), I could not guarantee the quality of the packaging, or even the fact that they didn't mail an empty box. Furthermore; the buyer and seller confidentiality would be gone, and the transaction as a whole would be less reputable to an outsider (imagine explaining this to a 50 year old traditional coin collector who has decided they want a speculative bet on this internet money thing...I think they would much much rather buy from a 'real company')

Any thoughts? I apologize if I sound defensive; I greatly value your input.

I recognize the danger of the 'coin scam' threat, but to my knowledge there has never been a reported case of it actually happening. Furthermore, coins are sold weekly on Ebay with no PGP statement (All coins can obviously be checked and confirmed funded prior to sale, but nothing stopping someone from taking the BTC at a later date from an address they swiped)
As far as the trust ratings go; I must say that I feel they are somewhat overrated. I've been following Bitcoin for nearly a year now, but have had no reason to become a forum member until very recently. If I dare say; I believe my 'reputation' on this forum will have little to do with sales on the site. Obviously; my prices for the more common coins are well above those here. I do not expect any forum member to be  buying coins from the site which are readily available on the forum.

That said, all I am looking for at this point is forum members who are open to the possibility of listing their rare coins; risk-free on their part. I see little reason for anyone to object to this in particular. Listings on the site are specifically trying to sell to the outside.

As stated, the prices in these images are not to be taken for current prices. My intent is to price items slightly above the current Ebay going rate, with the intended appeal being to those who want to buy from a business instead of an individual on Ebay (and is not on the forums). HOWEVER; the purpose of the above post is concerning only one part of the business, and that is in gathering hard-to-find items for Brokered Sale prior to launch. These are items which are rarely if ever even sold on Ebay. Investors who may be eyeing the coins as an investment are often not involved enough to be on the forums or even own actual Bitcoin; but simply want to buy an expensive coin as a speculative investment with dollars.

As for partners; I have Sr. Member Klondike_Bar on-board (shout-out to the Klondike Mining Collective he is arranging). I have also been in discussion with some other members who are interested in the idea.

That's an unfair statement. I believe I have made it clear that nobody will be asked to 'send me their coin' unless their money is already held in escrow after a successful sale. This is 0 risk to anyone listing coins.

Shipping to Canada available?
And I hate to ask; but 8x8x?

Us Bitcoin businesses got to stick together!

I am preparing to launch a physical bitcoin (and crypto) sales & brokering website.
The site will be located at www.hardco.in
The site will bring together the largest selection of Casascius (and other) coins, which will be available for 'direct' sale in either Dollars or Bitcoin.

The site will have 3 different functions, each of which should earn a separate stream of profit:

Direct sales; Coins which I hold in stock ready to ship, and coins which I have 'available' to me through various suppliers (add about 1 weeks to order time if not in stock)

Manufacturer-direct sales; Coins that are shipped directly from the manufacturer. I will take a % cut of sales, or price the items slightly above the original price for the convenience of buying through a centralized, reputable website.

Brokered sales; High-value and unique items which are held privately, but listed on the site. I will take either a % cut of the sale price, or price the item above the seller's agreed-upon ask price. See 'SALE STEPS' for explanation

That said; the purpose of this post is to look for quality items to place on brokered sale prior to official launch.

Please contact me privately, if you own any of the following Casascius items:
-Bars of any type; funded or unfunded
-Any coins with denominations of 5BTC, 10BTC, 25BTC, or the legendary 1000BTC (funded or unfunded)
-S1 1BTC coins (funded)
-S3 0.5BTC silver coins (funded)
-S1 1BTC coins (funded)
-ANACS graded coins, especially higher grades
-Large stock of a specific coin
-Anything else noteworthy

-Non-Casascius coins and rounds will be determined on a case-by-case basis; but if you have anything to offer I am welcome to suggestions.


SALE STEPS
1. you agree to have coin listed, and send me 4 photos of the coin (resting on white sheet of paper; one from directly above, and another from an angle, on both sides of coin.
2. coin gets listed. You will be guaranteed an agreed-upon amount ($ or BTC) if the it sells.
3. IF coin sells, money is put in escrow for you and you will ship it to our location, from where it will be shipped to the new owner. (we will also compensate you for the tracked & signed shipping)

In other words, its completely risk-free to you, as you hold onto your coin and don't need to pay anyone a cent.

Once we receive the sold coin, we we will ship it to the new owner. The buyer will never know your identity, and you won't know theirs. The identities of buyers and sellers in the brokered sales are confidential to the world and each other.

In this beginning phase, there will be no listing fees of any kind. The contact email will be contact@hardco.in and you may alternatively contact me through PM here. When contacting me about listing your item, please include 4 photo's as stated above, and include your asking price. If you are unsure of the value of the item, you may submit it and we will suggest prices in accordance with previous sales and other submissions.


This site is meant to appeal to buyers who want to conduct reputable purchases from a legitimate business, with the ability to pay with dollars. It is intended as an answer to the difficulties presented by selling on Ebay; especially pertaining to their restrictions of anything Bitcoin related. It is meant to be more desirable then Ebay for buyers, due to dealing with a centralized business as opposed to an individual with little reputation. That said; the site is not intended to compete with this forum in the sale of the popular Casascius coins, but is meant to appeal to those looking for an Ebay alternative. Prices of non-brokered items will reflect this and the convenience of dealing with a business.

The site is not yet live; but I am providing a screenshot preview at http://imgur.com/a/gAM3r#0  I hope to launch it within the week. Please note that the preview is meant as an EXAMPLE; the prices are not current nor necessarily correct at all, and most of the photos were pulled from the internet. It is meant to give you an IDEA of what it will look like; NOT be a definitive price or product guide.

The business will be based in Toronto, Ontario CANADA.

Feel free to ask questions in this thread, but I ask that information of coin listings be kept to private messages.

I dont see much hope. I think it will go bankrupt unfortunately. Goodbye to my 1mBTC I have with Gox

Are you serious? You really don't recognize the collectible value of an item that was produced in limited quantity and serves as a symbol of a movement, culture, and emerging technology?

I dont think its the case in this situation; but moreso wanting the class to learn from someone actually involved in Bitcoin. Ofcourse; doing something like this is a great honor for me, and will do me no harm in my academics.

So my World Politics professor mentioned Bitcoins in the first lecture back in September, saying she belived they could completely transform the global economy and how countries and corporations transfer money internationally. I later spoke with her and she is asking me to send her all the best sites and information that give the best all-around understanding of Bitcoin.
She also asked me to essentially give a lecture to her (and my) class about Bitcoin and crypto-currencies.
I'm a 2nd Year Political Science student and would appreciate any help you can give me!

Looking forward to this book; I'll certainly be buying a copy! Also; please donate one to the Bitcoin Museum at https://www.thebitcoinmuseum.com/ !

very good looking shirts. I would consider but I already have too many t-shirts, and mostly wear golf shirts.

are you talking funded or unfunded?

quite expensive for a shovel, no?

No worries, thanks for replying. I understand why you might think that

you never replied to my PM

agree with ortkid. you have a very rare gem of a coin here! I am PM'ing you regarding a possible deal.

very true; didnt take that into account. This could very well go for 40btc at current exchange rates if there is a buyer.