Do you buy and sell BTC in person?

[akiliholmes]

The only place that I have found without using an exchange site in the US to buy and sell BTC in person is LocalBitcoin. Do anyone else buy and sell any other ways in person? Do you work directly with a miner? Any other suggestion outside of an exchange?

[1714061034]

1714061034

[1714061034]

1714061034

[MinerHQ]

I think localbitcoin is the best place to buy and sell bitcoin in person or you need to try if any member in this forum are from your place and they are ready to trade with you.

[mattiadeabtc]

Always caution to scammer maybe dont go to a face to face trade whit a Lot of money in your pocket or alone,  you don t know the Person that you re going to trade whit

[VVine]

I just did for the first time yesterday. Everything went smoothly and I bought some bitcoins. and I even got to know another bitcoin nerd.

[FruitsBasket]

I just did for the first time yesterday. Everything went smoothly and I bought some bitcoins. and I even got to know another bitcoin nerd.

Or he was a police undercover..
You still never know, who they are..

[Tom Greg]

I send cash by mail.

[ColderThanIce]

Another option for trading in person is to use Mycelium Local Trader, however to use that you need to have a mobile device running Android. If that doesn't work for you, you could always try posting an ad on Craigslist or Kijiji and see if anyone is interested in buying or selling some bitcoin to you.

If you live in a larger center with a bitcoin ATM that would be an option as well, however it seems that most of the bitcoin ATM's I've seen have huge markups, so I'd use that only as your last option.

[BTCPOOLMINING]

I buy/sell bitcoin online via ecurrencies only, its hard to find a person near me who trade bitcoins, rarely I find someone who know about bitcoin in my town

[BurtW]

I believe that doing a "few small trades" through localbitcoins may be OK.  But if you live in the United States under marshal law (the patriot act) doing a lot of trading here can get you into trouble.  Read on.

Very well written article about my case, and civil asset forfeiture in general:

http://coinjournal.net/burt-wagner-localbitcoins-case-shows-danger-of-overbearing-government

I will be speaking:

http://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Bitcoin-Society/events/224676885/

Updated web sites:

http://www.burtw.com/

http://www.jmwagner.com/

Be careful out there.

It won't do any good, since they can legally lie to your face, but you can always ask the person you are trading with "Are you a homeland security agent or a cooperating witness or a confidential informant for any government agency?" and "Are you audio or video taping this perfectly legal person to person transaction for any reason?"  It might just put them off their game a bit.

[Jorge320]

Never in person, I tend to stick to online exchanges mainly for ease of use (I believe there is a local Bitcoin meetup but I haven't had the time to see what it's all about yet).

Something to consider in the future....

[bimasena25]

I often buy and sell bitcoin exchange for the balance of
local banks. Some also exchange bitcoin them with a
variety of useful products in the online business world

[randy8777]

i have never sold any coins in person and probably never will. the only exception might be for family and close friends. but never ever to strangers.

[twister]

I buy from a local trader I found on LBC, he lives pretty close to my house and so far I haven't had any trouble with this guy, the first couple of times I was really cautious and would tell him to meet at a local cafe and would wait till the transaction had atleast 1 confirmation but now he trusts me and I trust him so when I call him and tell him I need this much BTC, I usually buy worth $50-$100 depending on the requirement and he sends it right over and then I walk to his house or the meeting point and give him the money.

[monbux]

Always caution to scammer maybe dont go to a face to face trade whit a Lot of money in your pocket or alone,  you don t know the Person that you re going to trade whit

That's why people typically meet in public places so it would be much harder for the scammer to do something like that.

[BurtW]

I buy from a local trader I found on LBC, he lives pretty close to my house and so far I haven't had any trouble with this guy, the first couple of times I was really cautious and would tell him to meet at a local cafe and would wait till the transaction had atleast 1 confirmation but now he trusts me and I trust him so when I call him and tell him I need this much BTC, I usually buy worth $50-$100 depending on the requirement and he sends it right over and then I walk to his house or the meeting point and give him the money.

This is perfect, and is the ideal situation theoretically.  

But if he still advertises and does a "lot" of trading through localbitcoins to the general public then beware.  If he is arrested they can and probably will take over his localbitcoins account and use if for their own nefarious ends.  In my case I refused all plea deals until they dropped the charges because I was able to cash in my retirement accounts and was able to take out a second mortgage on my home in order to hire a great attorney.  Those who end up with a public defender will probably end up with a plea to a lesser charge and some amount of cooperation in order to avoid jail.  Depending on his lawyer and how his case goes he may have to fork over all his trading partners as part of his cooperation for the plea deal.  

At the current time I believe that as long as you are not doing anything illegal with your Bitcoins you probably will not get into any trouble for going to localbitcoins, finding a buyer or seller, and then meeting with them to sell or buy Bitcoins.

But then again I used to believe that I would not get into any trouble for advertising on localbitcoins.

What I was arrested for was "operating a money transmittal business without a license", a Federal felony with a maximum 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  The entire case boiled down to one question:  was what I did using localbitcoins a business or was it trading for my own account?  So it is those that advertise and do lots of trades with the general public on localbitcoins that need to be concerned, generally not those that use the service to find traders for legal purposes.



But, as you know, I was wrong before.

[BurtW]

Never in person, I tend to stick to online exchanges mainly for ease of use (I believe there is a local Bitcoin meetup but I haven't had the time to see what it's all about yet).

Something to consider in the future....

Homeland Security can and does infiltrate Bitcoin organizations such as meetups and this web site.  So always keep it in mind that the people you are talking to at these meetups and here can be Homeland Security agents, confidential informants or cooperating witnesses.

Local meetups and this web site are very important for Bitcoin and this should not stop you from going and will not stop me as you can see:

http://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Bitcoin-Society/events/224676885/

However, be cognizant of this fact and be careful not to say anything that might be used against you.  This can be hard.

For example, a few years ago I saw an ad right here on bitcoin talk.  A guy from Darjeeling India was selling bulk Darjeeling tea for Bitcoins.  I love Darjeeling tea so I bought a large quantity.  Later, as I was going through the thousands of pages of "evidence" against me, including interviews with my friends, I found that one of my friends mentioned to Homeland Security that I bought this tea using Bitcoins.

It was entered into the evidence transcript like this:

Wagner used Bitcoins to purchase a large quantity of "tea"

This kind of pissed me off and I was really looking forward to bringing this up at trial - how they twisted this innocent purchase in their little pea brains to be an accusation against me.  

Anyway I was able to avoid the additional $100,000 that the trial would have cost me so that was good.

[Patatas]

I once sold btc to a FB friend and we had a meet up. All went fine and i think its more safe to transact face to face to avoid being scammes

[fruito]

Yes, i do.
I sell in voucher actually but i got that vocer from sell my bitcoin first.

So i sell the voucher to trusted people on facebook group, i have a list.

[Mickeyb]

No, I have never bought or sold bitcoins face to face with some other person. I guess I have to many options to buy online, at the market prices so I don't need to meet people face to face.

Here I don't count my friends to whom I have sent some bitcoins in the past. Technically, I haven't sold them any, I have just sent them some so they can get familiar with how bitcoin transactions work.

[Eodguy149]

The only place that I have found without using an exchange site in the US to buy and sell BTC in person is LocalBitcoin. Do anyone else buy and sell any other ways in person? Do you work directly with a miner? Any other suggestion outside of an exchange?

I have used Mycelium local trader before and had fairly good luck. I would try it out and see if there are any active members around you