Selling Bitcoin on Amazon

[RodeoX]

Maybe it will work? Let's see. It may help out our UK peers right now.

[1714846062]

1714846062

[1714846062]

1714846062

[BitcoinMarket]

I have some bitcoin now and I am ready to send. 

I do understand that this is risky, but it really makes me mad that bitcoins are somewhat difficult, and so expensive to aquire for the first time.  I am actually loosing a little money with these first few orders because of all the transaction fees, but I hope with a little increased volume that I will be able to come out ahead.  My goal is only to make 1-2%. 

It is very frustrating that bitcoin is a way to stay away from traditional currency and transactions, including transaction fees, and everywhere you look people are charging so many fees for the bitcoin transactions, and often requiring multiple transactions to get them so that the bothersome 5% fee become a cumbersome 15% fee.

Right now I have paid $104 for $95 of mtgox funds, and I will have to pay ~5% transaction fee on amazon.  Luckily bitcoin value is constantly going up, so just holding on to my inventory for a week or so will usually allow me to break even

[SgtSpike]

What about sending a flash drive with Bitcoins on it?  Amazon or CC company couldn't claim that the item wasn't shipped, but user-driven feedback would keep your reputation in check.  Cheap flash drives can be bought for $1 or less in bulk, and you don't need any more room beyond just holding a simple text file.  Hold on to the private keys that you send, so that if a customer says their flash drive contained no bitcoins, you could retrieve the coins and resend them via email or something.

[warbdan]

What about sending a flash drive with Bitcoins on it?  Amazon or CC company couldn't claim that the item wasn't shipped, but user-driven feedback would keep your reputation in check.  Cheap flash drives can be bought for $1 or less in bulk, and you don't need any more room beyond just holding a simple text file.  Hold on to the private keys that you send, so that if a customer says their flash drive contained no bitcoins, you could retrieve the coins and resend them via email or something.

Why don't you just sell $12, $22, and $52 flash drives? Put $10 worth of BTC on the $12 drive, etc.... That's what prepaid CC's are basically doing. Then you have a physical product as well.

[SgtSpike]

What about sending a flash drive with Bitcoins on it?  Amazon or CC company couldn't claim that the item wasn't shipped, but user-driven feedback would keep your reputation in check.  Cheap flash drives can be bought for $1 or less in bulk, and you don't need any more room beyond just holding a simple text file.  Hold on to the private keys that you send, so that if a customer says their flash drive contained no bitcoins, you could retrieve the coins and resend them via email or something.

Why don't you just sell $12, $22, and $52 flash drives? Put $10 worth of BTC on the $12 drive, etc.... That's what prepaid CC's are basically doing. Then you have a physical product as well.

Right, that's exactly what I am saying.  Or was trying to say. 

[warbdan]

Soz, didn't see your post. At least we agree

[SgtSpike]

Also, if cheap flash drives can be bought in bulk for $1, I can't find where.  But $3.50, at the very least. 

[Beirdo]

There.  I put in an order, we'll see how it goes.

[ammo88]

Well the idea with the flashdrives is the idea that will sell the most, imo. Users with less technical experience and don't have interest enough to get invloved in Bitcoin, they are the ones. It would be a way to make bitcoin physical indirectly, or at least the bitcoin currency would get to be considered something physical by the kind of users I just described.

[fishface]

OP is totally new to bitcoins. Why are people actually trying this out? He is going the bank to buy the coins with cash deposit and getting burned on fees... and people are buying?

[greyhawk]

OP is totally new to bitcoins. Why are people actually trying this out? He is going the bank to buy the coins with cash deposit and getting burned on fees... and people are buying?

I think the idea is to show the OP how this is going to end in total failure, before it has to end in total failure.

[dieteralex]

I very much like the idea, and i think it should work.
But what exchange rate do you use, and the one that i see when i klick on "buy" or the one you see when you ship my coins?

[crispy]

Questions for OP:

• Where are you getting your exchange rate (USD to BTC)?
• Do you have different rates for the $10, $20, and $50 increments?

Comments:

• I was hoping I could pay with credit card points, but it appears not.
• Looks like I can pay with Amazon gift cards, though.
• The $50 denomination shows $0.00 for shipping/handling.  I think that goes with Amazon's free shipping on orders > $25.

[ryann]

I still and not sure what your packages mean. I mean how many bitcoins do you get for each package?

[BurtW]

I still and not sure what your packages mean. I mean how many bitcoins do you get for each package?

You are buying a certain number of dollars worth of BTC.

So you send him dollars and then when it comes time to send you the BTC he calculates exactly how much to send you at that time.  You do not know how many BTC you will get until he sends them because he does not know what the exchange rate will be at the time he sends you the BTC.

Where he is getting his exchange rate has already been asked but I expect it is Mt. Gox since he is sending cash to his Mt. Gox account in order to buy the BTC to send you.

Obviously you can just go to BitInstant and do this all yourself - but he has a twist on an old idea that has failed dozens of times in the past and he wants to try it so he will.

So that in the future I can say "I told you so" here is what will happen to this business:

It will work for a short time.
The scammers will find his business
They will use stolen credit cards to buy BTC
Others will simply get the BTC and then reverse the charges on their credit cards
All this money will be taken back
The OP will lose a ton of money

We have seen this pattern dozens of times.

[BurtW]

BTW so far so good on the transaction.  He sent me an email through Amazon asking for my Bitcoin address, I generated one and sent it to him, so now I am just waiting for my BTC to arrive.

[BurtW]

• The $50 denomination shows $0.00 for shipping/handling.  I think that goes with Amazon's free shipping on orders > $25.

There is no shipping if you go through his web site.  I went through the main amazon site and found the coins that way.  In that case there was shipping, but it does not matter as he give you BTC for the shipping charges anyway.  So, instead of buying $10 in BTC I ended up buying about $14 worth.

[FLHippy]

Its not going to go well, countless people have tried to do the same and every single person has failed.

This is not true... I have been scammed here and there but I have not failed. Selling bitcoins with paypal or credit card can be done without failing.

I would agree that anything larger than small time sales of .5 to 5 BTC is probably going to result in an overall fail but on small scales you can mitigate your risk by paying close attention to details and being part of a scammer reporting guild.

[greyhawk]

You've been here for about a month and no one knows you're selling Bitcoin. Small wonder you haven't failed yet.

Just wait a little longer for the failboat to arrive.

[dieteralex]

why do the fixed rates not fail? what do they do for security?