Why is bitcoin going for more than $20 on eBay?

[kokojie]

Look at this guy's history:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=allimsell

He is able to consistently sell at least half of the listing of bitcoin for much more than $20 per coin, and same thing happens with other bitcoin sellers too. Why are people buying at $20+ when they could've gotten it for the market price everywhere else. I mean it's cheaper to just buy a casascius physical coin, and get the btc this way. I don't get it.

[greyhawk]

Look at this guy's history:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=allimsell

He is able to consistently sell at least half of the listing of bitcoin for much more than $20 per coin. Why are people buying at $20+ when they could've gotten it for the market price everywhere else. I mean it's cheaper to just buy a casascius physical coin, and get the btc this way. I don't get it.

That works something like this:

The buyers buy, then reverse their transaction after the seller has left positive feedback.

[DeathAndTaxes]

It is cheaper!
$0 (after chargeback) is cheaper than $14, $12, even $10.

[kokojie]

Look at this guy's history:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=allimsell

He is able to consistently sell at least half of the listing of bitcoin for much more than $20 per coin. Why are people buying at $20+ when they could've gotten it for the market price everywhere else. I mean it's cheaper to just buy a casascius physical coin, and get the btc this way. I don't get it.

That works something like this:

The buyers buy, then reverse their transaction after the seller has left positive feedback.

But this is the seller's profile, and apparently buyers left positive feedback for him. Once buyer leave positive feedback, paypal will not reverse the transaction.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Of course they

Look at this guy's history:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=allimsell

He is able to consistently sell at least half of the listing of bitcoin for much more than $20 per coin. Why are people buying at $20+ when they could've gotten it for the market price everywhere else. I mean it's cheaper to just buy a casascius physical coin, and get the btc this way. I don't get it.

That works something like this:

The buyers buy, then reverse their transaction after the seller has left positive feedback.

But this is the seller's profile, and apparently buyers left positive feedback for him. Once buyer leave positive feedback, paypal will not reverse the transaction.

Where do you get that idea from?  

So if I hack your PayPal account and send $10,000 to a friend of mine as long as I (the hacker) leaves positive feedback then it is irreversible?   Awesome.  

[Desolator]

How is this a big mystery?  What do you have to do right now to take your USD and buy bitcoins?  That's the answer.  Use a sketchy 3rd party financial company based on some island somewhere or whatever like Liberty Reserve or Dwolla (US-based but still super sketchy).  Or have MTGox do a wire transfer for like a $35 fee.  Doesn't anyone realize that if someone made a non-pain in the ass method for buying BTC, the price would go through the roof and we'd all get rich?

It's such a hassle right now, if someone wants BTC, the extra fee on ebay is worth it to use a well known purchase and payment infrastructure like ebay/paypal.

Also listing and closing fees and paypal fees have to be considered so it's not like he's getting $20.

[ryanAC]

I bought my first bitcoin on ebay... just wanted to get one!

[nobbynobbynoob]

a non-pain in the ass method for buying BTC

BitInstant? I know the 4% commish is a bit of a damper but the service is there, and I hear it's reasonably speedy too.

[Desolator]

Someone new to the bitcoin community doesn't know about bit instant but obviously they know about ebay.  That's the majority of the problem there.

[farlack]

Someone new to the bitcoin community doesn't know about bit instant but obviously they know about ebay.  That's the majority of the problem there.

Someone who stumbles upon bitcoin will do the following.


www.google.com
(bitcoin)

And this is what pops up

Bitcoin - P2P digital currency
bitcoin.org/
Official site offering documentation, forums and the open source client software which permits to send and receive bitcoins

Bitcoin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
Bitcoin (sign: B⃦ , Ƀ, ฿; abbrv: BTC) is a peer-to-peer digital currency created by the pseudonymous entity, Satoshi Nakamoto. One Bitcoin is divided into ...

Mt.Gox - Bitcoin Exchange
https://mtgox.com/
Exchange which allows users to trade US Dollars for Bitcoins and vice versa.

I doubt they cant figure it out.

[FLHippy]

Someone new to the bitcoin community doesn't know about bit instant but obviously they know about ebay.  That's the majority of the problem there.

Someone who stumbles upon bitcoin will do the following.


www.google.com
(bitcoin)

And this is what pops up

Bitcoin - P2P digital currency
Bitcoin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mt.Gox - Bitcoin Exchange
https://mtgox.com/
Exchange which allows users to trade US Dollars for Bitcoins and vice versa.
I doubt they cant figure it out.

No... I don't believe it goes like that at all.

People buy bitcoins for $20 on eBay cause they want them now and they don't want to give their bank account information to MtGox for 1 goddamn bitcoin so they can buy stuff they want. (WTF does MtGox even mean).

I sell $20 coins on eBay too all day every day. Scammers abound though. The price is $20 because checking out buyers is a hassle. Thats the tax you pay for me having to email you and call you and weed out the scumbags.

If you meet me in person at the dunkin donuts, i'll sell you coins for $15.

If you want the going rate, you gotta go through an exchange and wait and wait and wait for transfers from your bank to theirs and you probably didn't want to use your real bank so you had to go open a new bank and they want a minimum balance and OH FUCK IT, i'll spend $20 on eBay. DONE.

[Desolator]

And the EFT fees at MTGox are $35 last I checked.  So...there's that.

[plogank]

A Bitcoin is worth whatever someone's willing to exchange for it, be it US dollars or peanuts. The same is true of any other currency or item. To suggest that the exchange rate on MtGox or any other exchange sets the value of a Bitcoin is a very limited view.

As for the price on Ebay, if one were to purchase a Bitcoin on MtGox for $12.00. turn around and sell it on Ebay, it would need to be sold for around $14 in order to break even because of the fees.  $20 is not unreasonable considering the potential for charge-backs.

[plogank]

I bought my first bitcoin on ebay... just wanted to get one!

Me too, and for the same reason.

[Pteppic]

A Bitcoin is worth whatever someone's willing to exchange for it, be it US dollars or peanuts. The same is true of any other currency or item. To suggest that the exchange rate on MtGox or any other exchange sets the value of a Bitcoin is a very limited view.

But the exchanges are revealing publicly what someone is willing to exchange bitcoin for. The exchanges reveal what hundreds or thousands of people are willing to exchange bitcoin for. The market participants collectively set the price of any market and that means that mtgox gives much more information about the market price of bitcoin than ebay does.

[Zeek_W]

Man I would be too scared to sell BTC on ebay with the potential for chargebacks

[imanikin]

...(WTF does MtGox even mean).
...

MtGox means "Magic the Gathering Online Exchange". Enough said pro & con about that here previously... 

In terms though of being [put your adjective here], i think it's no worse than the name "eBay"... 

[Zeek_W]

...(WTF does MtGox even mean).
...

MtGox means "Magic the Gathering Online Exchange". Enough said pro & con about that here previously... 

In terms though of being [put your adjective here], i think it's no worse than the name "eBay"... 

HAHAHAH now I'll never unsee that acronym

[markm]

eBay sets the eBay-market price of bitcoins, MtGox sets the MtGox-market price of bitcoins. The market in the tiny town at the top of the loneliiest mountain, beyond the gorge of gargyles and the deepest pits of despair sets its own market-price of bitcoins.

"Market price" is, in short, a term that has two components, one of which is "market". So first you gotta find the scope/redius/locus or the market whose price you are trying to determine.

How many people participate in eBay?

How many in MtGox?

It can probably reasonably be argued that the market price of bitcoin is $20 but that there do exist niche geek clubs where one can, purportedly, and possibly not without some rigamarole, obtain them cheaper.

-MarkM-

[Desolator]

It actually was:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070525044536/http://mtgox.com/gwt/mtgox.php