If I find money in my mailbox …

[TheButterZone]

Cash is a PITA to deal with unless you have an exchange's free deposit bank within walking distance. I only give out my address to people with whom I make an exchange contract (at a variable USD exchange rate considerably above Gox), via IRC & authed with gribble. Since I advise delivery confirmation with everything, it's always going to be proven received. So in the nearly impossible event I received cash+an address only, no return address, I'd probably post the address on here and say "you need to PM me with a signed message from this key so I can tell you what your exchange rate will be, if you don't want the cash sent back").

I just send BTC right there at the PO box with the exchange rate OF THAT MOMENT, and my customers know that and accept this.

How do you make money that way? Do you use the last price of an exchange that's consistently higher than all the rest, then deposit in one of the cheap ones and buy back at a lower rate?

[2weiX]

Cash is a PITA to deal with unless you have an exchange's free deposit bank within walking distance. I only give out my address to people with whom I make an exchange contract (at a variable USD exchange rate considerably above Gox), via IRC & authed with gribble. Since I advise delivery confirmation with everything, it's always going to be proven received. So in the nearly impossible event I received cash+an address only, no return address, I'd probably post the address on here and say "you need to PM me with a signed message from this key so I can tell you what your exchange rate will be, if you don't want the cash sent back").

I just send BTC right there at the PO box with the exchange rate OF THAT MOMENT, and my customers know that and accept this.

How do you make money that way? Do you use the last price of an exchange that's consistently higher than all the rest, then deposit in one of the cheap ones and buy back at a lower rate?

I do use mtgoxASK+5% (as seen on the website, link below), so the customer can ALWAYS check if the price is correct.

Where I do get the coins? Why, that's need-to-know, and no-one needs-to-know^^

[MimiTheKid]

I would do: "Send the equivalent in Ƀ to the address given"

Nevertheless, I would use a more expensive exchangerate than I used to get my coins.

[J-Norm]

I would put an advert on this forum saying I got an unsolliceted transaction and that I will return it if refunded postage. After 90 days I would keep it.

You can't just force a deal on someone by sending them cash, I don't want to sell my bitcoins for any amount.

[hardcore-fs]

And if it turns out to be a "sting" operation to catch you as a money launderer are you really going to be happy with your 5%?

[molecular]

Looks a great way to buy your first btc. Mainly for young poeple (no online bank account? fear of paying on internet? simplicity), the problem for those new potential adopters would be to find thooes open mail box, and the need of reputation to back the bitcoin mailbox... any service for that?

It's actually how I bought my first BTC: put some old american dollar bills I had left over from travelling into an envelope and send that off to some dude in canada. I figured I'd never get any coins... and one day (I think 3 weeks later): CHACHING! coins in my wallet

[2weiX]

And if it turns out to be a "sting" operation to catch you as a money launderer are you really going to be happy with your 5%?

I have a lawyer and a tax consultant working for me in contact with Bafin (german SEC) since we are of the opinion that what I am doing is nowhere near illegal.
We'll see how that goes, but as far as this goes, I'm good.

[TheButterZone]

Well, now I'm set up to find money in my mailbox (or rather, have it given to me by the postal carrier).

[J-Norm]

If someone sent me an unsolicited envelope full of cash I would be more willing to give them gold or silver than bitcoins. I think 1 bitcoin will one day be a lot of money to spend.

[giszmo]

If someone sent me an unsolicited envelope full of cash I would be more willing to give them gold or silver than bitcoins. I think 1 bitcoin will one day be a lot of money to spend.

My point is that I know how to get Bitcoins but it is an effort. I directly loose 2% in fees, so this would be my minimum fee. I loose time, so my fee is significantly higher but I love when people trust me, so I would do the deal. Getting a MtGox account definitely is a hurdle and I don't mind sharing mine (in the sense of this thread) within limits.

[1455]

If you actually send the money one could (juridical or morally) consider that you agreed upon this scheme and you will see you stucked in a difficult situation. What do you do if you sent the money and he considers this as an agreement and keeps sending you money in envelopes? You would be forced to keep sent him bitcoins.
I'm a fan of totally anonymous transacations but beware of becoming a money launderer just by beeing nice to someone how doesn't disclose anything but a bitcoin adress (on purpose!).

[molecular]

If you actually send the money one could (juridical or morally) consider that you agreed upon this scheme and you will see you stucked in a difficult situation. What do you do if you sent the money and he considers this as an agreement and keeps sending you money in envelopes? You would be forced to keep sent him bitcoins.
I'm a fan of totally anonymous transacations but beware of becoming a money launderer just by beeing nice to someone how doesn't disclose anything but a bitcoin adress (on purpose!).

you could send an encoded message saying you will not honor the implicit agreement any more. Or: start increasing fee until he stops.

[Rudd-O]

Yeah.  Plus, what sort of agreement is enforceable between two anonymous people with no arbitrator to enforce it?

[TheButterZone]

Package bomb, anthrax... if you don't comply? 
Did anyone mention sending a binary message through the blockchain with a bunch of encoded inputs to that address yet? LOL