Can someone please explain localbitcoin's high prices?

[MiLkz]

Can someone please explain to me why localbitcoins pricing is so much different than ALL of the other exchanges?

I really cannot see why anyone would use it.  It is one giant confusing mess.

Hopefully someone can properly inform me on it..

[Quickseller]

Can someone please explain to me why localbitcoins pricing is so much different than ALL of the other exchanges?

I really cannot see why anyone would use it.  It is one giant confusing mess.

Hopefully someone can properly inform me on it..

It is not that LBC has higher prices then those on an exchange, it is that there is a very wide "spread" (eg the difference between what someone who wants to buy bitcoin will pay verses the price of what someone will receive of someone who wants to sell). Part of this spread is a risk premium that traders will charge to account for the risk that a payment will get reversed, they will get scammed, ect.. Some of this spread is also that traders are attempting to profit.

[morantis]

If you are in the USA, then there are many restrictions that can make buying and selling FIAT and Bitcoins hard.  There are a limited number of official exchanges that are set up to do this for USA residents.  Once something becomes hard to find or do, it becomes a "rare" commodity and therefore the price goes up.  If you were in the desert for several hours or even days and happened upon a stranger with a cooler full of water, you would gladly pay ten bucks for a twenty ounce bottle of water and maybe even more.

[CryingMidget]

Can someone please explain to me why localbitcoins pricing is so much different than ALL of the other exchanges?

I really cannot see why anyone would use it.  It is one giant confusing mess.

Hopefully someone can properly inform me on it..

It's not upto the price. It's upto to the trader who offers high value then others.  Don't be fed with that itself.  Just go to the right trader according to positive feedbacks and trade count. Because those kind of reputed traders will not cheat in trade.

[Hirose UK]

it's also upto how much requests of bitcoin itself, how many people want it, so the more requests come the bigger price will be offered.

[HeroCat]

You can see real market price - buyer price and seller price. Simple as that. Some more Chinese BTC mining farms and BTC worldwide price may be go down - the buyer price will be lower. 

[arbitrage001]

People pay for convenient and easy access.

[avw1982]

People pay for convenient and easy access.

To make clear about this to OP. We ask him to check with localbitcoins.com best traders. If he is Rome means Just click the sell or buy what he needs, and he need to check the right trader according to his trusted positive feedbacks and trade counts. If the trader  have a large number of trade means I am sure those people will not scam anyone.

[~Bitcoin~]

Can someone please explain to me why localbitcoins pricing is so much different than ALL of the other exchanges?

I really cannot see why anyone would use it.  It is one giant confusing mess.

Hopefully someone can properly inform me on it..

There are lots of restrictions to buy bitcoin using fiat and also with reversible payment gateways so people will try to sell it for very high price than market price because the one who want to buy with those method have no choice other than paying high price.

[erikalui]

If you find the prices are higher, you can open a buy thread yourself and set the amount you can for to buy bitcoins or sell them. If anyone is interested, they'll contact you for a trade. It's not that you HAVE to accept an overpriced offer like in the case of other exchanges that have a fixed fee. It's upto you.

[European Central Bank]

Classic case of something being worth what someone else wants to pay. There are a bunch of reasons why prices are everywhere. Some wanna be anonymous. Some don't want the trouble of registering on exchanges.

[Amph]

it's about supply and demand, since there is no market order on local bitcoin, but it fuction exactly the same as an exchange, you can expect someone to sell(make an "order") above price market by offering many option to receive the payment

people are willing to pay that plus amount in those cases

[avw1982]

If you find the prices are higher, you can open a buy thread yourself and set the amount you can for to buy bitcoins or sell them. If anyone is interested, they'll contact you for a trade. It's not that you HAVE to accept an overpriced offer like in the case of other exchanges that have a fixed fee. It's upto you.

Yeah Its I am interested means I will check Pricing your bitcoins happens dynamically according to rate change, against the bitcoin market rates. You set a price equation that determines the exchange rate of the trade on the moment the trade request arrives.

[Herbert2020]

it's about supply and demand, since there is no market order on local bitcoin, but it fuction exactly the same as an exchange, you can expect someone to sell(make an "order") above price market by offering many option to receive the payment

people are willing to pay that plus amount in those cases

yeah this is just because of lack of competition in this market. for example in my country there are a handful (like 20 or so) of traders on localbitcoin and private websites who exchange bitcoin to local currency and out of that there is only a couple of them who can be trusted.
so we all have to accept their high asking price and low bids for our exchange to fiat!

[mickiya]

In my country, the spread between the bid and offer is around 6%. Most of the orders are from people with many trades.

[avw1982]

it's about supply and demand, since there is no market order on local bitcoin, but it fuction exactly the same as an exchange, you can expect someone to sell(make an "order") above price market by offering many option to receive the payment

people are willing to pay that plus amount in those cases

yeah this is just because of lack of competition in this market. for example in my country there are a handful (like 20 or so) of traders on localbitcoin and private websites who exchange bitcoin to local currency and out of that there is only a couple of them who can be trusted.
so we all have to accept their high asking price and low bids for our exchange to fiat!

If you sell your bitcoins in localbitcoins means We will loose nearly 10 percent of the profit. Better try to get a Bitcoin debit card. I have personally Advcash card. They are charging 2% only as a charge. Its pretty good right! If you wish just try for it.