1st Bitcoin Gift card :)

[SgtSpike]

And there really is a simple solution for it to prevent people from feeling like they are getting ripped off:

$100*

*To be redeemed at price equivalent to MtGox + 10%

Well, this is something. That should write on the site.
That, and MtGox exchange value:

MtGox:78.82 +10%

or even better, calculated price:

Our exchange rate is: 86.702

With those writing on the site, you are covered and users will know exactly how much BTC will get when redeem...

Not necessarily.  There's still the time lag between when you buy the gift card and when you receive the code, and then when you receive the code and when you redeem it.  Giving a guaranteed exchange rate isn't the goal of these gift cards at all.  If that's what you're after, then you might want to look elsewhere...

[boonies4u]

And there really is a simple solution for it to prevent people from feeling like they are getting ripped off:

$100*

*To be redeemed at price equivalent to MtGox + 10%

Well, this is something. That should write on the site.
That, and MtGox exchange value:

MtGox:78.82 +10%

or even better, calculated price:

Our exchange rate is: 86.702

With those writing on the site, you are covered and users will know exactly how much BTC will get when redeem...

Not necessarily.  There's still the time lag between when you buy the gift card and when you receive the code, and then when you receive the code and when you redeem it.  Giving a guaranteed exchange rate isn't the goal of these gift cards at all.  If that's what you're after, then you might want to look elsewhere...

The exchange rate is something I would like to see somewhere, at least on the page you go to redeem your code(s).

[frga13]

Well, I'm not after anything. I'm just stating my opinion as a potential customer of (your) product.

There's still the time lag between when you buy the gift card and when you receive the code,

This is irrelevant. I can buy a git card and hold it for a while.
But when I want to redeem it, I want to know the exchange rate. Don't we all?
Nobody said "it has to be fixed rate", but MtGox rate + 10 % must be stated on the site, so I (or any buyer) can see it. And then you can write: *due to lag, exchange rate could be slighty different

Furthermore, after buyer clicks Redeem, the website can check latest price at MtGox and Alert:
You are about to exchange 100$ for 0.91217 BTC. Proceed? Yes/No
This should not present any technical problem...

...then you might want to look elsewhere...

Last but not least, if you continue with that attitude I asure you that I'm not the only one who will "look elsewhere"...

[arklan]

Well, I'm not after anything. I'm just stating my opinion as a potential customer of (your) product.

There's still the time lag between when you buy the gift card and when you receive the code,

This is irrelevant. I can buy a git card and hold it for a while.
But when I want to redeem it, I want to know the exchange rate. Don't we all?
Nobody said "it has to be fixed rate", but MtGox rate + 10 % must be stated on the site, so I (or any buyer) can see it. And then you can write: *due to lag, exchange rate could be slighty different

Furthermore, after buyer clicks Redeem, the website can check latest price at MtGox and Alert:
You are about to exchange 100$ for 0.91217 BTC. Proceed? Yes/No
This should not present any technical problem...

...then you might want to look elsewhere...

Last but not least, if you continue with that attitude I asure you that I'm not the only one who will "look elsewhere"...

oh, FRGA, SgtSpike isn't the guy selling the gift cards. as such, why does his attitude have any bearing on the product at hand?

[SgtSpike]

Well, I'm not after anything. I'm just stating my opinion as a potential customer of (your) product.

There's still the time lag between when you buy the gift card and when you receive the code,

This is irrelevant. I can buy a git card and hold it for a while.
But when I want to redeem it, I want to know the exchange rate. Don't we all?
Nobody said "it has to be fixed rate", but MtGox rate + 10 % must be stated on the site, so I (or any buyer) can see it. And then you can write: *due to lag, exchange rate could be slighty different

Furthermore, after buyer clicks Redeem, the website can check latest price at MtGox and Alert:
You are about to exchange 100$ for 0.91217 BTC. Proceed? Yes/No
This should not present any technical problem...

...then you might want to look elsewhere...

Last but not least, if you continue with that attitude I asure you that I'm not the only one who will "look elsewhere"...

Ah, I misunderstood what you were trying to say.  Yes, I completely agree that the exchange rate should be stated just prior to redemption.

[Giftcoins]

lol $100 costing $109 but giving the customer under $100 of value...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

that is a business model sure to fail in the retailers meeting room

you have the price tag showing $100 so that is the retailers price (the price customers pay).
the retailer needs to make a profit, so they would need to buy the cards off you for under $100 to make a profit. this is called whole sale price.

you also need to make a profit so you need to ensure the amount of bitcoin covers your profits but also meets world governments price advertising laws.

the most suitable solution is to pre buy Bitcoin whilst it is low and to hold it. so when someone in a month or 2 redeems their $100 card. the bitcoin you buy now will (hopefully be at $100 each) to cover the costs.

basically working using a reserve.

EG

cards display $100, retailer paid $90 whole sale.
you bought 1.1538BTC today using the $90. then when bitcoin reaches $100 you can give the customer 1BTC. netting you some profit.(0.1538btc)

with a great idea such as gift cards, you cannot be lazy and over charge the customer by showing one price. the retailer charges them another price and you redeem the customer an amount of bitcoin that does not relate at all to the current market price of bitcoin.

that is not how retail works.

I wont even bother going into deep discussion here

1. if you dont like it don't buy it, , wire them money wait 5 days for transfer to settle...in meantime bitcoin price went up 50%, nice saving you made. then they will ask you to provide all kinds of documents and make you wait 2 weeks to get your account verified.

2. You business plan as how retail works is total nonsense, gambling on bitcoin price rise and make a profit on this, very smart...what if it goes down and this does and will happen.

[franky1]

by specifying a retail price printed on the gift card carboard.. but the customer not able to buy it at that amount is a failure.

by the supplying them bitcoins without pre-informing them of the amount they will get is a failure.

this is where retail vs forex fails.

trying to run a retail business plan using forex strategies wont work.

you HAVE to build up a reserve and to trade behind the scenes away from the gift cards to make your profit to ensure that when retailers and customer get is what is correct and lawful. you have to be legally accountable for your actions.. saying "total nonsense" makes me know 100% you have never been in business before.

i am sorry that it seems like hard work. but welcome to the real world.

and i bought bitcoin via wire transfer in under 10 minutes, the price i seen is the price i paid, and the amount of coins i seen was the amount i received.

it is possible. so please re-evaluate your business plan before thinking you have a hope in hells chance of taking your product to retailers. (this coming from someone with great experience in these matters)

Edit: great news a before redemption value being shown.. great thank you, one step in the right direction.. now to ensure that customer only pay $100 and retailers buy off you at whole sale under $100 so they can make a profitt. and you'll be ready to go to retailers with a superb offering

[Giftcoins]

And there really is a simple solution for it to prevent people from feeling like they are getting ripped off:

$100*

*To be redeemed at price equivalent to MtGox + 10%

Well, this is something. That should write on the site.
That, and MtGox exchange value:

MtGox:78.82 +10%

or even better, calculated price:

Our exchange rate is: 86.702

With those writing on the site, you are covered and users will know exactly how much BTC will get when redeem...

I agree on this and it will be displayed with site update this week

[frga13]

oh, FRGA, SgtSpike isn't the guy selling the gift cards. as such, why does his attitude have any bearing on the product at hand?

If he is not connected with Giftcoins, then his attitude have nothing to do with the product, and you may disregard last sentence.
However, other things I said still stands.

[Giftcoins]

by specifying a retail price printed on the gift card carboard.. but the customer not able to buy it at that amount is a failure.

by the supplying them bitcoins without pre-informing them of the amount they will get is a failure.

this is where retail vs forex fails.

trying to run a retail business plan using forex strategies wont work.

you HAVE to build up a reserve and to trade behind the scenes away from the gift cards to make your profit to ensure that when retailers and customer get is what is correct and lawful.

i am sorry that it seems like hard work. but welcome to the real world.

if I may ask, what kind of experience in online business do you have?

Here is your idea of doing business if I got it correct.

We should sell $100 card to reseller for $90

Reseller sells it for $100 to end user, from those $100 processing bank takes $4 plus 10% rolling reserve for 6 months, leaving reseller paying cards $90 and getting $86 back plus risk of fraud that online business brings...

oh let;s get back to us for a bit, we got $90 for $100 and when users redeem card they would get bitcoins for $100 becuse this is how much they paid...

good plan...

All this is possible if we were selling something worthless, for example subscription to some stupid over paid service

[frga13]

I agree on this and it will be displayed with site update this week

Allright!

[SgtSpike]

by specifying a retail price printed on the gift card carboard.. but the customer not able to buy it at that amount is a failure.

by the supplying them bitcoins without pre-informing them of the amount they will get is a failure.

this is where retail vs forex fails.

trying to run a retail business plan using forex strategies wont work.

you HAVE to build up a reserve and to trade behind the scenes away from the gift cards to make your profit to ensure that when retailers and customer get is what is correct and lawful. you have to be legally accountable for your actions.. saying "total nonsense" makes me know 100% you have never been in business before.

i am sorry that it seems like hard work. but welcome to the real world.

and i bought bitcoin via wire transfer in under 10 minutes, the price i seen is the price i paid, and the amount of coins i seen was the amount i received.

it is possible. so please re-evaluate your business plan before thinking you have a hope in hells chance of taking your product to retailers. (this coming from someone with great experience in these matters)

Edit: great news a before redemption value being shown.. great thank you, one step in the right direction.. now to ensure that customer only pay $100 and retailers buy off you at whole sale under $100 so they can make a profitt. and you'll be ready to go to retailers with a superb offering

You are out of your mind.  If a company can make a profit forex trading in the background, they wouldn't sell their profits off in the form of giftcards.  That would make zero sense from any perspective.

[Giftcoins]

by specifying a retail price printed on the gift card carboard.. but the customer not able to buy it at that amount is a failure.

by the supplying them bitcoins without pre-informing them of the amount they will get is a failure.

this is where retail vs forex fails.

trying to run a retail business plan using forex strategies wont work.

you HAVE to build up a reserve and to trade behind the scenes away from the gift cards to make your profit to ensure that when retailers and customer get is what is correct and lawful. you have to be legally accountable for your actions.. saying "total nonsense" makes me know 100% you have never been in business before.

i am sorry that it seems like hard work. but welcome to the real world.

and i bought bitcoin via wire transfer in under 10 minutes, the price i seen is the price i paid, and the amount of coins i seen was the amount i received.

it is possible. so please re-evaluate your business plan before thinking you have a hope in hells chance of taking your product to retailers. (this coming from someone with great experience in these matters)

Edit: great news a before redemption value being shown.. great thank you, one step in the right direction.. now to ensure that customer only pay $100 and retailers buy off you at whole sale under $100 so they can make a profitt. and you'll be ready to go to retailers with a superb offering

You are out of your mind.  If a company can make a profit forex trading in the background, they wouldn't sell their profits off in the form of giftcards.  That would make zero sense from any perspective.

haha, and yet he got us into discussion

 

[franky1]

imagine itunes selling their $50 gift cards advertised at $50 in walmart but the walmart checkout operator says to the customer that it will cost $54. then being told "if you dont like it, dont buy it"
imagine the customer got home and found out that music tracks at normally 50c, where the customer thinks he can redeem 100 songs. is surprised to see only able to redeem 45 songs.

now ill give you 3 options to try.
1. build up a reserve, to pre-buy coin on the cheap(during a dump)and hold it for the later redemptions that are higher value.
or
2. raise your "spot price" to an amount to both cover your profits and the profit margin a bricks and mortar retailer would want to receive. thus not requiring a reserve.
or
3. carry on as you are and wait for complaints at advertising standards agencies to begin, then watch what happens to your legit business when all your funds are frozen and you are stand infront of a courtroom.

now to put the 3 options into the itunes scenarios legally.
1. itunes does a deal behind the scenes with recording companies to reduce the songs wholesale cost to under 40c so that itunes makes a profit, where they sell it online (10c a song profit). also the cost price is low enough that itunes can produce cards and sell the cards to retailers so that customers can purchase them for $50 knowing they will get 100 songs.(5c profit to retailer 5c profit to itunes per song)
hang on..... wow thats exactly how itunes does it.. wow that must be a shocker to you.

2. dont do deals behind the scene but have advertised on the card that the $50 card would not give them 100 songs, but would give them 10-20% less songs to cover the convenience of buying locally.

3. ignore words such as honest pricing, transparency, retail law, contracts of sales. and wait and see what happens

also to note this is a statement on apples own website

In the event you have been charged more than the posted price for a product in an Apple Retail Store, please see a Manager for a refund of the overcharge.

hmm lets see what walmart says, and 7-11,, oh look they have fair prcing policies too...

wow.. i wonder why

[SgtSpike]

imagine itunes selling their $50 gift cards advertised at $50 in walmart but the walmart checkout operator says to the customer that it will cost $54. then being told "if you dont like it, dont buy it"
imagine the customer got home and found out that music tracks at normally 50c, where the customer thinks he can redeem 100 songs. is surprised to see only able to redeem 45 songs.

now ill give you 3 options to try.
1. build up a reserve, to pre-buy coin on the cheap(during a dump)and hold it for the later redemptions that are higher value.
or
2. raise your "spot price" to an amount to both cover your profits and the profit margin a bricks and mortar retailer would want to receive. thus not requiring a reserve.
or
3. carry on as you are and wait for complaints at advertising standards agencies to begin, then watch what happens to your legit business when all your funds are frozen and you are stand infront of a courtroom.

now to put the 3 options into the itunes scenarios legally.
1. itunes does a deal behind the scenes with recording companies to reduce the songs wholesale cost to under 40c so that itunes makes a profit, where they sell it online (10c a song profit). also the cost price is low enough that itunes can produce cards and sell the cards to retailers so that customers can purchase them for $50 knowing they will get 100 songs.(5c profit to retailer 5c profit to itunes per song)
hang on..... wow thats exactly how itunes does it.. wow that must be a shocker to you.

2. dont do deals behind the scene but have advertised on the card that the $50 card would not give them 100 songs, but would give them 10-20% less songs to cover the convenience of buying locally.

3. ignore words such as honest pricing, transparency, retail law, contracts of sales. and wait and see what happens

also to note this is a statement on apples own website

In the event you have been charged more than the posted price for a product in an Apple Retail Store, please see a Manager for a refund of the overcharge.

hmm lets see what walmart says, and 7-11,, oh look they have fair prcing policies too...

wow.. i wonder why

You cannot do iTunes style because there is no profit margin on trading $100 for $100 worth of BTC.  You either have to give the person less BTC, or charge more than $100 for the $100 card.  And again, attempting to game the market by pre-buying coins is a ridiculous notion.  Anyone who can make a profit on the market isn't going to give it away in the form of gift cards.

I agree that they need to make it more clear how much BTC you will be receiving with a $100 card (i.e., MtGox - 10% or something).

[Giftcoins]

imagine itunes selling their $50 gift cards advertised at $50 in walmart but the walmart checkout operator says to the customer that it will cost $54. then being told "if you dont like it, dont buy it"
imagine the customer got home and found out that music tracks at normally 50c, where the customer thinks he can redeem 100 songs. is surprised to see only able to redeem 45 songs.

now ill give you 3 options to try.
1. build up a reserve, to pre-buy coin on the cheap(during a dump)and hold it for the later redemptions that are higher value.
or
2. raise your "spot price" to an amount to both cover your profits and the profit margin a bricks and mortar retailer would want to receive. thus not requiring a reserve.
or
3. carry on as you are and wait for complaints at advertising standards agencies to begin, then watch what happens to your legit business when all your funds are frozen and you are stand infront of a courtroom.

now to put the 3 options into the itunes scenarios legally.
1. itunes does a deal behind the scenes with recording companies to reduce the songs wholesale cost to under 40c so that itunes makes a profit, where they sell it online (10c a song profit). also the cost price is low enough that itunes can produce cards and sell the cards to retailers so that customers can purchase them for $50 knowing they will get 100 songs.(5c profit to retailer 5c profit to itunes per song)
hang on..... wow thats exactly how itunes does it.. wow that must be a shocker to you.

2. dont do deals behind the scene but have advertised on the card that the $50 card would not give them 100 songs, but would give them 10-20% less songs to cover the convenience of buying locally.

3. ignore words such as honest pricing, transparency, retail law, contracts of sales. and wait and see what happens

also to note this is a statement on apples own website

In the event you have been charged more than the posted price for a product in an Apple Retail Store, please see a Manager for a refund of the overcharge.

hmm lets see what walmart says, and 7-11,, oh look they have fair prcing policies too...

wow.. i wonder why

http://www.pcgamesupply.com/ - bigest online gift card reseller

$50 iTunes card will cost you $59.99, 20% more

US company doing business 10 years now. I bet everything costs 20% more because they have to pay lawsuits all the time

BTW Apple is making 30%+ on every product you buy from them, this includes music and apps. Your comparison iTunes-Giftcoins is pure nonsense.

No one is forcing anyone to buy Giftcoins. People simply do not want to wait or hassle with stupid and complicated exchangers. They have a choice, plenty of choices but still they choose cards.

Anyway instead of talking nonsense here you should spend your time trading forex, seems you are expert in this field.

 

[arklan]

i was just about to point out that, having recently bought a prepaid giftcard (generic visa) at walmart valued at $50, i had to pay about 54 for it. so the stores charging more then the value of the card is EXACTLY what happens, frequently. i assume this is partly justified by "gift" card. as in, i'm buying this $50 visa card as a gift for someone else, and the fee to GET the card is 4 bucks, or what have you.

[boonies4u]

I'm fine with your business as long as it is clear to the consumer how many bitcoins they will get for redeeming their x$ card.


If understand correctly...

   You sell a card valued at x$ to a reseller for x$+y$* (where y is >= 0).

   A consumer then pays a reseller x$+z$* (where z is >= 0) to a reseller to receive the x$ card.

  * or %

Then one of the following happens...

   The consumer redeems his x$ card for x$-n$ (where n >=0 which is a fee for performing the currency conversion) leaving m$.
   The consumer then receives m$ worth of BTC at the last trading price**  of your chosen exchange.
   
   OR

   The consumer redeems his x$ card.
   The consumer receives x$ worth of BTC at the last trading price** +b% (where b >= 0 which is a modifier to the last/average trading price) of your chosen exchange.

   **or chosen hour-average


I hope I didn't give anyone a variable-overload. I'm just wondering if the consumers are "paying extra" twice to receive their bitcoins and if upon receiving their bitcoins they are paying a flat fee or are buying coins at an increased trading price.

[Giftcoins]

cards are in stock on https://www.jagoo.net/card/7

[frga13]

Is there an expiry date on a card?