WTS online purchases (Amazon plus more)

[zaphod]

I'm offering online purchases for bitcoins from Amazon.  I will make the purchases for a fee of 4% below the current tradehill.com bid rate (currently $15.18/BTC, so my rate would be $14.57/BTC).  Minimum purchase $50, max purchase $250 as I play with this concept.

If you'd like to purchase something, please create a wishlist using their online tool and send it to buyforcoins@gmail.com.  Include in the email relevant shipping information and method of shipment desired.  I will make the purchase to your address upon payment in BTC.

Note: Your purchase will arrive as a gift, and as such, be covered by Amazon's gift return policy:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_901888_howto_gift?nodeId=200572800#gift

Additionally, I can do electronic gift cards (delivered via email) from the following vendors:

Amazon
Newegg
Buy.com

If you have other requests, please let me know.

I'm still working with how to make this all work but if a few people would be interested in buying something, I'll wave the fee and minimum purchase for the first 5 people.  Just want to do a few transactions.

Zaphod

[Atom]

That's a fantastic idea Zaphod, if I had gotten into the market before two weeks ago I'd be taking advantage of this!  You're basically making all of amazon available for purchase by BTC with no risk for anyone involved, this is exactly what needs to happen!

You know, if you got someone to make you an advertisement (or wanted to pay me to do it), I'd talk to atlas about running it at no cost on the next episode of BitTalk to help you spread the word on exactly how awesome what you're offering is.

[peach]

Yeah, this is a good idea.

Maybe instead of expecting huge corporations to conform to BTC (at least for now), we can can have a ring of middlemen such as OP.

[spruce]

I think this is an excellent idea in principle. But who is zaphod? How do I know he's trustworthy and not two-faced?

[zaphod]

I think this is an excellent idea in principle. But who is zaphod? How do I know he's trustworthy and not two-faced?

I know that this is the fundamental problem with this right now.

What I can say is, I'm trustworthy, I'm a bit of a nerd (starting with an Apple II+ in the 2nd grade through working for Creative Labs in college and watching friends move to the valley, but I stuck with aerospace engineering and did something else), and I'm basically doing this to play around at present.  I had never heard of BTC until a week ago and have been reading up.  I don't have a lot of BTC (waiting on Dwolla) but have some US fiat currency (greenbacks) and want to play around and see if a real market could exist.  Someone take a leap and buy something small and we'll see how this works...

[zaphod]

I think this is an excellent idea in principle. But who is zaphod? How do I know he's trustworthy and not two-faced?

And I almost missed the perfect opportunity to post:

"Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?

[spruce]

I'm a lot happier doing business with someone who has a name, online photo and location, who has lived at the same physical address for a number of years, is vouched for by reputable people, etc. — real world stuff. Basically someone you feel you can go and visit with a baseball bat if he rips you off (even if you would never actually do that). These factors don't mean that he couldn't skip town, but it is less likely than doing business with someone completely anonymous who could be living in Neverheardofitstan.

[zaphod]

I'm a lot happier doing business with someone who has a name, online photo and location, who has lived at the same physical address for a number of years, is vouched for by reputable people, etc. — real world stuff. Basically someone you feel you can go and visit with a baseball bat if he rips you off (even if you would never actually do that). These factors don't mean that he couldn't skip town, but it is less likely than doing business with someone completely anonymous who could be living in Neverheardofitstan.

Understand, and I'd be happy to share that information with anyone who emails me, I'm just less thrilled about posting it into an online forum where it shows up in a random Google search for potential employers, since I'm not in the tech business and people in aerospace and defense may not have the same view of something like this that a tech company would.

Zaphod is actually my cat's name.  Please don't show up with a bat and threaten my cat -- I kinda like him. 

[Atom]

Write up something about what you're offering Zaphod, and we'll spread the word on our show.  700 listeners since friday night on episode 1, so should be able to find you some early adopters willing to try.

[spruce]

I'm a lot happier doing business with someone who has a name, online photo and location, who has lived at the same physical address for a number of years, is vouched for by reputable people, etc. — real world stuff. Basically someone you feel you can go and visit with a baseball bat if he rips you off (even if you would never actually do that). These factors don't mean that he couldn't skip town, but it is less likely than doing business with someone completely anonymous who could be living in Neverheardofitstan.

Understand, and I'd be happy to share that information with anyone who emails me, I'm just less thrilled about posting it into an online forum where it shows up in a random Google search for potential employers, since I'm not in the tech business and people in aerospace and defense may not have the same view of something like this that a tech company would.

Zaphod is actually my cat's name.  Please don't show up with a bat and threaten my cat -- I kinda like him. 

Fair enough. Thanks. And I like cats too.