I'm done? Far from it!

[jostmey]

It's not that, I have the resourses and the stock.. it's the community who thinks that bitcoins are here to be mined and then cashed out for profit. 6 months ago when I started BitCard the idea was fresh and good.............

Everyone who has worked on a web-service has had their share of failures. I have had my share.... currentkey.com, bumperize.com .... I am keeping my fingers crossed with Search Bitcoin :-)

My point is that most web-services fail. Sorry about your run.

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

sorry bro... welcome to capitalism.  Some fail, some succeed.  Instead of bemoaning people for not buying your products, why don't you use that energy to research products that people actually are buying.  

As I said "bro" when I first proposed BitCard everyone was game. Everyone knew what I was selling and what my prices were, and since this is really as far as the community goes for BitCoins, I will bash it if it says one thing and does another. I'm also not about to turn BitCard around into some "all products" store and drop more money into another potential site/store no one's going to buy into. There's already 3 or 4 of them around. BitCard is the only one of its kind. It's that way for a reason. The problem isn't BitCard or my way of running it or my way of marketing it, it's these folks on here that think their BTC is going to go up so they'l hoard it and not do anything with it. It's bad for business'.

Sorry dude, always sad to see a member go.

Running a bitcoin business isn't a walk in the park. Hell, starting and running any business isn't easy.
I'll tell you, my first business did not see a profit for 2 and a half years. You just gotta keep pumping your heart out and give it your best.

I hope you can use this negative experience one day to drive positive energy into your new venture and I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors.

From one New Yorker to another, cheers

-Charlie

[casascius]

I can see a practical generator of demand for gift card at a small loss... it isn't quite an above board one... but someone who wants to launder money or evade taxes via Bitcoin would probably be happy to buy a high-value gift card to places that sell high-value items (e.g. Best Buy) if it meant their income stayed under the radar...  I don't think that's happening much at this point...

[FreeMoney]

 The problem isn't BitCard or my way of running it or my way of marketing it, it's these folks on here that think their BTC is going to go up so they'l hoard it and not do anything with it. It's bad for business'.

This is ridiculous. If people like your product better than coins they'll give you coins for it. Is your theory that every bitcoin business has failed and every one in the future will?  

[teflone]

I like you Logan, but take a few deep breaths, its not easy out here by any means!

Get back to us tomorrow, stick around even..

[evoorhees]

OP - most successful entrepreneurs fail many times before "getting it right." Every business you start, you should expect it to fail, and so will everyone else. Do it any way. Learn, try again. People put millions of dollars and decades into businesses that fail and leave them in bankruptcy and eternal poverty. That's the risk an entrepreneur takes.

And with the world of Bitcoin, difficulty is amplified... not only does a Bitcoin entrepreneur need Bitcoin to succeed as a protocol, but his business must win out as well. Thus, starting a Bitcoin business is doubly risky.

Your business did not fail because "everyone hoards coins." It did not fail because "the community didn't give you a chance." It failed because your product was not well-received by the marketplace. A million factors go into it, but if you have this idea in your head that you created something wonderful and nobody was smart or wise enough to notice, then it'll leave you in a foul mood and you'll be unlikely the learn the important lessons of business.

I've been involved with this community for months now, and I've never even heard of your site until now. And selling $5 cards for $7? Not going to work. And nowhere on your homepage is Bitcoin mentioned. No Bitcoin logo. No pricing in Bitcoin.  And for god's sake, your website had "Sales Message Goes Here"... I mean, come on.

I would like to praise you very highly, however, for assuring your creditors that they'll be paid back. That is very honorable, and a good sign that you'll have a good future ahead of you in business. Drop what you need to, regroup, and try again. Capitalism is hard.

[LightRider]

Failure is the only option in a monetary system. It is a self destructive, abusive, wasteful and deadly game that will continue to evaporate until such time that enough people have decided that it is no longer relevant. Start thinking about what is relevant in your life and reorient your values towards those people and ideas that are meaningful.

[rainingbitcoins]

Would YOU buy a gift card for 40% over list price? If not, why would you expect someone else to? I mean, I can go down to my local 7-11 and buy gift cards for all kinds of stores at the retail price. Why would you think you could offer far higher prices and far less convenience than a convenience store and still be successfull? Did you even spend two lousy seconds thinking about your business model?

For fuck's sake I'm practically a Marxist, and even I can see that you're doing capitalism wrong.

[payb.tc]

There are many people in this world that pride themselves on that they never
failed. But they have also never had success, because they never tried.

I've come to pride myself on that I've probably failed the most.  It's lead
me to having the most success, because with every failure I never stopped
trying.

(i wonder if he considers his hair a success or failure)

[Ayo_4_Yayo]

Failure is the only option in a monetary system. It is a self destructive, abusive, wasteful and deadly game that will continue to evaporate until such time that enough people have decided that it is no longer relevant. Start thinking about what is relevant in your life and reorient your values towards those people and ideas that are meaningful.

You're talking about bitcoin???

[Jonathan Ryan Owens]

I'll buy your sites from you. Get in touch.

-Jonathan

[rainingbitcoins]

The saving grace of Bitcoin. As bad as you can possibly be at business, there's always someone who's a little bit worse.

[Jonathan Ryan Owens]

The saving grace of Bitcoin. As bad as you can possibly be at business, there's always someone who's a little bit worse.

 

I hope you were talking to me. lol. I feel bad for him, actually. I think his heart is in the right place, and perhaps he just needs to see someone else take his idea(s) and adjust them to market temperament. There were many good suggestions in this thread, but not too much action.

Let's help Matthew, and put the good ideas in this thread into practice, so that he can have some interactions with customers as ambassador of the brands that he has so far had no success in branding.

Anyways, that was my thinking.

-Jon

[rainingbitcoins]

Yeah, that was directed at you. Just messing around, though.

It's nice of you to try and help.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Take the following off the home page:

Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.

[Callius]

Yeah,

Don't over-commit unless you have lots of resources to back your effort. Sorry man.

It's not that, I have the resourses and the stock.. it's the community who thinks that bitcoins are here to be mined and then cashed out for profit. 6 months ago when I started BitCard the idea was fresh and good. Anything card related to be sold in bitcoins instead of dollars. I went through the hassle of creating the site, moving it over to GoDaddy so it was a dot com, made it all professional, and ya know what? No one bought a d**n card. I thought I'd juice things up a bit, so I added gift cards and card only games and games that had card in them.. something to bring in business but then select few decided to undercut my prices and sell those gift cards for less then what they cost. You can't sell a $20 card for $6 and expect to make anything off that. So because of all of that, I have made my decision. It wasn't the rate that bothered me or the money.. I could toss money at the site all day but it was all of you. You made me fail. This community as a whole who overlooked me becuase I was selling at spot price made me fail. You who decided to undercut me so everyone would leave me alone and let me die out, made me fail. Is it alot of anger? You betcha, but it's justifiable. I was even going to go off and add some more games that just came out in the mall for this month but then the fiance reminded me of how I've never sold a single item on the site, leading to this.

I'm sorry but you're angry at people not wanting what you offered. Shouldn't you have done market research prior to investing everything then?

[cbeast]

B2C in the USA is difficult at best. I would not engage in that type of enterprise again. Even if you did come up with a successful B2C scheme, a big box company would simply copy and undermine your business.

[edd]

I'll buy your sites from you. Get in touch.

-Jonathan

This is the type of forum contribution I focus on. Yes, there are plenty of trolls and malcontents happy to bash any and every idea with no sign of empathy or civility, but the few like Jonathan more than make up for them.

logansryche, it's hard admitting defeat in a business venture that you've invested in financially and emotionally, but it is a very common occurrence and can't be blamed on bitcoin or this forum. I ran a retail dry cleaning store for ten years and almost went bankrupt because I didn't want to admit that I couldn't pull it out of the black hole of debt it started to slowly sink into after 9/11. Heck, BitBrew has been successful beyond my expectations but I still haven't earned back the money I've spent on advertising, yet!

Take Jonathan up on his offer and focus on something that's a better fit for you. Personally, I think your virtual marketplace idea has some potential.

[Elwar]

So you are pissed because people were unwilling to pay more for a product on your site than they could get on another site?

Did you have a disclaimer on your website telling people that it was a charity and that you are down on your luck and could use the traffic?

As others have said, you need to buy things wholesale.

Buy a pack of 1000 cards for 80 cents each, paying $800. Sell them each for $1 and you make $1000. Leaving you with $200 in profit.

Of course, this involves risk because you may buy 1000 cards and nobody buys them. That is part of investing. To get a bigger profit you have to take a higher risk.

My wife buys products for her store wholesale all the time. Some sell, some just sit there taking up space. She does not go out in the streets complaining to people walking by that they have failed her. The fact that they did not buy her leopard pattern glasses covers shows that they have failed her.

Go find a wholesaler. Buy from them in bulk. Then sell with a markup.

[logansryche]

For the record I marked cards up 10% -.- a $5 card marked up is $7. Do some math yeesh.
The site is marked for deletion so the standard template has been reverted back as well.