Sell bitcoins for cash in person

[joecascio]

Has anyone seen or heard of people selling bitcoin for cash at say a store or booth? I'm thinking this might be very easy using the Android bitcoin app.

As a seller, I would buy, let's say $1000 worth of bitcoin thru any means, for instance, a currency trader like Mt. Gox. Or I make them using a miner. I now have those on my phone or in an account accessible thru my phone.

I set up my "shop" where I take cash from buyers and send the equivalent in bitcoin to the person's phone right on the spot. They get the first confirmation in on their phone in a few seconds, and validation follows soon after. I would charge them a convenience sales fee to do this. This could be flat or a %. My "inventory" is the amount I have on hand to sell.

The advantage to the buyer is that they have the bitcoin immediately, there are no intermediaries or confusing procedures. Further, it makes bitcoin accessible to many more people.

I wonder if this would be subject to sales tax in some states or localities.

Thanks..

[Blazr]

Has anyone seen or heard of people selling bitcoin for cash at say a store or booth? I'm thinking this might be very easy using the Android bitcoin app.

I don't know if there are stores doing this, but people do meet face-to-face to sell bitcoins.

I wonder if this would be subject to sales tax in some states or localities.

The fee you charge would be subject to sales tax. Depending on your location, you may also need to get a money transmission license or something equivilant if you plan on selling a large amount of bitcoins.

[joecascio]

Thanks. It never would have occurred to me that the sales tax would be on the fee and not on the amount of the transaction. Is that because it's a "currency"?

[Nicotinefreek]

I've gotten offered cash in person for BTC. I have a thing about getting to know someone a little bit online first before meeting them in public. If I had enough BTC I would offer it to people in my area for USD cash. But to be honest with the gas prices I would expect for the prices to be raised depending on where the buyer and seller lives I guess.

[joecascio]

Thanks. I'm interested in this because it's consistent with ideas I have had about instituting alternative currencies for "go-local" organizations. And my ideas are almost identical to a system being used for payments in Africa. People fund their accounts thru local merchants who are licensed to take cash in return for deposits into the payment system.