[ANN] LocalBitcoins.com - a location-based bitcoin to cash marketplace

[justusranvier]

I just tried to make a formula that used bitfloorusd instead of mtgoxusd to see if it would work, and it did not give the expected results. The resulting value look like it was using Mt Gox price anyway, or else an out of date Bitfloor price.

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[MarkBTC]

I'm sorry to say that I've had a foul experience with using this service.  

Many sellers don't respond. For those who do respond:

- When the exchange rate moves unfavourably for sellers (say I buy at $60 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay "current market prices" even if I had clicked on the Buy button just a few hours ago and tried to arrange a meeting right away. (As you know, Bitcoin has sharp price movements these days.) Or they'll just click on Cancel Transaction without communicating with you, because they don't want to sell for below market value.

- When the exchange rates moves favourably for sellers (say I buy at $120 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay the price that was shown when I clicked Buy on the site.

the vast majority of them do not have escrow enabled, so it's impossible to pay for them immediately.

What they should be doing is accounting for the volatility in the prices they charge.

Other sellers don't even have the advertised Bitcoins on hand; they take orders and then buy them from Gox/BTCE/et al and charge a commission on top of the brokerage fees. They should state this in their ads.

I think the site would do better with a rule that requires sellers to honor the price they post, for at least 24 hours on weekends and 48 hours on work days. And I think buyers should be allowed to leave negative feedback for any transaction, not just escrow-enabled ones.

Otherwise, there's really not much of an incentive to use this service. With the slight inconvenience of opening a brokerage account, I get
- prices that correspond to current market rates, without the delay of setting up in-person meetings and exchange rate fluctuations
- don't have to pay commissions on top of brokerage fees (for the sellers who don't carry inventory)
- can buy/sell from the comfort of my home computer, without having to travel to an agreed location to do the transaction
- no risk of getting mugged
- no risk of dealing with poor customer service

[2weiX]

Just buy from buyers who instantly fund transactions. this means they had the BTC ready and are more willing to go thru with the transaction.

[giszmo]

I'm sorry to say that I've had a foul experience with using this service.  

Many sellers don't respond. For those who do respond:

- When the exchange rate moves unfavourably for sellers (say I buy at $60 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay "current market prices" even if I had clicked on the Buy button just a few hours ago and tried to arrange a meeting right away. (As you know, Bitcoin has sharp price movements these days.) Or they'll just click on Cancel Transaction without communicating with you, because they don't want to sell for below market value.

- When the exchange rates moves favourably for sellers (say I buy at $120 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay the price that was shown when I clicked Buy on the site.

the vast majority of them do not have escrow enabled, so it's impossible to pay for them immediately.

What they should be doing is accounting for the volatility in the prices they charge.

Other sellers don't even have the advertised Bitcoins on hand; they take orders and then buy them from Gox/BTCE/et al and charge a commission on top of the brokerage fees. They should state this in their ads.

I think the site would do better with a rule that requires sellers to honor the price they post, for at least 24 hours on weekends and 48 hours on work days. And I think buyers should be allowed to leave negative feedback for any transaction, not just escrow-enabled ones.

Otherwise, there's really not much of an incentive to use this service. With the slight inconvenience of opening a brokerage account, I get
- prices that correspond to current market rates, without the delay of setting up in-person meetings and exchange rate fluctuations
- don't have to pay commissions on top of brokerage fees (for the sellers who don't carry inventory)
- can buy/sell from the comfort of my home computer, without having to travel to an agreed location to do the transaction
- no risk of getting mugged
- no risk of dealing with poor customer service

I see lb more like a service where there is no MtGox. Why should a market maker take the loss? He can but that's a bonus and others may have other rules. I pin the price only the minute we do the deal and will not trade during excessive swings. Read my ad and deal with it.

[tolan77]

I think the site would do better with a rule that requires sellers to honor the price they post, for at least 24 hours on weekends and 48 hours on work days. And I think buyers should be allowed to leave negative feedback for any transaction, not just escrow-enabled ones.

While in theory this would be swell as a seller on local bitcoins the only problem I have with this is the buyer has the right to walk away at any time no matter what 'rules' you implement. Since it's a face to face cash transaction the buyer can always just not hand you the money. For example a while ago (not a crash day just a regular bitcoin day)I've had a buyer meet me at a Starbucks, walk over and start talking then check the mtgox price on his phone, it had fallen some so he said "No thanks" and just walked off.It was extremely frustrating especially since it was a stupid reason to walk away. While this almost never actually happens, since there is no way to have the buyer locked in too it's extremely unfair to lock the seller in this contract when the buyer in no way shares the lock.

[MarkBTC]

I don't have a problem with sellers who ask for market price at the time of the money changing hands, as long as the rules are spelled out clearly in advance. What I do have a problem with are sellers who apply inconsistent rules in such a way to always benefit themselves (i.e. charging market price when BTC/USD rises and switching to contract price when BTC/USD falls.)

For sellers who do want to charge market price at the time of meeting, localbitcoins.com should have an icon saying "Market price at time of meeting" instead of calculating a figure from the current GOX value, writing that figure into the contract as if it were a locked-in value, and potentially setting unrealistic expectations.

Also, you can't see a seller's price formula (i.e. whether it's a constant or an equation based on market prices), so nothing is stopping someone from listing coins at $10 (or something purposely set way below market value to lure customers) and then asking buyers to pay "market prices." If an actual business did this, it'd be considered a bait-and-switch, which is illegal in the U.S.

While in theory this would be swell as a seller on local bitcoins the only problem I have with this is the buyer has the right to walk away at any time no matter what 'rules' you implement. Since it's a face to face cash transaction the buyer can always just not hand you the money. For example a while ago (not a crash day just a regular bitcoin day)I've had a buyer meet me at a Starbucks, walk over and start talking then check the mtgox price on his phone, it had fallen some so he said "No thanks" and just walked off.It was extremely frustrating especially since it was a stupid reason to walk away. While this almost never actually happens, since there is no way to have the buyer locked in too it's extremely unfair to lock the seller in this contract when the buyer in no way shares the lock.

Yikes...I can imagine that's quite upsetting to deal with. But hopefully it's an anomaly and not the norm.

But the reverse can hold true, too. If BTC/USD were rising, you could have a seller who shows up at the meeting with no intention to sell. He could claim he ran out of stock, or his hard drive crashed, or provide countless other excuses, while secretly selling his coins to somebody else at higher prices. You never know.

You can't entirely prevent situations like this but you can leave them negative feedback.

[justusranvier]

I don't have a problem with sellers who ask for market price at the time of the money changing hands, as long as the rules are spelled out clearly in advance. What I do have a problem with are sellers who apply inconsistent rules in such a way to always benefit themselves (i.e. charging market price when BTC/USD rises and switching to contract price when BTC/USD falls.)

Buyers do the same thing too. They'll open an order and then not get back with you to meet up if the price changes to their disadvantage. This is how I attempt to reduce that:

Please do not place an order until you are actually ready to meet up. I will cancel any orders that stay open more than 2 hours. If you need to coordinate ahead of time, or if you have any questions, contact me via email first:

[2weiX]

I have lately taken to setting a reserve price.

Just now, I bought at 80 and will not sell below 85.

Formula: max(mtgoxUSD_ask*USD_in_EUR*1.05,85)

I will sell for the ask in EUR with 5% fee or 85€, whichever is larger.

Easy as pie!

[tolan77]

I have lately taken to setting a reserve price.

Just now, I bought at 80 and will not sell below 85.

Formula: max(mtgoxUSD_ask*USD_in_EUR*1.05,85)

I will sell for the ask in EUR with 5% fee or 85€, whichever is larger.

Easy as pie!

wow that solves all my pricing problems and I'll never have to cancel an order again as a seller, I didn't even think of trying that. Thanks!

[TheButterZone]

I have lately taken to setting a reserve price.

Just now, I bought at 80 and will not sell below 85.

Formula: max(mtgoxUSD_ask*USD_in_EUR*1.05,85)

I will sell for the ask in EUR with 5% fee or 85€, whichever is larger.

Easy as pie!

Holy crapballs that's awesome. Thanks.

[Blank]

Not sure if it's just for the UK Locale but the Sell Bitcoins! advert list isn't working right. The top 8 adverts are not being sorted correctly they are currently in this order:
70
40
66
54
39
10
68
65
Then at this point corrects to sort how it should (High price's at the top)
95
90
90
89
80
79
etc...

so for some reason the top 8 adverts seem locked in place when some of them should be right at the bottom of the list. It's annoying for me as i am posting an advert for a higher amount than all the top 8 people but my advert is 24 places from the top. Also as of posting this you can buy bitcoins on the buy page for around £82, so all the offers above that are probably inactive/dead adverts or crazy people:P

The buy page is working normally though (cheapest adverts at the top).

[justusranvier]

I use

Code:

max(max(mtgoxUSD, bitfloorUSD), USD_24h)*commission

.

[justusranvier]

Now that Bitfloor is gone I had to come up with a new formula. Incidentally I found a way to stop people from trying to snipe me when there is a sudden, momentary dip in the price that caused the old formula to generate a price that ends up being below spot within a few minutes.

Code:

max(max(mtgoxUSD, USD_24h), USD_24h+(1.5*(mtgoxUSD-USD_24h)))*commission

[2weiX]

Now that Bitfloor is gone I had to come up with a new formula. Incidentally I found a way to stop people from trying to snipe me when there is a sudden, momentary dip in the price that caused the old formula to generate a price that ends up being below spot within a few minutes.

Code:

max(max(mtgoxUSD, USD_24h), USD_24h+(1.5*(mtgoxUSD-USD_24h)))*commission

i usually just go (max(mtgox_USD*USD_in_EUR*commission,70) and never sell below 70.

[TheButterZone]

Gone back to getting logged out after every session, already cleared cookies/cache, still happening.

[imafish2002]

So many advertised "buyers" who are completely clueless. I have had my funds stuck in escrow for 18 hours the past 2 days due to idiots either not realising they are buying from me and not selling or because they decide not to buy but don't cancel the transaction. So infuriating!

[TheButterZone]

Still don't keep BTC in LocalBitcoins.

[kangasbros]

Gone back to getting logged out after every session, already cleared cookies/cache, still happening.

We recently made the session cookie age much smaller - now users get logged out much easier. This was done because of security. We might add option to modify this in the settings soon.

[2weiX]

is there a  way to completely remove an account from the site?

[kangasbros]

is there a  way to completely remove an account from the site?

If you go to the edit profile -> bottom, there is a links via which you can remove your profile. However it is not complete removal - your username will stay in the trade receipts, and also the username you will have will be reserved indefinitely.