Bitcoins Direct Support Thread

[miscreanity]

I am surprised that the price isn't going up more with all the demand though.  That part seems strange to me.  Perhaps part of the reason is that FC4B / BD is not a free market.  Instead, they are (wisely!) controlling their portion of the market by not allowing themselves to be caught short (or long) with bitcoin.  But given that MtGox is a free market exchange, I would think their price should be going up more.  Oh well - if I was a trading expert, I would be too rich to be thinking about it here.  

The effects of dark pools on a broader economy are felt long after their actions have taken place. Gox rates won't change much until supply becomes squeezed or demand increases - it appears that demand is certainly increasing, and a supply shortage will follow if it persists.

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[laststop]

How does the coin supply look for tomorrow the 16th?

[Stephen Gornick]

I am surprised that the price isn't going up more with all the demand though.

A couple months ago there were three bigger services where one could deposit cash at a bank to buy coins.  Two of these are no longer supporting that method. so Bitcoins Direct is now about the last channel for that payment method.

So they might be seeing a huge increase but that doesn't mean all together there's a significant increase.

The exchange volumes elsewhere are down by a third compared to October, and down half from August, so some of that might be substitution but then again, other exchanges might have a fair amount of day trading activity whereas every Bitcoins Direct purchase is an inflow of new funds.

[TangibleCryptography]

Update for 11/16/2012:
We have a moderate amount of coins available for 11/16.  POs accepted on first come first serve basis.
Exchange rate raised to 1% over 'MtGox last price' at time of deposit.

[TangibleCryptography]

Update for 11/16/2012:
We have a moderate amount of coins available for 11/16.  POs accepted on first come first serve basis.
Exchange rate raised to 1% over 'MtGox last price' at time of deposit.

[OUT OF COINS for 11/16]
That went faster than I expected.  I think some people have us in GPG speed dial.

Update:
We have secured our first six figure client. The good news is .... well six figures is a lot of coins. The bad news is that will exhaust our supply at least through Tuesday. 

[2weiX]

six figure ... six figures

whaaaaaat
columbian? CIA?

i dont even...

congrats!

[MPOE-PR]

Update for 11/15:
We will NOT have coins available for sale tomorrow (11/15) and are not accepting POs.   We dipped into our reserves some to cover PO today and to avoid being caught in a net short scenario it is prudent for us to rebuild our reserves.

Just out of curiosity, did raising your buy price significantly affect your incoming volume?

I can't be disappointed about btc buying volume being so high, even though you getting wiped out makes it harder to buy. We are living in exciting times!

It did.  We saw a healthy bump in our incoming volume but the demand for BD is kinda hard to believe.  It grew from roughly 5K BTC per week to ~10K BTC per week over the course of ~3 months.  Growth was pretty steady and consistent.  Then roughly two weeks ago we saw demand nearly double ... and then it increased about 50% after we relaunched and then this week is up (if you could fill all orders) about double that.  So more like 50K demand. 

Any growth in FC4B looks like pissing on a forrest fire.  Honestly it is hard for me to explain where the demand is coming from but we simply can't handle it.  Not even close.  I hate to turn sales away but even if FC4B doubled we should still be "short".

I'll tell you where it's coming from: MtGox is doing a piss-poor job of it on multiple counts, and customers aren't happy.

Nice going anyway.

[jwzguy]

[OUT OF COINS for 11/16]
That went faster than I expected.  I think some people have us in GPG speed dial.

Update:
We have secured our first six figure client. The good news is .... well six figures is a lot of coins. The bad news is that will exhaust our supply at least through Tuesday. 

6 figures in USD or BTC? Sorry to be nosy.

[BCB]

I was curious about that too, and when I did the math based on TC recent sales I assumed it was six figures in USD.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I was curious about that too, and when I did the math based on TC recent sales I assumed it was six figures in USD.

Correct, "six figures" as in over $100K USD.
Yeah 100,000 BTC would be really nice.  Maybe in 2013.

[TangibleCryptography]

Just to be absolutely clear, out of coins means out of coins.    We are out, out, out. 

We are getting a lot of PO requests.  I understand price is moving and people want to double, triple, quadruple check in a hope against hope that there is a chance to get a buy order in.  However we got no hidden bitcoins in the couch cushions.  No disrespect intended but OUT means OUT and it is a busy day so we may not be able to respond to all PO requests (just to say, "nope we really are out").

Thanks,

Support

Tangible Cryptography

[laststop]

If you are gonna charge fees on buying coins now then I think you need to raise your buy price so you can keep stock  longer than 15 minutes. It's like ridiculous i have been wanting to get coins from here for like months and everytime I have the money coins are out -sigh- this really sucks

You had coins in at 4:30AM by the time I wake up they are gone and I really wanted to order some coins today and not pay 60+ dollars in fees to bitinstant. If bitinstant can keep a constant stock why cant you guys?

Since you raised your sell price by 2% from 1% below to 1% above you should raise your buy price by 2%. You make the same profit that way and hopefully more people will sell you coins.

[DeathAndTaxes]

If you are gonna charge fees on buying coins now then I think you need to raise your buy price so you can keep stock  longer than 15 minutes. It's like ridiculous i have been wanting to get coins from here for like months and everytime I have the money coins are out -sigh- this really sucks

You had coins in at 4:30AM by the time I wake up they are gone and I really wanted to order some coins today and not pay 60+ dollars in fees to bitinstant. If bitinstant can keep a constant stock why cant you guys?

So we should charge 5%?  At a 5% premium demand likely would be much less and it would be much easier to keep coins in stock.  Are you sure that is the comparison you want to make?

I am sorry you are unhappy we HAVE raised our buy price and it is bringing in an increased volume of coins however demand for coins is still higher. 

[laststop]

you should raise your buy price by the same amount u raised the sell price

[DeathAndTaxes]

you should raise your buy price by the same amount u raised the sell price

We raised our buy price by MORE than the amount we raised our sell price.   FC4B had a 5.2% volatility adjust margin and  BD has no fee (5.2% total spread - volatility adjusted).  Today FC4B has a 3.95% volume adjusted margin and BD has a 1% fee (4.95% total spread - volatility adjusted).

[laststop]

oh then i guess i just am cursed with bad luck. This is the 4th time I needed to buy coins and all 4 times I cam here first and all 4 times i got shut down.

you mean 6.2% spread originally as BD was under 1% now ts over 1% so spread is 4.95% from 6.2% and it's still not able to be in stock

I think i get it seems the market goes in phases where people buy more then times people sell more so you cant overcompensate too much

[DeathAndTaxes]

oh then i guess i just am cursed with bad luck. This is the 4th time I needed to buy coins and all 4 times I cam here first and all 4 times i got shut down.

you mean 6.2% spread originally as BD was under 1% now ts over 1% so spread is 4.95% from 6.2% and it's still not able to be in stock

Well I was comparing it to just a month ago.   At one point BD was 1.5% under market rate and when we continually ran out of USD our margin on FC4B has been as high as 7.95%.  It is a balance.   Prior to roughly a month ago we never ran out on coins.   Hell we sold an excess of thousands and thousands of coins a week on the major exchanges week in and week out for months and that was when offering as much as 1.5% under MtGox.

Demand has increased.  That is a good thing but it also leads to problems.  I am not going to crush our margins though just so we can sell more coins for a smaller profit at higher risk in some "goal" to beat demand.  Sorry.

[laststop]

yea i see the market just has phases of different activity. Everyone on a buying spree now and when the coin price goes up enough everyone will be in selling mode.

[DeathAndTaxes]

yea i see the market just has phases of different activity. Everyone on a buying spree now and when the coin price goes up enough everyone will be in selling mode.

Agreed.  In a perfect world we would have 50,000 BTC and $500,000 USD in reserves, never run out of either coins or dollars, and buy/sell at a spread based on our own supply/demand (i.e. buying at $11.00 and selling at $11.40).  

We aren't there yet.

[Minor]

After coins have become temporarily available you say "orders were fulfilled in first come first serve order" but now you say "OUT means OUT and it is a busy day so we may not be able to respond to all PO requests (just to say, "nope we really are out")".

So, do you build a queue of PO requests or not?

If I just want to buy some coins in the next few days, whenever they become available, no rush, should I send a PO request or not?

I could even send the money ahead of time (once I get the PO#, of course) , and you just send the coins when you have them, at 1% above the current price at the time that you send them.
I don't care what the price is, I just need X dollars worth of bitcoins, and by the time I receive them, they should be worth approximately X dollars.