6 ms·

BitcoinStore Launch - Cheaper In Bitcoin

44 points by enmaku 14y ago

shell0x 14y ago
The BitcoinStore URL is http://www.bitcoinstore.com http://www.bitcoinstore.com , but I get an error when accessing it: There has been an error processing your request Exception printing is disabled by default for security reasons. Error log record number: 1226234019337
- enmaku 14y ago
  Momentary glitch, it's back up now.
JWhiteaker 14y ago
It's called BitcoinStore, but the prices are only shown in USD. I expect it will show the conversion on the checkout page, but at first glance the concept feels like just a marketing gimmick.
- mtgx 14y ago
  I agree, the price should not be shown in dollars, otherwise I feel it kind of defeats the purpose. But this could be the beginning of something great. Bitcoin needs a real economy behind it to sustain itself and to become a lot less susceptible to speculators.
  - jerguismi 14y ago
    I don't see point displaying the bitcoin price, instead they should post what their conversion rate is. Still like to compare the prices with other USD rates.
    - JWhiteaker 14y ago
      I'm not saying they shouldn't show the dollar value, I just expect them to at least show the bitcoin price next to it with a name like BitcoinStore.
- BitcoinStore 14y ago
  We're adding the option soon. For now we just wanted to get the site out there so people could see the savings they can receive if they use Bitcoin. Having the prices set in USD helps consumers compare across sites much easier.
Ives 14y ago
It's unfortunate that shipping to european countries is on average about 4x the cost of the product. For example: a kensington-like cable is 25$ but shipping is $110. Similarly, for a 200$ screen, shipping is $300. So while it's nice that international shipping is available, it's not very practical unless you have very deep bitcoin pockets.
- lucb1e 14y ago
  Yeah, $110 shipping for a freaking five-gram USB WiFi dongle. And I see that the minimum order is $1000 during their beta :/
  - BitcoinStore 14y ago
    Both the minimum order and extra international shipping costs will go away as we move forward. They were unfortunate hurdles we had to place in order to get the site public on schedule.
- enmaku 14y ago
  The site's been up less than a day and it's still very early beta. I've been informed that the shipping estimates being provided at checkout are not even close to correct for non-U.S. customers and that's something they're working hard to fix. Give them time :)
ojiikun 14y ago
While they may offer a discount for using BTC, their prices start off much higher than the competition. Clicking around in the section for LCD monitors, all the name-brand models were 50-80% more expensive than on the likes of newegg and amazon.
- BitcoinStore 14y ago
  Products vary in pricing. We don't undercut them on every product, but the fact that we're able to undercut them severely on a good percentage of our products is amazing!
nirvana 14y ago
This is very interesting, and I hope it is a success. Since the government can't shut down bitcoins by stealing them (how they ended the last attempt at a sound currency- the FBI perpetrated a heist where they stole $8M in Platinum, Gold and Silver).... they will have to take more direct methods, like passing a law, or calling this "money laundering". If they don't, then things like this will proliferate, and the only power the government has to back its currency is violence. But employing violence here may be too much for people to accept. ...who am I kidding. Like I said the FBI stole $8M from an american vault and americans don't care, the ones who even know about it believe it was justified because the FBI gave a press release branding the people "terrorists" who "sought to undermine the US Dollar". Oh, undermining the dollar, it sounds so scary when you put it that way. Everyone should read The Creature from Jekyll Island by Griffen. It's a monetary history of the USA. The federal reserve was not created by accident, the boom-bust cycle they've perpetrated (eg: 2008 crisis for example) is not by accident either. I won't say they'll use violence against bitcoin-- they're still using propaganda and that hasn't failed yet... or bitcoin might unravel itself. But if this store is a success, it can't be allowed to stand, or there will be others and the entire system will unravel, eventually.
- taligent 14y ago
  You know what all you delusional conspiracy theorists keep forgetting. That roughly the same financial system model in the US exists in many other countries. So does that mean that there is a mini-conspiracy in each country or is it between countries ? Anyway this whole government is scared of Bitcoin is ridiculous. They know, just like everyone else does, that Bitcoin is nothing but a modern day pyramid scheme that disproportionally rewards early participants and relies on new entrants to prop the whole deck of cards up.
  - ilf10 14y ago
    How is that not different from our current system? Early participants acquired huge savings that continue to accumulate, so the rich get richer, requiring newer participants(immigrants) to help prop up the system and make the rich even richer. The only difference is bitcoins are a pyramid scheme that governments cannot control.
rdl 14y ago
I'm curious what licit, low volume, etc. products actually would make sense to sell in Bitcoin vs. something else. The best thing I can come up with is online-delivered services from non-US (and ideally, non-developed financial system) countries, to other non-developed-financial-system countries. Like, a guy in Zimbabwe who wants to provide an online service to someone from PNG. Which is really a stretch to imagine.
- Frozenlock 14y ago
  Anything: the advantage is in not requiring any credit card and still being able to buy/sell on the Internet. There's some countries where receiving pre-approved credit cards monthly in your inbox isn't the norm.
- BitcoinStore 14y ago
  The advantage to using Bitcoin is that there are no payment processing fees. What we're able to cut with BitcoinStore is that 1-10% fee that Visa, PayPal, et al. charge especially when dealing with products that have a high chargeback risks. So the products that sell best when using Bitcoin have high chargeback risks associated with them.
  - rdl 14y ago
    High chargeback risk makes sense; the 1-3% fee otherwise doesn't really make a business, given how widespread credit cards are, etc., IMO. So, selling prepaid cards online would be a particular niche, maybe, or other things which are cash-equivalent.
    - BitcoinStore 14y ago
      For the 1-3% fee businesses, it does actually make sense. Especially with really low-margin sites. Think of your local grocery store offering a cash discount because of credit card fees, those businesses really do exist on the margin.
  - srdev 14y ago
    How do you fill the gap for me, the consumer, of not having chargebacks available? Chargebacks are a net plus for me.
jhales 14y ago
um... the first thing I looked at: http://www.bitcoinstore.com/hp-folio-13-b2a32ut-13-3-quot-led-ultrabook-intel-core-i5-i5-2467m-1-6ghz.html http://www.bitcoinstore.com/hp-folio-13-b2a32ut-13-3-quot-le... vs. the first google hit: http://www.amazon.com/HP-Folio-B2A32UT-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/dp/B006VCOW5U http://www.amazon.com/HP-Folio-B2A32UT-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/d... It would be nice if there were some concrete examples advertised of newegg/amazon etc. being undercut.
mikeash 14y ago
The lack of chargeback risk is no doubt great for the merchant, but I wouldn't consider buying from such a place unless it had built up an extremely good reputation, not only for honesty in terms of shipping what I paid for, but also in resolving problems. Credit cards give me a lot of protection and I wouldn't want to shop online without that.
dpatrick86 14y ago
Very cool! BitcoinStore.com's sidebar hover animation is totally weird on Chrome though... like it's stacking them. It could totally benefit from .stop(true, true) on that hover event before it executes said animation.

44 points by enmaku 14y ago

The BitcoinStore URL is http://www.bitcoinstore.com http://www.bitcoinstore.com , but I get an error when accessing it: There has been an error processing your request Exception printing is disabled by default for security reasons. Error log record number: 1226234019337

enmaku 14y ago
Momentary glitch, it's back up now.

JWhiteaker 14y ago

It's called BitcoinStore, but the prices are only shown in USD. I expect it will show the conversion on the checkout page, but at first glance the concept feels like just a marketing gimmick.

mtgx 14y ago
I agree, the price should not be shown in dollars, otherwise I feel it kind of defeats the purpose. But this could be the beginning of something great. Bitcoin needs a real economy behind it to sustain itself and to become a lot less susceptible to speculators.
- jerguismi 14y ago
  I don't see point displaying the bitcoin price, instead they should post what their conversion rate is. Still like to compare the prices with other USD rates.
  - JWhiteaker 14y ago
    I'm not saying they shouldn't show the dollar value, I just expect them to at least show the bitcoin price next to it with a name like BitcoinStore.
BitcoinStore 14y ago
We're adding the option soon. For now we just wanted to get the site out there so people could see the savings they can receive if they use Bitcoin. Having the prices set in USD helps consumers compare across sites much easier.

Ives 14y ago

It's unfortunate that shipping to european countries is on average about 4x the cost of the product. For example: a kensington-like cable is 25$ but shipping is $110. Similarly, for a 200$ screen, shipping is $300. So while it's nice that international shipping is available, it's not very practical unless you have very deep bitcoin pockets.

lucb1e 14y ago
Yeah, $110 shipping for a freaking five-gram USB WiFi dongle. And I see that the minimum order is $1000 during their beta :/
- BitcoinStore 14y ago
  Both the minimum order and extra international shipping costs will go away as we move forward. They were unfortunate hurdles we had to place in order to get the site public on schedule.
enmaku 14y ago
The site's been up less than a day and it's still very early beta. I've been informed that the shipping estimates being provided at checkout are not even close to correct for non-U.S. customers and that's something they're working hard to fix. Give them time :)

ojiikun 14y ago

While they may offer a discount for using BTC, their prices start off much higher than the competition. Clicking around in the section for LCD monitors, all the name-brand models were 50-80% more expensive than on the likes of newegg and amazon.

BitcoinStore 14y ago
Products vary in pricing. We don't undercut them on every product, but the fact that we're able to undercut them severely on a good percentage of our products is amazing!

nirvana 14y ago

This is very interesting, and I hope it is a success. Since the government can't shut down bitcoins by stealing them (how they ended the last attempt at a sound currency- the FBI perpetrated a heist where they stole $8M in Platinum, Gold and Silver).... they will have to take more direct methods, like passing a law, or calling this "money laundering". If they don't, then things like this will proliferate, and the only power the government has to back its currency is violence. But employing violence here may be too much for people to accept. ...who am I kidding. Like I said the FBI stole $8M from an american vault and americans don't care, the ones who even know about it believe it was justified because the FBI gave a press release branding the people "terrorists" who "sought to undermine the US Dollar". Oh, undermining the dollar, it sounds so scary when you put it that way. Everyone should read The Creature from Jekyll Island by Griffen. It's a monetary history of the USA. The federal reserve was not created by accident, the boom-bust cycle they've perpetrated (eg: 2008 crisis for example) is not by accident either. I won't say they'll use violence against bitcoin-- they're still using propaganda and that hasn't failed yet... or bitcoin might unravel itself. But if this store is a success, it can't be allowed to stand, or there will be others and the entire system will unravel, eventually.

taligent 14y ago
You know what all you delusional conspiracy theorists keep forgetting. That roughly the same financial system model in the US exists in many other countries. So does that mean that there is a mini-conspiracy in each country or is it between countries ? Anyway this whole government is scared of Bitcoin is ridiculous. They know, just like everyone else does, that Bitcoin is nothing but a modern day pyramid scheme that disproportionally rewards early participants and relies on new entrants to prop the whole deck of cards up.
- ilf10 14y ago
  How is that not different from our current system? Early participants acquired huge savings that continue to accumulate, so the rich get richer, requiring newer participants(immigrants) to help prop up the system and make the rich even richer. The only difference is bitcoins are a pyramid scheme that governments cannot control.

rdl 14y ago

I'm curious what licit, low volume, etc. products actually would make sense to sell in Bitcoin vs. something else. The best thing I can come up with is online-delivered services from non-US (and ideally, non-developed financial system) countries, to other non-developed-financial-system countries. Like, a guy in Zimbabwe who wants to provide an online service to someone from PNG. Which is really a stretch to imagine.

Frozenlock 14y ago
Anything: the advantage is in not requiring any credit card and still being able to buy/sell on the Internet. There's some countries where receiving pre-approved credit cards monthly in your inbox isn't the norm.
BitcoinStore 14y ago
The advantage to using Bitcoin is that there are no payment processing fees. What we're able to cut with BitcoinStore is that 1-10% fee that Visa, PayPal, et al. charge especially when dealing with products that have a high chargeback risks. So the products that sell best when using Bitcoin have high chargeback risks associated with them.
- rdl 14y ago
  High chargeback risk makes sense; the 1-3% fee otherwise doesn't really make a business, given how widespread credit cards are, etc., IMO. So, selling prepaid cards online would be a particular niche, maybe, or other things which are cash-equivalent.
  - BitcoinStore 14y ago
    For the 1-3% fee businesses, it does actually make sense. Especially with really low-margin sites. Think of your local grocery store offering a cash discount because of credit card fees, those businesses really do exist on the margin.
- srdev 14y ago
  How do you fill the gap for me, the consumer, of not having chargebacks available? Chargebacks are a net plus for me.

jhales 14y ago

um... the first thing I looked at: http://www.bitcoinstore.com/hp-folio-13-b2a32ut-13-3-quot-led-ultrabook-intel-core-i5-i5-2467m-1-6ghz.html http://www.bitcoinstore.com/hp-folio-13-b2a32ut-13-3-quot-le... vs. the first google hit: http://www.amazon.com/HP-Folio-B2A32UT-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/dp/B006VCOW5U http://www.amazon.com/HP-Folio-B2A32UT-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook/d... It would be nice if there were some concrete examples advertised of newegg/amazon etc. being undercut.

mikeash 14y ago

The lack of chargeback risk is no doubt great for the merchant, but I wouldn't consider buying from such a place unless it had built up an extremely good reputation, not only for honesty in terms of shipping what I paid for, but also in resolving problems. Credit cards give me a lot of protection and I wouldn't want to shop online without that.

dpatrick86 14y ago

Very cool! BitcoinStore.com's sidebar hover animation is totally weird on Chrome though... like it's stacking them. It could totally benefit from .stop(true, true) on that hover event before it executes said animation.