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TigerDirect.com Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments

213 points by peter123 13y ago

elipsey 13y ago
...to prevent charge backs. Ever by anything from them? Ugh...
- Eclyps 13y ago
  I've always had wonderful service from TD. Haven't needed anything in the past year or so, but they always had competitive pricing and handled the my only RMA pretty painlessly...
- jeffasinger 13y ago
  Only time I bought anything from TigerDirect recently was a desktop. It arrived DoA (well videocard was), TigerDirect shipped a new one, and paid return shipping on dead one, at no cost to us.
- dangrossman 13y ago
  > Ever by anything from them? Yeah, a tower with an AMD K6-2 266MHz processor, 32MB of PC100 SDRAM, 6.4GB hard drive and a 56K modem. It was a great deal out of the print catalog they mailed to my parents' house every month. I guess that was a while back now.
- cgore 13y ago
  I've had a few returns with them over the years and they all went well.
Karunamon 13y ago
Another major retailer! It's funny, all of the "Bitcoin is dead! Bitcoin solves a non-existent problem! Bitcoin.....etc" posters have vanished.
- slg 13y ago
  Someone with a less favorable view on Bitcoin could easily point out that these retailers are not embracing Bitcoin. They are embracing payment services like BitPay and Coinbase. To TigerDirect this move isn't that different from deciding to accept payments from Paypal, Google Wallet, etc.
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    Perhaps, but this is a very necessary stepping stone to direct adoption of BTC. Even if Coinbase and the like are processing a majority of transactions, more users means less instability, which is probably the currency's single worst problem right now.
  - baddox 13y ago
    That's like saying that Amazon doesn't actually embrace the US dollar, they just embrace payment services like Visa and Mastercard.
    - slg 13y ago
      No, it isn't the same. Visa and Mastercard pay Amazon with USD. BitPay and Coinbase do not pay TigerDirect in Bitcoin. Amazon is fine holding reserves of USD. Retailers like TigerDirect and Overstock are not yet willing to hold reserves of Bitcoin.
      - CodeCube 13y ago
        strictly speaking, you don't know this. I believe these services let you choose what percentage you want to be paid in USD, and what percentage you want to keep in bitcoin. So although they may choose to be paid entirely in USD, they could also choose to keep some amount of bitcoin ... that's an internal matter that they may or may not make public
        danudey 13y ago
        From an accounting perspective, it makes little sense to keep BTC, since it's so volatile. It's easier to account for your sales in USD and have a fixed value than account for them in BTC, which fluctuates wildly.
- smokeyj 13y ago
  Now it's "Who cares, it's all for publicity".
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I think we're roundly into stage 2 now.
    - rosser 13y ago
      Wait, we're comparing Satoshi-san to Gandhi now?
      - Crito 13y ago
        If we restrict ourselves to making comparisons only when the two things are similar in every regard, then there is literally no point in making a comparison.
        rosser 13y ago
        Agreed completely. I'm more saying that I don't see any similarity between BTC and the Indian independence movement. It would be like me quoting Elie Wiesel when my boss is being a dick.
        Crito 13y ago
        You seem to be hung up on comparisons between things that have vastly different magnitudes or severities. The effort to get bitcoin widely accepted as a currency is "a struggle". The Indian independence movement was a struggle. Are these two struggles similar in severity, importance, or necessity? No, of course not. Do they need to be, in order to reference that quote? No, of course not. Why is it not necessary that these two situations be equivalent, or even similar, in that respect? Because he was not saying that the effort to get bitcoin widely accepted is as important as Indian independence.
- chaz 13y ago
  Flooz had Barnes & Noble, J.Crew, Tower Records, Godiva, Sephora, Martha Stewart and Brookstone signed up as retailers, among others: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Flooz.com+to+the+Rescue+for+the+Holidays.-a068202369 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Flooz.com+to+the+Rescue+for+th... I own BTC, but I'm still wondering what's going to want me to spend it instead of my AmEx for my next purchase.
  - zanny 13y ago
    Retailers will have to provide discounts for using btc, but all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not. It makes it hard for bitcoin to gain traction on its principle benefit - no / minimal fees.
    - modeless 13y ago
      > all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not Those clauses were recently struck down due to a class-action lawsuit. Retailers are now pretty much free to set different prices for any payment option as they see fit. http://vizant.com/news-item/vizants-perspective-on-new-rules-allowing-merchants-to-assess-a-surcharge-on-credit-cards-2/ http://vizant.com/news-item/vizants-perspective-on-new-rules...
      - zanny 13y ago
        Didn't know that. It does mean, though, that these companies need to pass the savings on to the consumers. And if they are using coinbase and taking out fiat they aren't saving as much as they could going strict btc and only paying a 0.01% or whatever fee to get expedient confirms in the blockchain. Or hell, wait the hour and don't ship until payment is confirmed, and pay absolutely no fees ever.
      - XorNot 13y ago
        Most of them won't though. It's a disincentive to your customers to dangle a cheaper, but more difficult option in front of them. When the customer is ready to buy, you don't want them to think "wait, maybe I'll get this tomorrow when I pay in cash..." Because they may decide in the intervening time not to bother buying it at all.
- notatoad 13y ago
  >Bitcoin solves a non-existent problem! Did those posters ever exist? I certainly haven't seen them on Hacker News.
  - soup10 13y ago
    That's because all their posts get downvoted. I still don't think bitcoin is a good currency and will probably fail in the long term, but it has enough momentum at this point that there's no productive discussion to be had.
- srdev 13y ago
  Seems to me that most peoples' points is that Bitcoin solves problems that most people do not have. I still haven't had any Bitcoin advocates explain to me why I should care. My credit card is vastly superior in pretty much every respect, and the decentralized nature of the network seems more like an albatross that makes it require vastly more resources than it needs (because I don't think central banking is bad). And yeah, no chargebacks is ok if you're a seller and can reasonably push risk off to the consumer without them shopping elsewhere. But I'm a buyer, so...
  - unreal37 13y ago
    How about the fact that the banking system charges huge fees for the use of their networks and technology? Do you mind paying 4% more for all your purchases because the retailer has to take credit card fees into account? Do you mind paying $15 to send money to relatives overseas? Every time you want to transfer money from one place to another, it costs you way way way more than it actually costs because of marketing and profits. This is disruptive technology. Credit card companies and international money transfer companies are panicking right now.
    - srdev 13y ago
      Credit card companies do not charge 4%. I worked in credit cards about a decade ago, so unless the marketplace is less competitive now than before, I assume this still holds true. Furthermore, the fees that do exist are not necessarily passed on the consumer, but taken out of profit. Prices can only be arbitrarily changed if demand is inelastic. None of the companies taking Bitcoin are taking it directly -- they are all paying fees -- and none of them are passing savings onto the consumer. Finally, no I don't mind paying a small percentage (1-2%) for paying with a convenient method that gives me 1% cash back and consumer protections like chargebacks. Its a service. > Do you mind paying $15 to send money to relatives overseas? I very rarely have to do this, and when I do $15 is a fraction of a percent. And certainly, its worth it in comparison to dealing with the Bitcoin ecosystem to get my money INTO Bitcoin and then out on the other side. So no, I don't mind. Now you may be saying "Well when everyone uses bitcoins in the future these problems won't exist, and furthermore..." Yeah but if bitcoins get market penetration then banks and other services can adjust prices to compete. > This is disruptive technology. Credit card companies and international money transfer companies are panicking right now. Everyone throws around the word "disruptive" on this site, but seldom is it really true. I keep an eye on the Bitcoin ecosystem because it is interesting, but I've seen literally nothing offered that appeals to me over existing services. When Bitcoin provides me with real, significant value, then I'll think about buying in. Also, its amusing how its advocates claim that traditional finance companies are "terrified." I've seen absolutely ZERO evidence of this. Its more of the Bitcoin community's lack of reality.
- danudey 13y ago
  A company that sells mining hardware (AMD GPUs) accepting payments in bitcoin is a no-brainer. You save your customers the trouble of converting to USD to purchase, which makes the mine->purchase->mine cycle even more frictionless. Even if I thought bitcoin was doomed to fail, I would do this in the short term to get more business from coin miners.
- Helianthus 13y ago
  We haven't vanished. We just don't care anymore--at least, not enough to rehash the same old tired arguments. I still monitor Bitcoin news. Nothing surprising. Bitcoin is still a greedy rotten fruit, and only time will prove anyone wrong.
- trollingyou 13y ago
  theyre so major i never heard of em
- OverlordXenu 13y ago
  Who says that? Most of the criticism is "Bitcoin is poorly designed, it fails at basic principles of Economics, it wastes tons of power, it continues to cause income inequality…" Cryptocurrency is awesome. There just isn't a well-designed one yet that uses actual, sound economic principles instead of Austrian School ramblings.
AznHisoka 13y ago
Is it me or are all the "has-beens", or unrelevant companies accepting bitcoin nowadays? We had Overstock, who has fallen from its high. We had App.net, who is struggling to be relevant. now TigerDirect. When is Starbucks or Apple going to accept Bitcoin?
- tetrep 13y ago
  How is TigerDirect a "has-been"? They're a direct competitor to Newegg.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - protomyth 13y ago
    They are actually a tad bit easier to deal with than Newegg for purchase orders. They also have a pretty good group in customer service. We order a lot from them and cdwg.
- Karunamon 13y ago
  Mm. The companies might have fallen from their high, but they're hardly irrelevant or dead. Overstock is advertised like crazy and has some pretty good deals to boot, Tiger competes directly with Newegg. App is a bit of an outlier there.. Starbucks or Apple? I'd assume the megacorps will take it up once the instability gets smoothed out a bit. Which is a problem of adoption, which means the faster the smaller fish like these adopt it, the faster the bigger ones will. I predict Amazon will take BTC within the next 2-3 years.
  - BlackDeath3 13y ago
    >Tiger competes directly with Newegg Interesting. The site designs always had me thinking they were two sides of the same coin.
    - cgore 13y ago
      I've typically bought computer stuff from Tiger Direct. About half of my computer parts have came from there for about the last 10 years or so. They aren't the absolute cheapest site online, but I've never had any problem with returns or customer service with them, so I keep with them.
ryaneager 13y ago
I find it humorous that Tiger Direct and Newegg are promoting Bitcoin mining with GPUS. The returns from such cards are so small now its not even worth mentioning. Even with a high end GPU you are only making around $0.96 a week. With the card costing $440 it'll take 8 years to make your money back, assuming the difficulty won't increase. Which it will so there is no hope of making a profit.
- 1qaz2wsx3edc 13y ago
  Yes, mining is tricky, risky business, too much so for my blood. But, I think some find ways to ROI. But, you know, a merchant wouldn't stop selling pickaxes during a gold rush, just because the customer isn't profiting. I wouldn't expect online retailers too either.
  - BlackDeath3 13y ago
    Did those merchants ever sell miners toothpicks?
    - columbo 13y ago
      In a manner of speaking yes. Would-be miners were sold all sorts of devices, potions, clothing, divining rods, measurements, maps, and sorting machines that all turned out to be completely unusable when applied in the field.
- eudoxus 13y ago
  Anyone who is mining with GPUs isnt mining Bitcoin, their mining the various other cryptocurrencies (known as altcoins) that use the scrypt hashing algorithm, Such Litecoin. See here the profitability of scrypt based coins, hint: It's alot http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency
  - deleted 13y ago
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- 13y ago
ryangripp 13y ago
You're going to continue to see major eCommerce players offer bitcoin as a payment option. In the checkout flow it is best practice to offer as many payment options available because it increases the likelihood of a successful conversion. Regardless of whether Andreesse's essay is correct regarding bitcoin two IR100 sites is a pretty big deal for bitcoin.
- Benferhat 13y ago
  >> In the checkout flow it is best practice to offer as many payment options available because it increases the likelihood of a successful conversion. Are you sure about that? Too many choices sometimes leads to no choice at all. [0] [0] http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...
  - yarou 13y ago
    Exactly. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_Ass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_Ass
andrewf 13y ago
Aren't these the guys that tried to sue Apple for a quick buck around the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger? Sorry TigerDirect, I swore off you then.
- troymc 13y ago
  If I understand trademark law correctly, a company must defend its trademarks or risk losing them. It wasn't about "a quick buck," it was about fulfilling the responsibilities of owning a trademark. It's hardly fair to fault TigerDirect for doing what the law requires of them. In this particular case, a judge had to make a judgement call about whether Apple's new "Tiger" OS trademark was an infringement on TigerDirect's trademark. It could have gone either way. That's why a judge was needed.
lvh 13y ago
Interestingly, TigerDirect appears to be unreachable for me (from Europe): Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.tigerdirect.com/" http://www.tigerdirect.com/" on this server. Reference #18.56bd7a5c.1390506110.4cf7baee
- bulibuta 13y ago
  Same here. What's up with that?
  - aet 13y ago
    Even if they paid you in bitcoins I wouldn't deal with them. Terrible
  - lvh 13y ago
    I've confirmed that it works fine when I proxy through Chicago.
- SquareWheel 13y ago
  In case it's not clear, the quote was a part of the hyperlink and so this link is broken.
kolev 13y ago
Accepting Bitcoin means having a Bitcoin wallet. Period! The more merchants like TigerDirect and Overstock "embrace" Bitcoin, the more bitcoins will be sold at the exchanges and the price will be dragged down further and further. It's funny that just about now hoarders start to realize how negative is this for their empty hope to wake up millionaires one day due to Bitcoin suddenly becoming $10K a piece.
- fragsworth 13y ago
  That's a pretty limited view of the price dynamics of bitcoin.
  - kolev 13y ago
    Maybe you haven't been following the discussions over at Reddit and Bitcoin Forums. Some idiots buy what they spent at Coinbase, which basically is costing them 1% + $0.15 + margin difference in hopes to keep bids and asks in balance. You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here!
    - VexXtreme 13y ago
      >You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here! Says the guy patrolling Reddit, HN and even a few other websites constantly bashing bitcoin and calling its users idiots. People engaging in this kind of behavior usually do it because they feel like they've missed the boat and are trying to resolve their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves it doesn't matter because it's not going to work anyway. If you have no vested interest in bitcoin going either way, why are you spending such an inordinate amount of time participating in the bitcoin community constantly trying to drag it down? What's in it for you? Don't you have anything better to do with your life? For instance, I own no gold so I really couldn't care less where it goes and reeducating misguided gold owners would be the lowest thing on my list of priorities. Serious psychological disorders. Hah.
- skriticos2 13y ago
  I don't get your logic. Liquidity doesn't change supply. It just makes exchange simpler. A set market price has to be found between the people who want to trade Bitcoins, which will very much be influenced by the supply. Liquidity will help to lessen volatility (fluctuation), but the price point has to be decided by the people who want to own some Bitcoin (traders, spenders and savers). Savers will drive the price upward as long as they save, but that's ok, as long as not too many people decide to liquidate their Bitcoins at the same time. It's the same for lost Bitcoins, the value for the rest of them adjusts to the demand level based on supply.
yalogin 13y ago
Why did not NewEgg jump in yet? I was expecting them to be one of the first.
- drcode 13y ago
  I'm guessing they'd like to but adding new payment options to a website is a hassle (even when it's bitcoin)
uniclaude 13y ago
I'm going to lose a few karma points for going meta, but I have to point this. When the top comment to a positive bitcoin related news reads like textbook flame war material[1], I feel sad about the current state of HN. We're supposed to discuss, not to pick sides and borderline troll people who are skeptical about some technology. This attitude is downright childish, and will only spawn very predictable and heated debates. You bought or mined bitcoins and believe in them? That's good for you, I have some too, yay. Yet, I'm not starting flame wars and making fun of non-believers. This brings absolutely nothing. Moreover, it might show a negative image of the bitcoin community. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7109970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7109970
gigq 13y ago
Lost in the news that they accept bitcoin is the "Coming Soon" under Butterfly Labs hardware mentioned on that landing page. First I've heard of a mainstream electronics store selling ASIC mining hardware.
markdown 13y ago
Relevant post made in the last hour by Tony Hsieh in his Reddit IAmA: Q: Mr. Hsieh, Are there any plans for Zappos.com to accept bitcoin? A: we've been looking into the possibility but probably not anytime soon! http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vzd35/i_am_tony_hsieh_ceo_of_zapposcom_author_of/cexa357 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vzd35/i_am_tony_hsieh...
- mikegreen 13y ago
  The world has imploded and all I have are these bitcoins and bullets; I'll buy some shoes!
flycaliguy 13y ago
My long term plan to buy a bitcoin last year for $300 and buy a VR system with it in 5 years is going along smoothly.
vrikis 13y ago
As far as I can see, they aren't indicating what they are doing with their Bitcoin. Accepting Bitcoin is one thing, since as far as I know, all places accepting Bitcoin so far just convert it into their country's currency (e.g. $). Accepting Bitcoin and keeping Bitcoin for further trading is a-whole-nother story, and as far as I know, no one is doing that. Still, great news for cryptocurrencies as there's now a bit more anonymity when buying online! :)

213 points by peter123 13y ago

elipsey 13y ago

...to prevent charge backs. Ever by anything from them? Ugh...

Eclyps 13y ago
I've always had wonderful service from TD. Haven't needed anything in the past year or so, but they always had competitive pricing and handled the my only RMA pretty painlessly...
jeffasinger 13y ago
Only time I bought anything from TigerDirect recently was a desktop. It arrived DoA (well videocard was), TigerDirect shipped a new one, and paid return shipping on dead one, at no cost to us.
dangrossman 13y ago
> Ever by anything from them? Yeah, a tower with an AMD K6-2 266MHz processor, 32MB of PC100 SDRAM, 6.4GB hard drive and a 56K modem. It was a great deal out of the print catalog they mailed to my parents' house every month. I guess that was a while back now.
cgore 13y ago
I've had a few returns with them over the years and they all went well.

Karunamon 13y ago

Another major retailer! It's funny, all of the "Bitcoin is dead! Bitcoin solves a non-existent problem! Bitcoin.....etc" posters have vanished.

slg 13y ago
Someone with a less favorable view on Bitcoin could easily point out that these retailers are not embracing Bitcoin. They are embracing payment services like BitPay and Coinbase. To TigerDirect this move isn't that different from deciding to accept payments from Paypal, Google Wallet, etc.
- Karunamon 13y ago
  Perhaps, but this is a very necessary stepping stone to direct adoption of BTC. Even if Coinbase and the like are processing a majority of transactions, more users means less instability, which is probably the currency's single worst problem right now.
- baddox 13y ago
  That's like saying that Amazon doesn't actually embrace the US dollar, they just embrace payment services like Visa and Mastercard.
  - slg 13y ago
    No, it isn't the same. Visa and Mastercard pay Amazon with USD. BitPay and Coinbase do not pay TigerDirect in Bitcoin. Amazon is fine holding reserves of USD. Retailers like TigerDirect and Overstock are not yet willing to hold reserves of Bitcoin.
    - CodeCube 13y ago
      strictly speaking, you don't know this. I believe these services let you choose what percentage you want to be paid in USD, and what percentage you want to keep in bitcoin. So although they may choose to be paid entirely in USD, they could also choose to keep some amount of bitcoin ... that's an internal matter that they may or may not make public
      - danudey 13y ago
        From an accounting perspective, it makes little sense to keep BTC, since it's so volatile. It's easier to account for your sales in USD and have a fixed value than account for them in BTC, which fluctuates wildly.
smokeyj 13y ago
Now it's "Who cares, it's all for publicity".
- Karunamon 13y ago
  First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I think we're roundly into stage 2 now.
  - rosser 13y ago
    Wait, we're comparing Satoshi-san to Gandhi now?
    - Crito 13y ago
      If we restrict ourselves to making comparisons only when the two things are similar in every regard, then there is literally no point in making a comparison.
      - rosser 13y ago
        Agreed completely. I'm more saying that I don't see any similarity between BTC and the Indian independence movement. It would be like me quoting Elie Wiesel when my boss is being a dick.
        Crito 13y ago
        You seem to be hung up on comparisons between things that have vastly different magnitudes or severities. The effort to get bitcoin widely accepted as a currency is "a struggle". The Indian independence movement was a struggle. Are these two struggles similar in severity, importance, or necessity? No, of course not. Do they need to be, in order to reference that quote? No, of course not. Why is it not necessary that these two situations be equivalent, or even similar, in that respect? Because he was not saying that the effort to get bitcoin widely accepted is as important as Indian independence.
chaz 13y ago
Flooz had Barnes & Noble, J.Crew, Tower Records, Godiva, Sephora, Martha Stewart and Brookstone signed up as retailers, among others: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Flooz.com+to+the+Rescue+for+the+Holidays.-a068202369 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Flooz.com+to+the+Rescue+for+th... I own BTC, but I'm still wondering what's going to want me to spend it instead of my AmEx for my next purchase.
- zanny 13y ago
  Retailers will have to provide discounts for using btc, but all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not. It makes it hard for bitcoin to gain traction on its principle benefit - no / minimal fees.
  - modeless 13y ago
    > all the major CC companies have it in their contracts with businesses they must sell stuff the same price regardless of using a CC or not Those clauses were recently struck down due to a class-action lawsuit. Retailers are now pretty much free to set different prices for any payment option as they see fit. http://vizant.com/news-item/vizants-perspective-on-new-rules-allowing-merchants-to-assess-a-surcharge-on-credit-cards-2/ http://vizant.com/news-item/vizants-perspective-on-new-rules...
    - zanny 13y ago
      Didn't know that. It does mean, though, that these companies need to pass the savings on to the consumers. And if they are using coinbase and taking out fiat they aren't saving as much as they could going strict btc and only paying a 0.01% or whatever fee to get expedient confirms in the blockchain. Or hell, wait the hour and don't ship until payment is confirmed, and pay absolutely no fees ever.
    - XorNot 13y ago
      Most of them won't though. It's a disincentive to your customers to dangle a cheaper, but more difficult option in front of them. When the customer is ready to buy, you don't want them to think "wait, maybe I'll get this tomorrow when I pay in cash..." Because they may decide in the intervening time not to bother buying it at all.
notatoad 13y ago
>Bitcoin solves a non-existent problem! Did those posters ever exist? I certainly haven't seen them on Hacker News.
- soup10 13y ago
  That's because all their posts get downvoted. I still don't think bitcoin is a good currency and will probably fail in the long term, but it has enough momentum at this point that there's no productive discussion to be had.
srdev 13y ago
Seems to me that most peoples' points is that Bitcoin solves problems that most people do not have. I still haven't had any Bitcoin advocates explain to me why I should care. My credit card is vastly superior in pretty much every respect, and the decentralized nature of the network seems more like an albatross that makes it require vastly more resources than it needs (because I don't think central banking is bad). And yeah, no chargebacks is ok if you're a seller and can reasonably push risk off to the consumer without them shopping elsewhere. But I'm a buyer, so...
- unreal37 13y ago
  How about the fact that the banking system charges huge fees for the use of their networks and technology? Do you mind paying 4% more for all your purchases because the retailer has to take credit card fees into account? Do you mind paying $15 to send money to relatives overseas? Every time you want to transfer money from one place to another, it costs you way way way more than it actually costs because of marketing and profits. This is disruptive technology. Credit card companies and international money transfer companies are panicking right now.
  - srdev 13y ago
    Credit card companies do not charge 4%. I worked in credit cards about a decade ago, so unless the marketplace is less competitive now than before, I assume this still holds true. Furthermore, the fees that do exist are not necessarily passed on the consumer, but taken out of profit. Prices can only be arbitrarily changed if demand is inelastic. None of the companies taking Bitcoin are taking it directly -- they are all paying fees -- and none of them are passing savings onto the consumer. Finally, no I don't mind paying a small percentage (1-2%) for paying with a convenient method that gives me 1% cash back and consumer protections like chargebacks. Its a service. > Do you mind paying $15 to send money to relatives overseas? I very rarely have to do this, and when I do $15 is a fraction of a percent. And certainly, its worth it in comparison to dealing with the Bitcoin ecosystem to get my money INTO Bitcoin and then out on the other side. So no, I don't mind. Now you may be saying "Well when everyone uses bitcoins in the future these problems won't exist, and furthermore..." Yeah but if bitcoins get market penetration then banks and other services can adjust prices to compete. > This is disruptive technology. Credit card companies and international money transfer companies are panicking right now. Everyone throws around the word "disruptive" on this site, but seldom is it really true. I keep an eye on the Bitcoin ecosystem because it is interesting, but I've seen literally nothing offered that appeals to me over existing services. When Bitcoin provides me with real, significant value, then I'll think about buying in. Also, its amusing how its advocates claim that traditional finance companies are "terrified." I've seen absolutely ZERO evidence of this. Its more of the Bitcoin community's lack of reality.
danudey 13y ago
A company that sells mining hardware (AMD GPUs) accepting payments in bitcoin is a no-brainer. You save your customers the trouble of converting to USD to purchase, which makes the mine->purchase->mine cycle even more frictionless. Even if I thought bitcoin was doomed to fail, I would do this in the short term to get more business from coin miners.
Helianthus 13y ago
We haven't vanished. We just don't care anymore--at least, not enough to rehash the same old tired arguments. I still monitor Bitcoin news. Nothing surprising. Bitcoin is still a greedy rotten fruit, and only time will prove anyone wrong.
trollingyou 13y ago
theyre so major i never heard of em
OverlordXenu 13y ago
Who says that? Most of the criticism is "Bitcoin is poorly designed, it fails at basic principles of Economics, it wastes tons of power, it continues to cause income inequality…" Cryptocurrency is awesome. There just isn't a well-designed one yet that uses actual, sound economic principles instead of Austrian School ramblings.

AznHisoka 13y ago

Is it me or are all the "has-beens", or unrelevant companies accepting bitcoin nowadays? We had Overstock, who has fallen from its high. We had App.net, who is struggling to be relevant. now TigerDirect. When is Starbucks or Apple going to accept Bitcoin?

tetrep 13y ago
How is TigerDirect a "has-been"? They're a direct competitor to Newegg.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- protomyth 13y ago
  They are actually a tad bit easier to deal with than Newegg for purchase orders. They also have a pretty good group in customer service. We order a lot from them and cdwg.
Karunamon 13y ago
Mm. The companies might have fallen from their high, but they're hardly irrelevant or dead. Overstock is advertised like crazy and has some pretty good deals to boot, Tiger competes directly with Newegg. App is a bit of an outlier there.. Starbucks or Apple? I'd assume the megacorps will take it up once the instability gets smoothed out a bit. Which is a problem of adoption, which means the faster the smaller fish like these adopt it, the faster the bigger ones will. I predict Amazon will take BTC within the next 2-3 years.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  >Tiger competes directly with Newegg Interesting. The site designs always had me thinking they were two sides of the same coin.
  - cgore 13y ago
    I've typically bought computer stuff from Tiger Direct. About half of my computer parts have came from there for about the last 10 years or so. They aren't the absolute cheapest site online, but I've never had any problem with returns or customer service with them, so I keep with them.

ryaneager 13y ago

I find it humorous that Tiger Direct and Newegg are promoting Bitcoin mining with GPUS. The returns from such cards are so small now its not even worth mentioning. Even with a high end GPU you are only making around $0.96 a week. With the card costing $440 it'll take 8 years to make your money back, assuming the difficulty won't increase. Which it will so there is no hope of making a profit.

1qaz2wsx3edc 13y ago
Yes, mining is tricky, risky business, too much so for my blood. But, I think some find ways to ROI. But, you know, a merchant wouldn't stop selling pickaxes during a gold rush, just because the customer isn't profiting. I wouldn't expect online retailers too either.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  Did those merchants ever sell miners toothpicks?
  - columbo 13y ago
    In a manner of speaking yes. Would-be miners were sold all sorts of devices, potions, clothing, divining rods, measurements, maps, and sorting machines that all turned out to be completely unusable when applied in the field.
eudoxus 13y ago
Anyone who is mining with GPUs isnt mining Bitcoin, their mining the various other cryptocurrencies (known as altcoins) that use the scrypt hashing algorithm, Such Litecoin. See here the profitability of scrypt based coins, hint: It's alot http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
13y ago

ryangripp 13y ago

You're going to continue to see major eCommerce players offer bitcoin as a payment option. In the checkout flow it is best practice to offer as many payment options available because it increases the likelihood of a successful conversion. Regardless of whether Andreesse's essay is correct regarding bitcoin two IR100 sites is a pretty big deal for bitcoin.

Benferhat 13y ago
>> In the checkout flow it is best practice to offer as many payment options available because it increases the likelihood of a successful conversion. Are you sure about that? Too many choices sometimes leads to no choice at all. [0] [0] http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...
- yarou 13y ago
  Exactly. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_Ass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_Ass

andrewf 13y ago

Aren't these the guys that tried to sue Apple for a quick buck around the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger? Sorry TigerDirect, I swore off you then.

troymc 13y ago
If I understand trademark law correctly, a company must defend its trademarks or risk losing them. It wasn't about "a quick buck," it was about fulfilling the responsibilities of owning a trademark. It's hardly fair to fault TigerDirect for doing what the law requires of them. In this particular case, a judge had to make a judgement call about whether Apple's new "Tiger" OS trademark was an infringement on TigerDirect's trademark. It could have gone either way. That's why a judge was needed.

lvh 13y ago

Interestingly, TigerDirect appears to be unreachable for me (from Europe): Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.tigerdirect.com/" http://www.tigerdirect.com/" on this server. Reference #18.56bd7a5c.1390506110.4cf7baee

bulibuta 13y ago
Same here. What's up with that?
- aet 13y ago
  Even if they paid you in bitcoins I wouldn't deal with them. Terrible
- lvh 13y ago
  I've confirmed that it works fine when I proxy through Chicago.
SquareWheel 13y ago
In case it's not clear, the quote was a part of the hyperlink and so this link is broken.

kolev 13y ago

Accepting Bitcoin means having a Bitcoin wallet. Period! The more merchants like TigerDirect and Overstock "embrace" Bitcoin, the more bitcoins will be sold at the exchanges and the price will be dragged down further and further. It's funny that just about now hoarders start to realize how negative is this for their empty hope to wake up millionaires one day due to Bitcoin suddenly becoming $10K a piece.

fragsworth 13y ago
That's a pretty limited view of the price dynamics of bitcoin.
- kolev 13y ago
  Maybe you haven't been following the discussions over at Reddit and Bitcoin Forums. Some idiots buy what they spent at Coinbase, which basically is costing them 1% + $0.15 + margin difference in hopes to keep bids and asks in balance. You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here!
  - VexXtreme 13y ago
    >You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here! Says the guy patrolling Reddit, HN and even a few other websites constantly bashing bitcoin and calling its users idiots. People engaging in this kind of behavior usually do it because they feel like they've missed the boat and are trying to resolve their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves it doesn't matter because it's not going to work anyway. If you have no vested interest in bitcoin going either way, why are you spending such an inordinate amount of time participating in the bitcoin community constantly trying to drag it down? What's in it for you? Don't you have anything better to do with your life? For instance, I own no gold so I really couldn't care less where it goes and reeducating misguided gold owners would be the lowest thing on my list of priorities. Serious psychological disorders. Hah.
skriticos2 13y ago
I don't get your logic. Liquidity doesn't change supply. It just makes exchange simpler. A set market price has to be found between the people who want to trade Bitcoins, which will very much be influenced by the supply. Liquidity will help to lessen volatility (fluctuation), but the price point has to be decided by the people who want to own some Bitcoin (traders, spenders and savers). Savers will drive the price upward as long as they save, but that's ok, as long as not too many people decide to liquidate their Bitcoins at the same time. It's the same for lost Bitcoins, the value for the rest of them adjusts to the demand level based on supply.

yalogin 13y ago

Why did not NewEgg jump in yet? I was expecting them to be one of the first.

drcode 13y ago
I'm guessing they'd like to but adding new payment options to a website is a hassle (even when it's bitcoin)

uniclaude 13y ago

I'm going to lose a few karma points for going meta, but I have to point this. When the top comment to a positive bitcoin related news reads like textbook flame war material[1], I feel sad about the current state of HN. We're supposed to discuss, not to pick sides and borderline troll people who are skeptical about some technology. This attitude is downright childish, and will only spawn very predictable and heated debates. You bought or mined bitcoins and believe in them? That's good for you, I have some too, yay. Yet, I'm not starting flame wars and making fun of non-believers. This brings absolutely nothing. Moreover, it might show a negative image of the bitcoin community. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7109970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7109970

gigq 13y ago

Lost in the news that they accept bitcoin is the "Coming Soon" under Butterfly Labs hardware mentioned on that landing page. First I've heard of a mainstream electronics store selling ASIC mining hardware.

markdown 13y ago

Relevant post made in the last hour by Tony Hsieh in his Reddit IAmA: Q: Mr. Hsieh, Are there any plans for Zappos.com to accept bitcoin? A: we've been looking into the possibility but probably not anytime soon! http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vzd35/i_am_tony_hsieh_ceo_of_zapposcom_author_of/cexa357 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vzd35/i_am_tony_hsieh...

mikegreen 13y ago
The world has imploded and all I have are these bitcoins and bullets; I'll buy some shoes!

flycaliguy 13y ago

My long term plan to buy a bitcoin last year for $300 and buy a VR system with it in 5 years is going along smoothly.

vrikis 13y ago

As far as I can see, they aren't indicating what they are doing with their Bitcoin. Accepting Bitcoin is one thing, since as far as I know, all places accepting Bitcoin so far just convert it into their country's currency (e.g. $). Accepting Bitcoin and keeping Bitcoin for further trading is a-whole-nother story, and as far as I know, no one is doing that. Still, great news for cryptocurrencies as there's now a bit more anonymity when buying online! :)