Silk Road forums

Market => Product offers => Topic started by: phyzome on April 06, 2012, 02:57 am

Title: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: phyzome on April 06, 2012, 02:57 am
How would folks feel about vendors selling completely legal, boring stuff on here? I'm thinking of selling off some random books and such, but I don't know if it would just piss people off. (Why sell on here instead of eBay, you ask? Because Bitcoin is a pretty cool idea!)

Pros:
* Traffic and coins from legal activities will help the SR mixnets
* SR gets more business (does it turn a profit, by the way, or just pay for running costs?)

Cons:
* Market is diluted by things you could buy on eBay, maybe you just want this site to be for things you *can't* get there
* Site growth negatively impacts stability

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: mdmamail on April 06, 2012, 02:59 am
Sure why not. Sell it for like 1BTC.. lot's of people with a little amount of bitcoins left in their accounts and won't bother to cash them out as would cost too much. This is basically how Amazon kindle works, people sell for $0.99 to get all those leftover giftcards and things buyers have in their accounts who go looking to drain it
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: party2nite on April 06, 2012, 03:21 am
I was wondering the same thing...only I dont have a vendor account but I make magnets...all kinds...funny, inspirational, weed, shroomin, alcohol, anything and everything. Its been a hobby for years and my goal for everyone to have one of my magnets on their fridge or file cabinet..whatever.  I usually just give them away and charge a dollar for each additional one but bitcoins would really be cool to earn.  I can custom make them too....but is it really worth the price to set up a vendors account and would anyone even be interested?  the fact that its completely legal too is a plus....I use all my drugs so I never have any to get rid of ;)
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: LucyDiamond on April 06, 2012, 03:30 am
I support this idea, because what wrong with selling legal things as long as there's a demand for them?
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: rise_against on April 06, 2012, 03:52 am
if it takes business away from ebay, i'm all for it.
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: Jaurk on April 06, 2012, 04:27 am
As long as there's demand for it, sure!
I bought PiHKAL from here, (oh wait, that's illegal) but it's interesting.

I mean, if you're going to put up completely useless thigns that no one would be unless they were on drugs  (good chances) then I wouldn't appreciate SR being clogged up with spam.
I put that harshly.

Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: LittlePharma on April 06, 2012, 08:54 am
The more I can buy and sell via SR, the better :)
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: vlad1m1r on April 06, 2012, 09:16 am
An excellent idea my friend, I was wondering myself why more legal products aren't for sale on SR.

I really think we should get more into this as insisting on your right to anonymity in itself is not illegal - however if Bitcoins are only used for illegal activities then mere possession of them could become a crime in itself. People like you (and I!) who offer legal goods or services via Bitcoin could then come forward and demonstrate that Bitcoins also have perfectly legitimate uses.

The example I used the other day was from last week when I wanted to send some money to a relative in another country and found it was far easier and inexpensive to sell some Bitcoins and transfer the funds into his bank account there than use Western Union).

Another advantage that you haven't mentioned below is that if you do want to buy anything on SR, selling goods is a far more anonymous and cost effective way to obtain Bitcoins than using bank transfers etc.

That said there is quite a hefty fee to open a vendor account on SR (I think it's around 50 BTC?) which is pretty high compared to listing an item for sale on eBay/in your local newspaper.
 
Food for thought in any case, many thanks.

V.

How would folks feel about vendors selling completely legal, boring stuff on here? I'm thinking of selling off some random books and such, but I don't know if it would just piss people off. (Why sell on here instead of eBay, you ask? Because Bitcoin is a pretty cool idea!)

Pros:
* Traffic and coins from legal activities will help the SR mixnets
* SR gets more business (does it turn a profit, by the way, or just pay for running costs?)

Cons:
* Market is diluted by things you could buy on eBay, maybe you just want this site to be for things you *can't* get there
* Site growth negatively impacts stability

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: phyzome on April 06, 2012, 01:12 pm
That said there is quite a hefty fee to open a vendor account on SR (I think it's around 50 BTC?) which is pretty high compared to listing an item for sale on eBay/in your local newspaper.

Ouch! Didn't notice that before. If I try to sign up as a seller, though, it shows a ฿30.61 fee. If I had an existing business I'd have to do some calculations, but since I was just going to casually sell off some books I didn't want anymore, that's a non-starter. This fee must be related to the "auctioning off seller accounts" thing I saw in passing somewhere, something about protecting buyers from malicious sellers?

I'll just have to keep my eyes open for stuff to buy, then. Post more books, people!  :D
Title: Re: Selling completely legal goods?
Post by: 16384 on April 06, 2012, 03:55 pm
We need someone selling some nice glassware on here.