Silk Road forums
Market => Product offers => Topic started by: Pit Boss on May 18, 2012, 02:44 pm
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I am a bit of a Bitcoin speculator, and I am constantly moving through exchanges, so it seems like I could offer cash at somewhat better rates than now posted, but I don't want to take the plunge on a seller account unless there is a market. It's hard for me to judge how frequently cash is currently sold.
Is there much demand for this? Do people want money orders, or is cash better?
Just curious.
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What are your fees like? I'm sure there's a demand, especially if you have lower fees and fast shipping.
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Yea, I may be intrested based on your rates/delivery time factored in with SR rates. Do you have numbers we could work with?
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Well, I would mail really quick, because I imagine no one would buy from me without escrow, and I'd want to cut down the time. As for the rate, I'm no longer sure... I probably don't know enough about the site.
Thinking out loud, there's really a lot of risk on the seller's end. At any moment, the site might disappear, due to a government bust, crackdown on tor, or maybe the operators just get bored/skip out. For these or other reasons, bitcoins could really crash at any moment. Imagine that an earlier adopter finds a wallet with hundreds of thousands of coins and sells until bitcoins are pennies again. I honestly doubt that SR's operators would pony up thousands of dollars to cover hedging if bitcoins dropped by 90% or more.
Or maybe there's a dispute with a seller. How would I protect myself in that situation? I guess there's a lot of things I don't know; new to the site.
But I see offers of $1000 for like 50% markup and immediate finalization. That seems way too high. I bet I could do more like 35%, maybe 50% for $100.
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Blank money orders or cash would be fine.
I've seriously been looking at a service that will do this that isn't outrageously overpriced, or takes a month(GetBitcoin).
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Hi buddy,
I've been looking into offering this service in the UK but frankly there's been a much greater level of interest in people interested in buying Bitcoins for cash rather than the other way around - I'm sure you'll have more joy than me though because being American you have a much larger potential customer base.
If you're selling via SR you're going to have to take into account the sellers' fees when offering cash for sale. Fortunately you can list prices before fees and let the website do the number crunching for you.
I did see there's a vendor on SR named Uglysurfer who sells cash via SR. I still have my notes from when I first started offering my service in the UK a few months ago and as far as I can see his rates were as follows:
10 dollar bill : $14.52 (17% mark up)
20 dollar bill : $23.96 (15.5% mark up)
50 dollar bill : $59.14 (14% mark up)
100 dollar bill : $116.16 (16.16% mark up)
Like you I think he isn't so much interested in profiting from selling Bitcoins so much as getting them at a reasonable rate in order to make investments, particularly when you take into account the SR seller fees.
Speaking of which, in case you don't have them, SR seller fees are as follows:
10% of the first $50
8.5% for amounts from $51 - $150
6% for amounts $151 - $300
3% for amounts of $300 - $500
The commission is banded so if for example you were listing an item for $110 the commission would be $10.10 not $9.35 (10% of the first $50 = $5 plus 8.5% of the remaining $60 = $5.10).
If you need any help, feel free to send me a message. I've been asked to offer this service too but am still trying to get my head around offering customers a competitive rate.
All the best,
V.
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Like you I think he isn't so much interested in profiting from selling Bitcoins so much as getting them at a reasonable rate in order to make investments, particularly when you take into account the SR seller fees.
Yeah. Doesn't look like someone actually converting bitcoins to cash--way too much risk to chase after a thin profit at that rate. Clearly just wanted BTC.
I honestly don't understand the apparently-thriving market for BTC on SR. Anyone can just sign up with an exchange and buy BTC for just a couple percentage points, less than daily volatility, and without crossing your fingers that they don't take off with your MP. Situation is different in Europe, perhaps? Seems to me that getting cash OUT--at least anonymously--is the hard part.
Thanks for the advice. I think I'll watch a bit more before taking the plunge. Might be sampling the market at an unusual point.
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To answer your question I think it has to do with the relative anonymity of various methods to buy BTC.
Europeans can use MtGox too to buy Bitcoins via wire transfer but this is not a particularly safe method to do so as naturally the purchase can be traced through the block chain if someone had access to the exchange's records.
This is why I started offering a cash for Bitcoins service in the UK as I buy Bitcoins to make investments on my clients' behalf anyway so it wouldn't matter if the purchase is traced back to me. As such my customers know for certain the purchase can never be traced back to them.
A small price to pay for peace of mind :-)
V.
Like you I think he isn't so much interested in profiting from selling Bitcoins so much as getting them at a reasonable rate in order to make investments, particularly when you take into account the SR seller fees.
Yeah. Doesn't look like someone actually converting bitcoins to cash--way too much risk to chase after a thin profit at that rate. Clearly just wanted BTC.
I honestly don't understand the apparently-thriving market for BTC on SR. Anyone can just sign up with an exchange and buy BTC for just a couple percentage points, less than daily volatility, and without crossing your fingers that they don't take off with your MP. Situation is different in Europe, perhaps? Seems to me that getting cash OUT--at least anonymously--is the hard part.
Thanks for the advice. I think I'll watch a bit more before taking the plunge. Might be sampling the market at an unusual point.
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That's true, but if you were just a buyer, it seems unlikely that authorities would issue subpoenas to Japan to eventually, maybe, bust folks buying $100 of pot (or maybe I misunderestimate how many bitcoins the average buyer needs?)
But for sellers, how do you get your cash back? Withdrawing thousands of dollars from myriad online payment services, or cashing dozens/hundreds of moneypacks?
If I were a Fed, it would be no contest which behavior I would investigate--it'd be the behavior that looks like generic criminal fraud/smurfing anyway, and which doesn't require involvement by the State Department and a consulting expert in cryptology.
I have no idea how this market works, but trying it imagine how it works, it seems like there should be a market for cash--lots of cash. Maybe most sellers self-finance like this guy? http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/c1d65388fd I cannot imagine sending someone $2000 for market rates without even holding 1 BTC in escrow, but maybe I just don't understand the demand for BTC.
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Pit : Message me on the Road