Buying Bitcoin: The easiest fast way without huge markup for confused newbies.

[Jackie Moon]

Thank you very much for writing this out. Also, if I may: Did you get locked into the price as of your March 23rd order time? And, did that number appear somewhere in the order process, so that you could confirm that you were getting the market price?

Yeah, when I entered the amount I wanted to purchase it shows the current market price and what the total of my order would be before actually clicking the button to buy. I bought 1.5 BTC at around $64 each so it showed my total as $98.35 which includes their 1% fee and a $0.15 bank fee.

I wanted to spend around $100 so as I tried different times to buy I was able to adjust the amount of BTC until the total came to $100.

I wonder if your problem with Coinbase had anything to do with their (seemingly) weird low daily limit level of $100?

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/34357253898/you-can-now-buy-and-sell-bitcoin-by-connecting-any-u-s

So, if this is correct, we can't even buy one whole Bitcoin from Coinbase in a single transaction.

I don't think they have that $100 personal limit anymore. Right now for new accounts you can buy up to 10 BTC a day, and sell 100 BTC a day. The problem is that they have a site wide limit where they will only process a certain number of purchases from everyone put together within a 24 hour period.

 

[anaconda]

Bitcoins are automatically bought at current market price on MtGox, and forwarded to your wallet.

Sounds like people are getting the market price as of the time their payment is made in store (Walmart, CVS, etc.) on Bitinstant. Can we get a clarification on this?

 

[amonasro]

Sounds like people are getting the market price as of the time their payment is made in store (Walmart, CVS, etc.) on Bitinstant. Can we get a clarification on this?

I believe you are correct.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Well, that's interesting. I know nothing about the silver market. But, is it therefore safe to say it is not a very efficient market? Why not buy it from the lower price offering and sell it to the higher price bid simultaneously? Don't computers do that stuff these days?

Yes, they do. There are entire businesses based on that, and it's not just silver. A lot of things are like that. A good example is the book, "Once A Runner" made in the 1980s about running. Now it's a very popular book among runners and somewhat of a novelty item, but it's only available on Amazon at like $120. My brother-in-law tried an experiment by buying up old copies that shoe stores carry but never actually sold. He would ask them for all of their copies and they would sell them for about $10. He bought several copies from several different shoe stores for the lower price, turned around and sold them on Amazon for $70 apiece, making a nice profit all while beating the competitors' prices handily. In this case, the internet market was much more active for this particular book than it was in shoe stores, so it's really just a matter of finding where the market undervalues and overvalues things and trying to take advantage of it.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

I'm confused. If we use Bitinstant, exactly when is our purchase price locked in? And how do we confirm it was correct?

If you go the moneygram route, then your price is locked in as soon as you go to the store and confirm the payment.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

That's the support I used and was contacted back from some chick named Rachel. Also, that issue with Coinbase about the max must have been my problem cause I was trying to max. I'm only gonna use bitinstant from now on til I'm satisfied with Coinbase's progress. In fact, I went with Coinbase first because they also have wallets but when that didn't work out I had already been planning a contingency as I started to see how fast these puppies were increasing. By the time I heard back from bitinstant support, I was ready to roll with a blockchain wallet and canceled my Coinbase link to checking.

How do you sell your bitcoins with bitinstant? Are there any fees beside the zipzap fees with bitinstant? Because when I went to the store and paid, I paid a total of $657.90 including zipzap fees, but when I got back to my wallet, it said I had 6.57--- bitcoins and they were only worth $600, so I feel like I was missing $50. Any idea what happened there?

 

[anaconda]

If you go the moneygram route, then your price is locked in as soon as you go to the store and confirm the payment.

Do you mean, as in, the big red phone "confirmation?" Before you actually step up to the cashier? Don't suppose there's anyway to know what you paid per BTC until you look in your wallet?

 

[anaconda]

How do you sell your bitcoins with bitinstant? Are there any fees beside the zipzap fees with bitinstant? Because when I went to the store and paid, I paid a total of $657.90 including zipzap fees, but when I got back to my wallet, it said I had 6.57--- bitcoins and they were only worth $600, so I feel like I was missing $50. Any idea what happened there?

I think it shoulda' been 3.99% plus whatever for the moneygram (maybe $3.95??). Which should have come out to about $628.86 in BTC. By my math. This is what troubles me about Bitinstant. Looks like you got $95.72 per coin. Is it possible that this was the market price when your payment cleared?

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Do you mean, as in, the big red phone "confirmation?" Before you actually step up to the cashier? Don't suppose there's anyway to know what you paid per BTC until you look in your wallet?

Right. It's hard to tell. I just use the blue slip, though.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

I think it shoulda' been 3.99% plus whatever for the moneygram (maybe $3.95??). Which should have come out to about $628.86 in BTC. By my math. This is what troubles me about Bitinstant. Looks like you got $95.72 per coin. Is it possible that this was the market price when your payment cleared?

Yes, it's possible. My closest wal mart happens to be 40 miles away so I was out of town when the payment cleared and there could have been a spike. When I left in the morning it looked like it was going to be about 93.5, so it definitely could have changed in the 2 or so hours it took to actually clear the payment.

 

[anaconda]

Right. It's hard to tell. I just use the blue slip, though.

Do you have to fill out ALL of the fields in Bitinstant? I tried leaving my name, age, & email blank but when I pressed send funds nothing seemed to happen. The two tutorials I saw online DO NOT have these extra fields...

 

[anaconda]

Eeee-ghad! $147 tonight.

 

[Crystallas]

So many liberty skeptics tried to help. "Buy in at $1, $5, ect, guys, this thing is for real..." And we got "blah blah, gold this, gold that" and we said, "gold is good, but this is good too, both are good, different purposes, $1 a BTC... pretty cheap, just to be safe, get a few".

And somehow BTC hits $100+ and we're crazy bad guys who "make up BS currencies out of thin air". Give me a break. I couldn't care less from now on about trying to help strangers online that are supposed to be liberty allies.


BTW, this $150 is a pump. Someone made a large transaction the bumped the prices. Possibly to use a tactic that doesn't work with bitcoin, LOL(making a share too pricey for someone to buy in, but bitcoin is trade-able and divisible, so it doesn't matter). It will correct over the week. But it should reach $150+ soon, as BTC is still considerably undervalued.

 

[Romulus]

Question for you guys... I filled out an order when btc was $113 yesterday and printed that order, but have not paid for it.

When I pay for it, am I locked in at the price I ordered, or will I get "current" rates of btc deposited ??

 

[Invi]

Didn't read whole thread, but wasn't there someone wanting to sell a house for Bitcoins? Assuming they had interest, I would think that might play a part in the price fluctuation.

 

[amonasro]

Question for you guys... I filled out an order when btc was $113 yesterday and printed that order, but have not paid for it.

When I pay for it, am I locked in at the price I ordered, or will I get "current" rates of btc deposited ??

When you pay cash at Walmart, cvs, or wherever, your price is locked in then at current market value.

 

[Romulus]

When you pay cash at Walmart, cvs, or wherever, your price is locked in then at current market value.

Thanks.. that is sort of a bummer.. I thought I was creating a contract at a price and had so long to pay.. I can see how that could be cheated though. lol

 

[FSP-Rebel]

When you pay cash at Walmart, cvs, or wherever, your price is locked in then at current market value.

I originally thought that too but some of m latest transactions have led me to believe that your price is locked when you actually "pay the bill." Then again, it says you have 120 hours until the receipt expires so ultimately idk.

 

[dannno]

Question for you guys... I filled out an order when btc was $113 yesterday and printed that order, but have not paid for it.

When I pay for it, am I locked in at the price I ordered, or will I get "current" rates of btc deposited ??

I heard on another thread you get it at the market value when you pay for it.. Coinbase, on the other hand, gives you the current market value and then awaits your bank transaction (2-3 days) and you get it at the value you originally purchased it at.

 

[anaconda]

BTC price seems to go up in the evenings. Is this when every body runs out to CVS or Walmart to pay their Moneygram?