Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: goblin on July 09, 2013, 01:28 pm
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I wasn't sure I wanted to post this, but decided to. I have had, the last few weeks, a very pronounced decrease in orders and I haven't been able to get to why that is. I mean, my prices are very reasonable, even toward the lower end, while my product is extremely good, and I have a stellar customer satisfaction record, if still a smaller number of total sales than the big guys/girls on the road.
I even have started to offer free shipping, and yet my sales are miserable.
Are many of you people suffering from the same thing? Would it be tied simply to problems buyers have with obtaining bitcoins? If so, SR must be having decresded earnings as well.
goblin
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SR surely hasn t decreased earnings
Fees have almost triple and those new prices just aren t affordable anymore
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I was reading in http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=181513.15 about new commission structures. Are prices then increasing for buyers due to this alone? I wonder if payout to vendors for sales have also been reduced because of a simultaneous increase in those fees as well.
Any vendors care to compare notes?
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I think it is a sum of parameters.
BTC decreasing steadily made people beware of buying them right now (those who buy in bulk mostly), for the same cause it is more difficult to find BTC in many places (for example in localbitcoins there was a huge emptiness of vendors), some inexperienced users seeing an increase in costs but not understanding that's hedging for the BTC value lowering etc. etc.
Things will return normal soon. It may also be a casualty if the thing is not general.
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My customers have been messaging me letting me know that they are having trouble getting bitcoins for a decent price. That is the main reason my sales are down.
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That's interesting. Places like localbitcoin people don't necessarily want to sell in a downturn if it means selling the BTC for significantly less than what they paid or had received them for in a value exchange. Maybe the thought is to wait for BTC to upturn before selling again.
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That's interesting. Places like localbitcoin people don't necessarily want to sell in a downturn if it means selling the BTC for significantly less than what they paid or had received them for in a value exchange. Maybe the thought is to wait for BTC to upturn before selling again.
Multiple customers of mine are waiting on BST to open so they can get coins to place several thousand dollar orders with me. :(
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There seems to be a reluctance to buy BTC because of the costs involved however the price seems to be dropping depending on transaction fee Currently its €57.83 for 1BT
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My sales are up in the last couple of weeks.
Yet to do my books...
BG
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Vendors who operate out of and ship to the US are probably experiencing lower sales lately because of the fact that Bitinstant has taken a shit and there is now no easy way for us to buy BTC. I was leary to start using SR to begin with but now to think about sending Moneypaks to people I don't know and hoping they send me BTC is a little too much. I guess it was fun while it lasted unless Bitinstant comes back.
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Vendors who operate out of and ship to the US are probably experiencing lower sales lately because of the fact that Bitinstant has taken a shit and there is now no easy way for us to buy BTC. I was leary to start using SR to begin with but now to think about sending Moneypaks to people I don't know and hoping they send me BTC is a little too much. I guess it was fun while it lasted unless Bitinstant comes back.
Chill out, the same thing happened here in the UK when Intersango and then Gox bank accounts stopped their services. And we're all still here.
Where there's a will there's a way.
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My customers have been messaging me letting me know that they are having trouble getting bitcoins for a decent price. That is the main reason my sales are down.
THIS! It is becoming a total pain in the ass to buy BTC in bulk. Vendors have a bottom line but so do we re-sellers
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after a couple of months I just noticed it goes up and down, been having an increase in fact lately but now that it's summer in Europe I suppose there will be a decrease.
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Yes ive noticed a huge drop in sales, even tho i have the latest dutch beans and do next day delivery on 90% of my orders
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/user/0319a1315a .
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It's not you guys.
It's the frustration in buying bitcoins currently.
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I guess these last posts make me feel somewhat better, IF things do get ironed out with availavility of BTC, that is.
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I'm getting customers who are struggling to buy bitcoins as well. They're all asking me where to get them, why are they so hard to buy, etc.
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silk road should have more people selling bitcoins or would it be to hard to sell ?
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i was getting mad sales til i went on vacation last week. now my orders have slowed way down but i think its trouble in acquiring coins rather than loss of demand. i know alot of ppl trying to buy mad coins atm and not enough to go around.
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It might be a good idea to add a tip to the end of listings on the best methods of acquiring Bitcoins.
A post i made:
CampBX is the best method for US residents that I've found.
CampBX. You can fund your account via USPS money order (cheapest of the money order options), no cost to process by mailing it to them.
The FAQ says: Cost $1.55 to transfer up to $1,000 ($0.30 if issued by military facilities). It says free on my move USD page.
You can also use Dwolla, but outbound bitcoin transfers will be frozen for 31 days. You can deposit a small amount ($1 minimum) into Dwolla at let it age for 31 days No cost on CampBX's end, at least on my transfer page.
This may vary depending on when you made your account. Maybe things are different for new accounts, I don't know.
It's extremely easy to use and Bitcoin orders usually go through instantly if you buy at the current asking price.
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buku, I have been sharing this with people for months, but I don't know if they heard me.
Maybe they will listen to you.
Only outfit I shop with ever since Mt.Gox and Dwolla gave my stomach a queezy feeling once they wanted to infiltrate my anonymity.
Board, listen to buku. He knows what he speaketh.
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It might be a good idea to add a tip to the end of listings on the best methods of acquiring Bitcoins.
A post i made:
CampBX is the best method for US residents that I've found.
CampBX. You can fund your account via USPS money order (cheapest of the money order options), no cost to process by mailing it to them.
The FAQ says: Cost $1.55 to transfer up to $1,000 ($0.30 if issued by military facilities). It says free on my move USD page.
You can also use Dwolla, but outbound bitcoin transfers will be frozen for 31 days. You can deposit a small amount ($1 minimum) into Dwolla at let it age for 31 days No cost on CampBX's end, at least on my transfer page.
This may vary depending on when you made your account. Maybe things are different for new accounts, I don't know.
It's extremely easy to use and Bitcoin orders usually go through instantly if you buy at the current asking price.
Lets give it a try
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I haven't made a purchase in about a month now... not able to log on to bitinstant since they changed their interface.
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I'm a personal usage amount buyer, and LocalBitcoins is easier than BitInstant was a year ago. It's not just 'local bitcoins' - it may have started that way, but I go straight for the ones who use bank deposit. You fill out the deposit slip, go to the teller, make the deposit. Coins 'chime' in on my wallet App, within minutes.
There are also a few that say on their listing. "For those looking to do larger orders message me".
I'm sure you could also just do multiple deposits as a way to 'break up' the large amount to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Just as you'd ship a bulk order in multiple packages, not one big gorilla cage box! :o
Good Luck all!
We will weather this storm. This too shall pass!
8) Chip 8)
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I think another reason for declining sales as of late has been the lowered value of bitcoins for those who bought them a while back when they were extremely high and don't want to feel like they are losing cash. I know personally I try not to purchase anything when the current price is significantly less than what I paid for them.
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Vendors who operate out of and ship to the US are probably experiencing lower sales lately because of the fact that Bitinstant has taken a shit and there is now no easy way for us to buy BTC. I was leary to start using SR to begin with but now to think about sending Moneypaks to people I don't know and hoping they send me BTC is a little too much. I guess it was fun while it lasted unless Bitinstant comes back.
You can say that again, I just lost all of my money with absolutely no future income of any sort thanks to sending MoneyPaks due to the BitInstant flaws. Life fucking sucks.
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Coinbase now allows instant transfers, but you have to do the following.
Level 1:
Verify Your Email - Click a link in the confirmation email
Link A Bank Account - Link and verify at least one bank account
Verify Your Phone - Enable two-factor authentication and increase your account security
Level 2:
Complete A Purchase - Buy some bitcoin and wait at least 30 days
Verify Your Identity - Identity Verification
For identity verification they'll need your name, address, birthday, and last four digits of your SSN.
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There's also a lot of competition considering if your a cannabis vendor. So many choices, right before the 4th of july holiday had a surge of orders, but has been slowing down afterwards. The bitcoin price as others have said might have an affect on this as well. It should smooth out over time.
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I haven't been buying only because of BTC availability. No Bitinstant, BST doesn't work for me (no BoA), having trouble finding a good bank transfer on localbitcoins (usually limited to 100-200 dollars or phone confirmation and I have been too lazy to do multiple orders). I'll check out CampBX, thanks for the tip.
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it seems strange to me that less people in the US are buying bitcoins, yet the value is rising from $65/btc to $100/btc in the span of 1 week.. sounds fishy.
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On a side note but intimately connected to all this: is it possible to find out if the total volume of orders/money spent on SR has gone down and by how much? It would give a good idea of the state of SR's earnings from commish.
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Yeah sales for me have fallen off the face of this Earth during the last week. I think it has something to do with the btc downturn..next week should be better.
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My sales have dropped dramatically in the last week, and it's due to the jump in commission. I sell gold and cash and my margins are so low that the price increase from the secret commission hike has basically killed my business. I call it secret because I was never told there was an issue until I finally came to the forums to ask about it and saw everyone else protesting.
I just posted 50 in the Newbie section so I could get on here and say this.
I'm so angry right now I can barely keep myself from punching my screen. I have been trying to figure out why my sales have crashed for days. This hasn't happened ever. Not during BTC crashes, even not when SR was being attacked. Orders were still coming in.
Until now, I have refused to sell on any other site, but today all my loyalty to SR just vanished.
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My sales have dropped dramatically in the last week, and it's due to the jump in commission. I sell gold and cash and my margins are so low that the price increase from the secret commission hike has basically killed my business. I call it secret because I was never told there was an issue until I finally came to the forums to ask about it and saw everyone else protesting.
I just posted 50 in the Newbie section so I could get on here and say this.
I'm so angry right now I can barely keep myself from punching my screen. I have been trying to figure out why my sales have crashed for days. This hasn't happened ever. Not during BTC crashes, even not when SR was being attacked. Orders were still coming in.
Until now, I have refused to sell on any other site, but today all my loyalty to SR just vanished.
Don't forget that the downturn in number of sales has probably more to do with the extreme difficulty people are having in securing bitcoins than the commission hikes.
But those hikes have probably taken a great big bite from your bottom line, and everyone else's...
Now about those coins: are we settled that the solution to people being able to acquire them easily and faster will come from them knuckling under and submitting to bitinstant's big brotherish ways? Or maybe from people using CampBx's relatively mild protocol?
Some are saying that the best would be a reviving of Blue Sky Traders. But last I checked their website was completely down, not even a timeout error or anything. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
What is to be done to revive all our sales???
goblin
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My sales have dropped dramatically in the last week, and it's due to the jump in commission. I sell gold and cash and my margins are so low that the price increase from the secret commission hike has basically killed my business. I call it secret because I was never told there was an issue until I finally came to the forums to ask about it and saw everyone else protesting.
I just posted 50 in the Newbie section so I could get on here and say this.
I'm so angry right now I can barely keep myself from punching my screen. I have been trying to figure out why my sales have crashed for days. This hasn't happened ever. Not during BTC crashes, even not when SR was being attacked. Orders were still coming in.
Until now, I have refused to sell on any other site, but today all my loyalty to SR just vanished.
Don't forget that the downturn in number of sales has probably more to do with the extreme difficulty people are having in securing bitcoins than the commission hikes.
But those hikes have probably taken a great big bite from your bottom line, and everyone else's..
That would not have too much to do with his sales. Nobody buys bitcoins to comes to Silk Road to pay higher prices for gold or CASH than you can get elsewhere. They originally had CASH... Why would they convert CASH into bitcoins just to buy more CASH? His main customers are vendors. ;)
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That would not have too much to do with his sales. Nobody buys bitcoins to comes to Silk Road to pay higher prices for gold or CASH than you can get elsewhere. They originally had CASH... Why would they convert CASH into bitcoins just to buy more CASH? His main customers are vendors. ;)
I stand corrected, in HIS case.
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Yes bitcoin frustration...
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Yep, getting bitcoins has become a real bitch in Canada. I either have to put up with Localbitcoin prices or identify myself to Cavirtex. Cavirtex are working hard on a solution- it seems they really understand the value of anonymity in bitcoin trading- and I have faith they'll reach a more adequate solution by August or September. Until then, I must (dare I say it?!) cut down my intake of the Silk Road's gourmet psychedelics.
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Could be lots of folk with small stashes of bitcoins that are now worth half or more of what they bought them for and are holding tight to see if they rise again to recover some of what they lost.
I was watching the price when they were recently at 80 Euro and waited for about a week to see if they would fall like they had done most of that week. I got impatient convincing myself they were at their lowest so jumped in and bought them and belive it or not, it's almost like they waited on me and they dropped that evening by about 10%. After a week or so they started to fall more so I panic bought to stop the bleeding.
I now know to pick an item I want, buy the coins and buy straight away and not see bitcoins as an investment
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My sales have dropped dramatically in the last week, and it's due to the jump in commission. I sell gold and cash and my margins are so low that the price increase from the secret commission hike has basically killed my business. I call it secret because I was never told there was an issue until I finally came to the forums to ask about it and saw everyone else protesting.
I just posted 50 in the Newbie section so I could get on here and say this.
I'm so angry right now I can barely keep myself from punching my screen. I have been trying to figure out why my sales have crashed for days. This hasn't happened ever. Not during BTC crashes, even not when SR was being attacked. Orders were still coming in.
Until now, I have refused to sell on any other site, but today all my loyalty to SR just vanished.
man... I honestly think DPR and SR staff should support vendors such as yourself by giving money vendors such as yourself commission free accounts. Seriously, a move like this will do a shit ton for the community, and encourage more money vendors, with good prices on the road.
Come on Vendors, PM the proper channels and ask for commission free accounts for money and bitcoin vendors.
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Yea it probably is the problems people are having with bit coins. That always was SR's biggest strength and biggest weakness. But have faith I am sure things will get better in the near future. You just have to hang in there.