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How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

whatilearnedtoday.jameslarisch.com

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Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#41

Post by Helianthus »

>I have never traded stocks. I have never taken an economics course. I have never aspired to be someone who trades money for money.

This is how someone becomes greedy.

>As an advocate of privacy, Bitcoin intrigued me at a fundamental level. Trying to make money was (hopefully) merely a side effect.

Just a side effect!

>I would be scraping maybe $5-10 every BTC, and I would have to wait weeks to see the money. I also had little capital. My interest faltered.

Wow, what an academic undertaking!

But wait, he goes full casino.

>No way. Too good to be true. I know what you're thinking, there's no such thing as a free lunch, PayPal is an insecure way of trading BTC, etc. I wasn't really thinking at the time.

As far as I'm concerned anyone who is into Bitcoin has no right to be angry at Wall Street, because they get sucked into the same damn game.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#42

Post by rickyc091 »

cheeyoonlee wrote: post #33

I've learned in the past the only way to prevent and win 100% of Paypal disputes as a seller is to actually send something physical to the buyer's verified address. Besides, it's against eBay policy to sell digitally (delivering by email). You can print out a physical address for the BTC amount you're selling and send it by snail mail in addition to emailing. At least then, you'd have physical proof of shipment and c…

That's actually false. The buyer can still file a claim and just say the item was inaccurate. Paypal will side 100% with the buyer no matter what the case is. I had a case where I sold a tablet to someone and five days after she received the item, she complained to me that the device didn't turn on until she plugged in the charger. Then she stated that the power drained really quickly and she had to plug it in again to turn it on. I basically responded by telling her that the device probably ran out of batteries on the way there and she needed to charge it boot it up. There was nothing faulty with the device. My guess is she just drained the batteries too quickly or left a power hungry app on. Regardless, I gave her the option for a full refund. I didn't hear anything from her for two weeks. Paypal had already done a chargeback since day 1 when she filed a claim. I couldn't find any contact emails on eBay or Paypal's end... I escalated the claim to eBay. Guess what? They sided with the buyer and gave her two extra weeks to return the item to me for a full refund, shipping covered by ME. At the end, she never did send it back because I guess she realized it was a user error, but oh how I love eBay/Paypal.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#43

Post by dysruption »

Helianthus wrote: post #41

>I have never traded stocks. I have never taken an economics course. I have never aspired to be someone who trades money for money. This is how someone becomes greedy. >As an advocate of privacy, Bitcoin intrigued me at a fundamental level. Trying to make money was (hopefully) merely a side effect. Just a side effect! >I would be scraping maybe $5-10 every BTC, and I would have to wait weeks to see the money. I also…

I am not angry at anyone, in fact I understand why somebody can get sucked into the "game". You're right, my intentions ended up being not-so-pure. A good lesson!

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#44

Post by petera »

Frozenlock wrote: post #24
consonants wrote: post #15

My favorite part is his earnest naivety in somehow thinking he wasn't the mark and in believing that Paypal would ever side on his behalf. This just further confirms my suspicions that you have to be retarded to get involved with bitcoin. No group of people is so easily and quickly persuaded into losing their money, and so readily eager to repeat said behavior over and over again, than bitcoiners.

Yeah, who would believe that Paypal would side with a seller which has a proof of delivery in what is probably the most secure database in the world. Sheeesh.

Its no delivery, its a transaction.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#45

Post by santoshalper »

Helianthus wrote: post #41

>I have never traded stocks. I have never taken an economics course. I have never aspired to be someone who trades money for money. This is how someone becomes greedy. >As an advocate of privacy, Bitcoin intrigued me at a fundamental level. Trying to make money was (hopefully) merely a side effect. Just a side effect! >I would be scraping maybe $5-10 every BTC, and I would have to wait weeks to see the money. I also…

I don't see any reason to get holier than thou. He is pretty clear he hoped to make a quick buck and got burned. I thought it was admirable that he is willing to post so openly about it. Most people would be embarrassed and not want to talk about it.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#46

Post by dsterry »

mthoms wrote: post #19

Ironically if you had sent it through the post on a USB key you'd be in the clear. Kinda takes the point out of bitcoin though doesn't it?

Shipping the USB key isn't 100% fraud-proof.

If you think the point of Bitcoin/Litecoin is being able to transact with it quickly and easily over eBay, you might want to look into the other things you can do with these new currencies.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#47

Post by misterjangles »

noonespecial wrote: post #2

Ebay absolutely lacks the seller protection to ever make this kind of transaction. If I purposely tried to design a market that supported this kind of fraud, (even encouraged it, in a nurturing "please do this" sort of way). I couldn't do better.

eBay at one time was dealing with a lot of seller fraud with sellers that didn't ship, shipped you a rock instead of a laptop, etc. over the years they started adding more and more buyer protection to keep shoppers from being scared away. Unfortunately they tipped the scales so greatly that now, as a seller, you can very easily be scammed. The scammers have simply moved to the other side now and commit their scams as buyers.

It must work out better for eBay that way. But it sucks to sell anything of high value.

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#48

Post by cheeyoonlee »

rickyc091 wrote: post #42
cheeyoonlee wrote: post #33

I've learned in the past the only way to prevent and win 100% of Paypal disputes as a seller is to actually send something physical to the buyer's verified address. Besides, it's against eBay policy to sell digitally (delivering by email). You can print out a physical address for the BTC amount you're selling and send it by snail mail in addition to emailing. At least then, you'd have physical proof of shipment and c…

That's actually false. The buyer can still file a claim and just say the item was inaccurate. Paypal will side 100% with the buyer no matter what the case is. I had a case where I sold a tablet to someone and five days after she received the item, she complained to me that the device didn't turn on until she plugged in the charger. Then she stated that the power drained really quickly and she had to plug it in again…

I guess it wasn't totally clear but I was referring specifically to digital/virtual items since they're often sold as is, not applicable of defects or "item not as described".

Re: How Not to Sell Bitcoin on eBay for 300% Profit

#49

Post by larsonf »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #31

Venue (space) arbitrage in illiquid, disconnected markets necessitates holding collateral at each venue. In this case, it means holding USD and BTC at both Coinbase and MtGox (presuming you don't know, in advance, which way the arbitrage will open up). If one can fund accounts instantly USD and BTC can be held in outside accounts, waiting. When opportunity arises one simultaneously sells in one location and buys in t…

Technically, sure. But 'arbitrage' today is interpreted broadly--more along the lines of buying basically the same thing and making the difference at some point in the future. Like stat arbitrage. Merger arbitrage. Capital structure arbitrage. There is an amount of non-simulataneaity in all of these. Buy two of what ought to be the same price, but are not for some reason, and wait. Sameness and waiting. I mean, shoot, in stat arb the entire thing is based on such a murky idea of sameness that two products/instruments/securities might not actually even be the same thing and may never converge. So point being, in the vernacular, yes, 100% what the author is talking about is in fact 'arbitrage.'
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