How Do Vendors/Customers Balance Fluctuating Bitcoin Rates?

I'm not sure if this is the correct subreddit, but it gets more traffic than noobs and I wanted to opinion source if possible.

With that being said, I'm frugal. I, much like you, enjoy getting a deal ever now and then. I'm trying to anticipate (without much success) the rise and fall of the bitcoin. Here I sit, trying to decide where to jump in like a game of double dutch.

With the coinbase four day waiting process, I've seen the coin jump nearly 100USD in two days earlier last week. If a vendor sets price at 300 USD, does the market adjust that price point to reflect a similarly set price for BTC? I've read through the wiki, I'm just trying to figure out if this is a game I don't really need to play.


Comments


[3 Points] Comp13:

Your bitcoin is worth more but the price is the same


[3 Points] Dram-it-all:

People don't seem to be answering your question directly, so I'll say that the markets will price their goods at the current market rate in BTC. So if you buy $100 in bitcoin, but by the time you get your coins from coinbase they're now worth $200 - hey, free BTC for you ;)


[1 Points] dopelessfopefiend:

Plus if you want to maintain a dollar value worth of BTC before making a purchase, obtain your coins and then sell them at an exhange (such as BTC-E). This way you'll minimize risk due to fluctuations, but the downside is you'll also miss out on growth.


[1 Points] SgtFaecesProcessor:

Depends on the market. I've watched Agora's exchange rate as it changes and it matches bitstamp, refreshes every 5 mins odd. What I tend to do is take a note of the value of the BTC when I purchase my BTC and then make sure I only sell it if the current value is from only a little under the value at purchase, but ideally the same value and more. So what I tend to do for Agora is keep an eye on bitstamp because that refreshes a hell of a lot faster than Agora does and it's easier to notice whether it's trending upwards, downwards, fluctuating or it's relatively steady.

I made two or three orders the other day. I wanted to buy when BTC was worth $630 at least, I think, to get out of it what I paid for it. I noticed it was trending upwards that day and since bitstamp has a Day's range I could see at each passing moment that it was increasing the highest value it had been that day and also that when I started watching the value was probably $615~. I eventually made one purchase when the value was somewhere between $655 and $670. I'm not certain. Whatever happened it kept on increasing until it hit $680. I then wanted to get two more things with the BTC I had left but the problem was that unless it increased to probably $700+ it would be incredibly tight and this meant I had to balance the two purchases in order to be able to afford them both. Luckily I spoke with both of the vendors and they were kind enough to help me out a bit. One had made a custom listing for me because he didn't offer the exact weight I wanted. Fun-gee(on Evo)'s a great vendor. Anyway, I made that purchase because of what had happened earlier in the day suggested I should be able to afford just about perfectly. Done. I then went to make my last purchase and just as I was ready to make that purchase the value fell below the minimum value it had to be in order for me to have more coins in my wallet than I needed for the purchase and the value kept falling. I mentioned this to the vendor as I had been talking to him about a custom order a few days earlier(I wanted to have some of two of his items but in just enough to try out and instead he said buy one and he'd throw in some freebies with the order if I mentioned it when I made the order), anyway he says he'll accept that and sets something up for me and I make the order. The next day the exchange rate would have allowed me to afford the final order anyway but the vendor was nice enough to help me make that order that same day.

So that's one way but it is pure speculation and I would say it's a pretty basic way of predicting how it will trend and when to purchase. The value did increase a lot that day so when I made the first purchase I knew that it was probably getting very close to the max value of the day.

Not certain what Evo is based on, haven't observed the change in rates yet.

In most listings the price is set in a certain currency(often depending on location) on the site and the site converts that value to bitcoins but I know there are some vendors on Agora that set their prices in bitcoin. Which makes them greedy bastards. Their products were already kinda expensive and as the bitcoin rate increases and increases they're paid more and more in their own currency once they convert it back.

Also, if you want to be truly frugal you can also negate the effect of the amount of BTC you lose to tumbling and work it into your minimum buy value figure.