Tips on Buying Bitcoin Miners During a Bull Market
Unless you've been living under a $1.2m jpeg NFT rock lately, Bitcoin is doing very well right now. I thought I'd provide some tips on how to buy miners during a crazy market such as this. Please share this with your friends if you get a chance.
Just as Coinbase has trouble filling orders during bull cycles, we struggle with the same as well, mostly because suppliers run out of stock and run up their prices as well. My life is much easier when BTC is stable and predictable, but who actually wants that?
Here are some tips that can help you get your miner order filled for the price you're expecting to pay and in the timeframe you're expecting:
- The safest, cheapest and most reliable way to get your order filled ASAP is to pay via crypto or bank transfer at checkout on the website. This ensures there will be no holds. Remember, anything crypto related is still very much a taboo item that payment processors don't like working with. Not even Shopify Payments will allow us to sell miners, so we have to use Stripe, even though they hold a 25% of our funds. It's still the best option for CC processing for us.
- Paying via CC is still fine, and it probably won't hold up your order, but all bets are off whenever there is more centralization at play. And when we have to refund CC orders for whatever reason, the processor keeps the full 3-3.5% transaction fee! That's $300-$700 per order gone forever.
- If paying via bank transfer, please try to have things lined up so it arrives same day. Bank transfers almost always arrive same day, if all of the information is correct. The earlier in the day you send it, the better.
- Paying via crypto is 3% cheaper (as is bank transfer) and always our favorite. But we don't like spending our crypto, so we don't blame you if you don't either! Coinbase Commerce makes this very simple at checkout.
- Please be willing to be flexible on the Th/s unit or type of unit you're ordering during markets like this. It's a common occurrence for a supplier to be all out of, say, an 88 Th/s Whatsminer, but still have stock in 90 or 92 Th/s units. We may need to substitute your item if this is the case. If that does happen, we'll compensate you for the difference based on a price per terahash.
- It also helps to be flexible on new vs. used. We find that often the best value is found when buying slightly used units with some of the warranty remaining. They are often priced the same as other used units but are almost new. We only come across these deals occasionally, but we'll list them when we do.
Prices on the site went up around midnight last night, just as I learned they went up for me. I will expect that to be a regular, if not nightly occurrence if things continue this way. Once again, the earlier in the day you order, the better off you'll be. Website prices will always be more up to date than spreadsheet prices.
If you've already ordered, your price is safe and locked to what it was when you ordered. The only exception to this would be a long, drawn out payment delay. We place orders each and every night.
Have fun and be safe out there, folks! Don't forget, we are still so, so early.
What's mined is yours,
Chris