Those of us with substantial holdings will not deplete them by buying stuff at a low exchange rate. We didn't get where we are by buying high and spending low, so price needs to go up gradually and then we'll share with merchants. Overstock bitcoin sales went down because the exchange rate went down. If it goes up, more bitcoiners will buy stuff there and then more merchants will jump on board.
If Overstock sales went down it's because the initial rush of bitcoin buyers has passed.
And anyone with substantial holdings of BTC almost certainly acquired it more than a few months ago (ie when BTC was < $150). In the context of the gains made, the exchange rate has barely moved.
I started buying when it was less than $10/BTC and I still am going to wait. You seem to think it was easy money. It wasn't. Everybody was screaming at us to sell when it jumped to $50, $100, $200, etc. We held. and we held through the crashes too. Easy money spends easy. Hard money is hard to part with.
I was around the time when bitcoin was $32 and $2.
s. I like to think back at when I mined an average of 3 coins with my 5770 in a week and I thought that was slow. I hold a good amount of Bitcoins from when it was $2-$20 and
. Back then I was actually willing to spend my coins to buy things. I still have my DDR2 memory that cost 10BTC and thinking about how much I would have if I held on to them till now.