so, still no takers on the gold/silver thing?
i am imagining it like that:
miners would register a bitcoin adress related to an account on my site.
they could chose the product they'd like to accumulate (choices may include 1g gold bars, krugerrands, 1g silver bars, 1oz silver coins... whatever).
so every time the actual factual price of the product is reached, the system buys one for them.
if they would like to have their stuff shipped, the just tell the system and the moment the calculated postage is reached, voila, stuff is sent on its way.
is that kinda how you wanted it to work out?
I'm interested but how much would the shipping be for the 100x1g silver bars to canada from your location?
And of course it will be couple years before I can pay for it at these rates too ;(
Shipping would be 8,50.
I imagine that, if I were to be slush-distributor for continental Europe, I could shop at better prices (due to the amount) and shave a little off the top. I'd have to really calculate that thoroughly.
A mining pool considering offering silver as a payout method? Let me know if you need a North American supplier/distributor slush.
That would make sense, all in all. Not only regarding shipping costs, but also because in the EU, silver coins and bars are subject to VAT (19% on bars, 7% on coins on average).
Thus, for European miners, it would only make sense to go for gold bars/coins or (at the most) for silver coins.
One would also have to take into account the frequency of payouts... sending one coin every month or sending 10 once a year makes a difference on the shipping! I try to keep shipping as reasonable as I can - but I guess it makes more sense to bundle items.
Seeing that pricewiese, bitcoinmint.US and I am not that far apart, I am even able to beat him for coins in quantities >3 (thats without insurance, however)