Unfortunately, we can't make sure mail isn't stolen. Although we insure our shipments against lost or damaged mail, the insurance is between our company and the shipping carrier.  We use different carriers depending on the order. This includes USPS, Fedex and UPS.

Once the products are delivered to the specified address and signed for, we are no longer responsible for the package. You are fully responsible if you have someone else sign for your packages or if you use a drop off location (UPS Store, etc). That is why it is so important to make sure you are receiving mail directly and securely.

If you have any specific questions pertaining to shipping and handling, please do not hesitate to PM or email us. We are more than happy to assist you with any additional questions you may have.

Cheers,

AK Coins

It was a pleasure doing business with you. Look forward to working together again soon. The review is much appreciated!

Cheers,

AK Coins

Please make sure to check out AK Coins. We carry a wide selection of gold, silver, and platinum coins and bullion.

Please visit our website for real-time pricing and to view our selection of precious metals. You can select BTC as your currency at the top right corner of the page. We also have detailed Bitcoin checkout instructions to help walk you through the process.

Please PM or email us with any questions. We are also available by phone during normal business hours.

Best,

AK Coins
www.akcoins.com
support@akcoins.com

The main difference with Bitcoin is that it has high liquidity. You can trade BTC for USD, EUR, etc. 24/7 on multiple exchanges around the world in large volumes.

You cannot readily convert .com domain names into cash and vice versa. At least not in the same manner as BTC.

I found this research paper by some people at UCSD:
A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names

Although most of the info is common knowledge on the forums, I wanted to share for those who may find it useful/interesting. The headline reads like a TechCrunch article, but the main purpose of the study was to determine Bitcoin's level of anonymity and to determine if transactions could be traced. The conclusions are pretty much what we already know on the forums.

- Most transactions that go through an exchange like Gox or Bitinstant usually have some personal identifiers associated with them (whether real or not). These transactions have a higher likelihood of being traced.

- If some authority issued a subpeona on Gox (or any other exchange), they could potentially give out details on many silk road transactions.


I came across the article reading the MIT Technology Review:
Mapping the Bitcoin Economy Could Reveal Users Identities



AK Coins

Thanks for the recommendation! Pleasure doing business with you!

What's the point of them writing a story if they don't want meaningful engagement with readers?

Did they give you any specifics about why they removed your comments?  I bet one of their main advertisers is a big bank...  

Because everybody else does. The Bandwagon effect. And because you have to use it (most people).

Fiat is the only accepted way to pay bills, parking tickets, mortgages, car payments, taxes, etc. This is also most people's only source of income - fiat.  This is all assuming you actually do any of the things previously mentioned.



And more simply stated by my friend's previous post, "because you can buy more shit with USD than bitcoins, common sense."

Hello,

Please visit our website, AK Coins - Online Precious Metals for our selection of silver and other precious metals.

We are relatively new to the forums, but have some additional info here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=278710.0

Best,

AK Coins

Political and economic uncertainty can be a positive factor with regard to the price of Bitcoin. Bitcoin can become desirable when a number of macroeconomic indicators go south. For example, if a government's fiat currency becomes unstable as a result of political issues or economic uncertainty, a more stable alternative may be Bitcoin. Although many people believe that Bitcoin is very volatile for a currency (and it has been in the past), it may prove to be a suitable alternative compared to certain local currencies.

Right now, the Indian rupee is being decimated. Since the beginning of the year, the rupee has declined over 17% against the dollar. Conversely, Bitcoin has gone up over 920% in USD terms (based on the increase from around $13 USD in Jan to $120 today). So in India, where the currency is getting hammered, Bitcoin may continue to serve as a good store of value.

Keep in mind, converting all your local currency into Bitcoin is a terrible idea. I will not get into further detail as this topic has been exhausted on other threads. Investing or converting local fiat into Bitcoin only makes sense as part of a larger overall strategy. For example, if you have plenty of funds in your local currency available, you may be inclined to put a portion of your excess reserves into something like Bitcoin. Again, a small piece of the puzzle.

Yet another sketchy Mt. Gox story...

Already over $120 on Mt Gox. I say it stays rangebound between $120 - $125 on Mt Gox (which I don't really follow or care that much about).

Bitstamp on the other hand, has been hanging around $112 the past few days. It hovered into the $113 range, but I think will remain above $110 for the foreseeable future. There will continue to be support at $110 until the next big move to the upside in the next month or two.

Bitcoin is more important to the government. TAXES are the only thing the government cares about. You can't tax someone's location (although I wouldn't put it past the IRS), but you can most certainly try to tax their Bitcoin transactions.

Sweet! Just voted... even though I don't pay for my Dropbox (and would never put anything important on it).

I am with you 100% on the Mt Gox thing. At AK Coins, an online precious metals store, we use Bitstamp for our BTC exchange rates. Mt. Gox is simply not a realistic rate for merchants to use. You can't exchange USD at the Mt Gox rate, or do it in a reasonable timeframe. Furthermore, they are always having legal and technical issues, so I have stopped using them for pretty much everything.

Unless Mt. Gox spreads tighten to nearly the exact same price as Bitstamp, they will continue to lose market share and become irrelevant.

P.S. Nice arbitrage tool. Tools like this make price discovery better and end up tightening spreads naturally. Good stuff.

This is old news, hence the August 4th date on the linked article. I think the consensus is that Casacius Bitcoins are not really intended to be used as a secure method of storing bitcoin. They are more of a "cool" novelty-type item.

Apparently, changes have been made to the process to make them more secure. Do a search and you will find more on the topic. Again, I don't think Casacius was ever intended to be used as a secure storage method.

We use Bitstamp exchange rates for gold and silver bullion on our Online Precious Metals Site - AK Coins. The feed updates at the top of our page in real time.

We have been doing this for a while.  Mt. Gox is just not a realistic exchange rate for merchants to use.

Higher volumes, better information, and more liquidity leads to smaller spreads between exchanges.

Another factor could be all the people trying to arbitrage the multiple exchanges. All of this leads to tighter spreads. This is generally true for most currencies and securities.

I still think the spreads are still too wide. Maybe better than before, but still huge.

How long is your password? This will have a serious impact on your outcome. This may help determine whether or not it is worth pursuing.

Hey there, thanks for checking back with us. We try to do a search every now and then to see if anyone has questions for us. Sorry we missed you!

There will always be a price difference among dealers, but we always try to keep things competitive. We've made some price reductions on our silver selection. Regarding the silver bullets, we do have them in stock and ready to ship immediately.

Our prices and product selection are change regularly, so please check back for updates and availability.