I can confirm :)

Both the minimum order and extra international shipping costs will go away as we move forward. They were unfortunate hurdles we had to place in order to get the site public on schedule.

We're adding the option soon. For now we just wanted to get the site out there so people could see the savings they can receive if they use Bitcoin. Having the prices set in USD helps consumers compare across sites much easier.

Products vary in pricing. We don't undercut them on every product, but the fact that we're able to undercut them severely on a good percentage of our products is amazing!

The advantage to using Bitcoin is that there are no payment processing fees. What we're able to cut with BitcoinStore is that 1-10% fee that Visa, PayPal, et al. charge especially when dealing with products that have a high chargeback risks. So the products that sell best when using Bitcoin have high chargeback risks associated with them.

How do you fill the gap for me, the consumer, of not having chargebacks available? Chargebacks are a net plus for me.

This is usually filled by escrow services which I'm not sure this website has implemented. Even Silk Road has implemented this, so it's a deal-breaker for me.

Silk Road has implemented this because it is a market between sellers and buyers. BitcoinStore is a company selling stuff, having escrow would have no point at all.

How does the fact that it's a company instead of an individual change the picture at all? In both cases, escrow serves the same purpose: to safeguard against getting ripped off.

Assuming bitcoinstore hasn't ripped off their previous N customers, I'm fairly confident being purchaser N+1, especially if my transaction isn't "special" in any way.

They would have a lot to lose by ripping off customers, vs. a random seller on silkroad, so I'd feel comfortable up to a few thousand dollars.

I think I've actually bought something from Memorydealers before. I'm not sure of the relationship between bitcoinstore and Memorydealers. If they're the same entity, then I'd be fine up to $100k or so -- it's a real business.

That makes escrow less likely to be useful, but the chance doesn't go to zero, so it hardly has "no point at all".

Escrow has its own risk and cost. The hilarious thing with previous online currencies (E-Gold, OSGold, Pecunix, ...) was that the escrow providers themselves were often the weak link.

Well sure, but it's still useful, just not something you might automatically want.

My credit card issuer effectively acts as an escrow agent, and I love that fact when ordering from companies. It has saved me more than once, too.

High chargeback risk makes sense; the 1-3% fee otherwise doesn't really make a business, given how widespread credit cards are, etc., IMO.

So, selling prepaid cards online would be a particular niche, maybe, or other things which are cash-equivalent.

For the 1-3% fee businesses, it does actually make sense. Especially with really low-margin sites. Think of your local grocery store offering a cash discount because of credit card fees, those businesses really do exist on the margin.