Bustling sale of Bitcoin coins as Tet lucky money
Thinking that souvenir Bitcoins are the "trend" for lucky money this year, online shops have been importing them en masse and are selling them for about 80,000 VND per coin.
Mr. Long (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) has been selling souvenir Bitcoin coins for two months via Facebook. He sells about a dozen coins per week. He said that customers are currently relatively sparse. Each person buys an average of 2 coins. However, he is expecting that business will improve closer to Lunar New Year.
The souvenir Bitcoin coins that Mr. Long sells are made of metal, 40mm in diameter, 3mm thick, and weigh about 28g. The coins have eye-catching gold and silver colors and are embossed with the Bitcoin virtual currency symbol. Each coin also has a clear plastic shell on the outside to prevent scratches.
In the past few months, online traders have been selling these coins mainly to Bitcoin investors as souvenirs. The retail price of one coin is commonly around 80,000 VND. Buying two or three coins, customers get discounts of 150,000 VND and 200,000 VND respectively.
“I buy wholesale from online wholesale shops every day, so I don’t need to stock up much because there is no shortage of goods. I buy as much as I need to sell. I hope this Tet holiday will sell better because people buy to give each other lucky money,” said Mr. Long.
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Photo of an advertisement for Bitcoin coins for sale at a store on Facebook. |
Long’s Bitcoin coin shop is less bustling partly because this market is quite competitive. The number of stores on Facebook advertising for sale is mushrooming and advertising it as a new option for lucky money during Tet.
Mr. Hai, the owner of a Bitcoin coin shop in District 7, has been continuously running Facebook ads for this product since the end of December 2017. He even livestreams to attract customers and applies a free shipping policy in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, for customers who buy 1,000 coins or more, he will support stamping the name, logo or any information the customer wants on the coin.
“I just spent money on advertising in the hope of attracting customers during the upcoming Tet holiday. This coin is also psychologically affected by real Bitcoin. Recently, the price of Bitcoin has decreased and stayed low, so people are not very excited. If Bitcoin increases near Tet, these coins will be ‘hot’,” Mr. Hai commented.
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Bitcoin coins are for sale on eBay and AliExpress. |
On foreign e-commerce sites, this type of Bitcoin souvenir coin is quite popular. On Amazon, each coin is sold for about 2.8 USD. Meanwhile, on eBay, many stores only post prices of less than 1.7 USD per coin. Even on AliExpress, each coin is only priced at about 1.1 - 1.2 USD.
Ms. Thuy Van, a wholesaler specializing in hand-carried goods, said that if she buys 100 coins or more at a time, she will only charge 27,000 VND per coin. Although there are many small shops that buy goods and actively advertise them online, she cannot guarantee that this product will be successful during the upcoming Tet holiday.
“If you want to be sure of selling well, you should choose to sell products like gold-plated USD bills or gold-plated playing cards. These products are not new, they are available every year, but they are easier to sell,” Ms. Van advised.
Even though they are still working hard to sell, some shops are starting to show signs of worry.Hai Khanh, a seller in Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong for 1.5 months now, said,Bitcoin is still selling well, but the situation may not be optimistic by Lunar New Year.
"There is a lot of information about tightening activities related to Bitcoin. These coins are not real Bitcoins but they are also affected psychologically, because people are less interested in this virtual currency. Bitcoin prices cannot increase again while other virtual currencies are increasing well," said Hai Khanh.
