[JeffJenkins]

If merchants were doing sales and returns using Bitcoin it seems like you could make money on the volatility by returning items when the value of Bitcoins went up within the return window. You'd have to be willing to keep items you bought if the value of Bitcoin went down, but if you systematically made all your regular purchases that way you ought to come out ahead. Is this a real risk for merchants, or am I missing something?

[gavinjoyce]

Merchants could simply return the $ value of the product

[pmorici]

That sounds shady. Unless that was explicitly agreed to before the purchase I don't think that would fly.

[waterlesscloud]

It's pretty much how the merchants that accept bitcoin are handling it right now. It's flying fine.

[pmorici]

No, it's one of the things you have to consider before accepting Bitcoin. Overstock for example gives store credit and is explicitly says up front that is what they are doing. Anyone that tries to refund in USD at the current exchange rate instead of returning the original payment w/o stating upfront that is what they are going to do is being hugely dishonest. Think about it what if you tried to return your laptop to Sony and they said find but we are going to refund your money in JPY instead of USD and o by the way the exchange rate has changed 10% since you bought this so here is a refund for 10% less. No way that would fly so I'm surprised people would think doing the same with Bitcoin would be ok.

[davidrangel]

I believe the larger merchants (e.g., Overstock) may not even be giving refunds right now. When buying with Bitcoin you can only get store credit.

[pmorici]

If that were a profitable scheme then why don't people do it with other currency pairs and goods?

[JeffJenkins]

Generally multiple currencies aren't accepted and the volatility is much lower. You probably couldn't make a profit on normal consumer goods that have a return policy. For this to work you'd need potentially extreme currency changes over the course of a few weeks.

[pmorici]

I don't think accepting multiple currencies is a requirement to do what you are saying. But I think the real answer is that you could do this with other currencies but it isn't profitable and the only reason it looks like a reasonable scheme with BTC is because of the large price movements which as it grows will lessen making this a non-issue if it even is right now.