So I just rewrote this entire post.

The “saving draft” feature of Yours.org had not failed me, until today. When I hit “publish”, up popped a message that informed me I was no longer logged in (and two hours of work went down the drain). Maybe this is lucky for you, who may be spared the most gory details of my epic (as in lengthy), and possibly mind-numbing, original lost post.

If you are interested, what follows is an approximation (still probably filled with too many details) of the blog post that describes my experience in setting up a shop as a merchant/user on Open Bazaar…

Seven years ago there was a guy named David who sold alpaca socks for Bitcoin. This was exciting because Bitcoin was being used as a medium of exchange, an important step in becoming a new form of money!

Fast forward to 2018, and you can buy a vast array of products and services with Bitcoin & Bitcoin Cash:

I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and become a Bitcoin Cash merchant by setting up a “Satoshi Doodles” shop on Open Bazaar.

The tl;dr: In my humble estimation, you can make a few sales on Open Bazaar if…

  • your potential customers are very patient and have nerdy skills, or
  • your potential customers are highly motivated to buy grey, dark grey, and very very dark grey market items which are only available on a platform such as OB.

Step 1: Physical goods.

I chose a bunch of doodles to be printed (at the local printers, who do not yet accept Bitcoin Cash, but I planted the seed) and also too many packaging materials, including a whack-load of bubble wrap, for possibly shipping framed art at some point.

Step 2: Procrastinate.

i.e. Indulging in some volunteer spellchecking and editing for the Bitcoin Cash community (acknowledging that this is not a complete sentence). If you’ve received an unsolicited direct message from me on Twitter, with a corrected version of your article or website copy, you are probably not the only victim. I fervently wish for facts about Bitcoin Cash and opinions/ideas/projects from Bitcoin Cash proponents to be taken seriously. One reason that “crypto news” sites are not seen as credible is due to lack of basic proofreading and/or writing skills and/or lack of substantiated facts. Sorry not sorry.

In addition: Recent drama and uncertainty for the future of Bitcoin Cash makes for decreased motivation. Or is that just an excuse? (cough)

Step 3: Download Open Bazaar.

I was a bit confused by the initial choice between 32 bit and 64 bit but was advised by my technical support that for a newer computer, 64 bit was likely:

The rest of this step was a pretty straight-forward process. Creating a profile means you also automatically get a shop. I uploaded my usual avatar and tweaked a header image for “Satoshi Doodles”.

Step 4: Browse Open Bazaar for the current lay of the land.

Peruse some other shops and product listings, read some terms & conditions listed by other merchants for reference.

I have switched off the “adult” content in the menu on the left. The first time I checked out Open Bazaar (some time last year?) I got hit in the face with beavers and kittens (maybe adult content was not yet filtered) which was a bit much in the moment.

Step 5: Create shop and product listings.

Most of this process was good. Although there is no “save draft” function for listings, you can create the first listing of a product type (e.g. “art prints”) and then CLONE and EDIT the title and details for subsequent listings. The shipping options were easier to input than I’d anticipated. From a user perspective, this was the friendlier part of the whole setup.

Step 6: Soft launch and share on social media.

I managed to share a web link for people to browse: https://openbazaar.com/store/QmXFvx9Hjw2EDcNECRQXpSybKVdZRLEHjC4CnJFr6bCCfh

BUT…

Step 7: People try to connect to my shop/node.

“Failed to connect” messages. What am I doing wrong? Does it have something to do with “port forwarding”? Or ???

My very patient first customer spent 15-30-45 minutes messaging back and forth with me, to establish a connection and do some troubleshooting in order to complete a purchase.

One problem (after finally connecting) was the customer was not able to complete a purchase with an error message: “No SKUs Selected”.

After deciding that the problem was due to “variants” of a listing, I edited the product listing to remove variants and the sale went through. The whole process did not meet my expectations from a merchant or customer angle.

The next transaction was successful but there was a discrepancy between the listing price + shipping from the subtotal screen to the actual amount charged (which was correct – the error was on the subtotal screen showing an incorrect amount of $0.00 for shipping). I reported all issues (bugs?) to the OB team and they have kindly replied by email that my feedback has been received.

Step 8: Trying to use the “search” function to find my own shop listings, and connect with other shops.

I asked a few noob questions on the Open Bazaar subreddit and received somewhat helpful answers from other users.

One of my questions was about why I could not find my own products when browsing and using search terms (such as “art prints” for “Bitcoin Cash” shops). I could only find “Satoshi Doodles” with my specific shop ID, but not when searching the Art category. 🙁

I have since tried to connect with other shops to look at product listings and received many “Failure to connect” messages. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG? Is it a matter of time to establish better connections? Is it me? Are these shops not online? Or is it OB?

“Dorothy, we are not in Etsy any more…”

My original blog post had ten steps so I can’t remember what’s missing. In any case, next steps are:

Keep trying, Do stuff and make mistakes, Learn, and Repeat.

Overall, I’d rate:

  • my experience in setting up a shop on OB: 7/10
  • my experience during my first sale/transaction as a merchant on OB: 2/10
  • my experience in making purchases (2 so far) as a user on OB: 8/10

I now know why Etsy charges fees. It is reliable and easy to use (for both shoppers and merchants), and shoppers can easily find your items if you use the appropriate “tags” for searching. It is dummy-proof.

I am also more motivated to set up a stand-alone website for “Satoshi Doodles” and look into reliable crypto payment processors for future sales.

I don’t intend to give up on Open Bazaar yet and am looking forward to developments in this decentralized alternative marketplace.