Frequently Asked Questions

CoinMad is an alternative and revolutionary way to make deals through the internet! You can either 'Insert Coin', 'Grab Coin' or both!

Through 'Insert Coin', you may virtually offer amounts of money, in order to have the opportunity to accept offers by other users, that wish to take this amount in return. These amounts will be mentioned as 'Coins' and the procedure “Insert Coin”.

Through 'Grab Coin', you can make offers on amounts of money, known on CoinMad as “Coins”, in order to make a deal and get the money!

Unlike most internet trading websites, CoinMad is totally cost free! You can become a member, just by having a valid email account. It's fast and it only takes two minutes to start using all its features!

Absolutety NOT! By using the 'Insert Coin' feature, all you do is declare a certain amount of money you are willing to spare and you only submit it virtually, in order to test what kind of offers it can attract. The only case that you will actually pay the amount you 'Inserted', will be, if you find something of interest and make a deal.

This is the magic part of CoinMad! Instead of directly replying to your question, here's an example...

Let's assume you have 30 USD in your pocket to spare. So imagine to be given the opportunity to ask five of your friends what they would offer you in exchange of your money. Each one of them would most likely give you a different answer. One possibility would be to be offered something you are not interested in. But on the other hand, you could be offered something you wouldn't have even imagined and could be a perfect find for your money.

In this example we used five of your friends. So the possibility to find something of interest is quite low. Now imagine what offers you could receive, if you had the opportunity to offer the same amount of money to your whole neighborhood or even further to your whole town, or your country! With CoinMad, this opportunity is extended to the maximum, as you now have the chance to get offers from all over the world!!

CoinMad comes to prove that no amount of money is too low to get you anything! It will give your money a new dynamic and will help you acquire items or get access to services that you've never thought of before!

Currently CoinMad does not permit insertion of 'Coins' less than 1 (euro, usd, U.K. pound) or more than 5000 (euro, usd, U.K. pound).

Each 'Coin' is available for a period of 30 days, during which you may receive offers.

This is where CoinMad shows its 'teeth'! Most people tend to think that they can only be offered certain items in return for their money. But here's the proof of how this can be totally wrong:

With the internet revolution, you can send to other persons from all over the world, digital photos, digital files, music files, artwork, documents etc (as long as they don't violate any copyright issues). For example, in order to get your 1 Euro, someone from another country could offer you in exchange, his personal photo collection of landscapes and pay no money for transport costs, by simply emailing them to you!

So with the internet coming in discussion, there are inumerable things you could be offered. Just let your money do all the work for you!!

Definitely NOT! By 'Inserting' a certain amount of money, this is ALL the money you will have to pay in the end if you accept the deal. That's why the user who is offering you something for your money, will have to keep in mind that any additional charges, such as shipping and handling costs etc, have to be covered by them. In a few words, your inserted "Coin" is all inclusive and this saves you from the strain of having to think anything, unlike most classic buy and sell websites.

In case you are viewing an offer that is submitted to another user's 'Coin', you might want to contact the user that is making the offer because it may have all the standards you need for your own 'Coin'! So the reason for contacting them would be to draw their attention to one of your 'Coins', in order to accomplish a deal.

You also have the opportunity to contact a user who makes an offer to one of your 'Coins', because you might have some questions regarding their offer. All the offers should be described in detail, but something may not be clear enough or missing.

- First of all, before you agree on a deal, you have to read carefully the description and the options of the offer. Before commiting to accepting the offer, please make sure you have asked all the necessary questions.

- You should always prefer offers by users with a good feedback status. Don't forget to read the comments other users have made, regarding their deals with that user.

- Sometimes you will need to hurry up, in order to make a succesful deal! If an offer is really special and is also offered to other 'Coins', another user might be faster than you and accept to get it! In this case, this offer won’t be available for you anymore.

- A user who has become 'Verified' (a 'Verified' user can be recognized by the 'V' sign next to their userID), is definitely more trustworthy to make deals with.

- You should always prefer secure ways of payment, such as PayPal. Sending cash by letter or making bank wire transfers to unknown accounts, could be risky.

- Always be suspicious of users that contact you in order to accomplish a deal out of CoinMad’s environment. CoinMad has setup a step by step procedure, which should be followed precisely, in order to obtain maximum safety.

For more details visit our HELP section.

It is possible to make the same offer to more than one 'Coin', but keep in mind that if a user accepts your offer, immediately it is no longer available to all the other 'Coins'.

You are free to offer almost everything, as long as it does not violate our 'Terms of Use'.

The most viewed offers are placed in the 'Cool Offers' section. In order to gain more views and increase your chances of having your offer featured there, you should always make sure that your Offer should be well-describedl and accompanied by clear picture(s) and a cool, attractive title.

Offers that come by users with a good feedback status and smart/unusual ones, will also have additional chances to be presented in this field.

Making succesful deals at CoinMad, through the 'Grab Coin' feature, has to do both with luck and careful observation. You can either offer your item randomly or you may have a hint of what the other users want by reading the comments on their 'Coins' and by browsing their profile (buying interests on the internet, favorites & interests).

a) As long as your offer is not accepted by a user,

b) Upon creating an offer you have to keep in mind that it can stay active in our database for no more than 45 days. After this period is over, your offer will be removed automatically from all the 'Coins' you attempted to 'Grab' and has to be created again through the 'Grab Coin' procedure.

No there is not a limit. You can make as many different offers as you like. The more the offers, the more your chances will be for a successful deal.

You have the opportunity to contact a user who has an active 'Coin', because you might have some questions to make, regarding the 'Coin' offer.

For example, you might want to know an extra hint about what they are most likely to accept, before you commit to make them an offer.

Well, one obvious answer would simply be: because you earn money! But the advantage of 'Grab Coin' is more than that! It gives you the opportunity to sell stuff you don't need but maybe is useful to other people. So if you have e.g. one warehouse full of stuff you don't need, you may offer them to various 'Coins' and see what you can get!

Furthermore, CoinMad creates a new dynamic for sellers, as they get in touch with other users/consumers who are already willing to spare their money for something.

CoinMad is not blocking these offers. You may try to test your luck, but keep in mind that you always have to be ready to accomplish the deal! It's not proper to make offers to any 'Coins', without reading the other user's 'Coin' preferences. If this user decides to make the deal with you, you may not be able to complete this deal for various reasons. This may result to negative feedback from the other user or various penalties by CoinMad.

- First of all, before you make an offer to someone, you have to read carefully the 'Coin' preferences, the comments and the user's profile info (buying interests on the internet, favorites & interests).

- One of the most important things you have to keep in mind when you attempt to 'Grab' a user's 'Coin', is that if this user accepts your offer, they will pay strictly the amount they 'Inserted'. You will be charged with all incurring fees, such as money transfer fees and delivery fees. Let's use an example :

A user 'Inserts' a 'Coin' of 100 Euro. The indicated as preferred way of payment is PayPal. You are offering to this Coin a CD-player. You have also indicated that you can send the CD-player via a courier company. So the total amount you will get in the end would NOT be 100 Euro, but 100 Euro, minus PayPal fees (let's suppose it would be 8 euro), minus the courier company's costs to make the shipping (let's suppose it would be 24 euro) = 68 euro. So it's better for you to calculate all the extra expenses in advance, when you attempt to 'Grab' someone's 'Coin'.

- Before making someone an offer, just make sure you have asked all the necessary questions.

- You should always prefer to make offers to users with a good feedback status. Don't forget to read the comments other users have made, regarding their deals with this certain CoinMad user.

- A user who has become 'Verified' (a 'Verified' user can be recognized by the 'V' sign next to his userID), is definitely more trustworthy to make deals with.

- Always be suspicious of users that contact you in order to accomplish a deal out of CoinMad's environment. CoinMad has setup a step by step procedure, which should be followed precisely, in order to obtain maximum safety.

For more details visit our HELP section.

YES! If you are a merchant, then you are totally lucky if you participate in Coinmad!

For the moment, we are providing the following for FREE:
- Free banner (468x60 at the bottom and/or 120x240, 125x125 on the left)
- Free import of your products into our database. You have to provide an XML or CSV file to do so!

It's simple. You sign-up as a regular member. Then you have to contact us in order to provide us with your banner and the import file of your offers!

You have to send us an XML or CSV file with your products and the team of Coinmad will import the offers in a timely manner.

Template files:

• XML (default)

The XML file should have the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<STOREITEMS>
 
 <PRODUCT ITEM=" . . . ">
  <NAME> . . . </NAME>
  <DESCRIPTION> . . . </DESCRIPTION>
  <PRICE> . . . </PRICE>
  <MODEL> . . . </MODEL>
  <MANUFACTURER> . . . </MANUFACTURER>
  <MANUFACTURER_ID> . . . </MANUFACTURER_ID>
  <CATEGORY> . . . </CATEGORY>
  <CATEGORY_ID> . . . </CATEGORY_ID>
  <IMAGE_URL> . . . </IMAGE_URL>
  <URL> . . . </URL>
  <ADDED> . . . </ADDED>
  <MODIFIED> . . . </MODIFIED>
  <AVAILABLE> . . . </AVAILABLE>
 </PRODUCT>
 
 .
 .
 .
 .
 
</STOREITEMS>

The required field is only the NAME. If your items contain prices, then we will be able to automatically suggest your offers to coins.

This file should be produced by your online shop automatically. Your technical staff would be able to produce such a file.

The CSV should contain all values in double quotes (") and should NOT contain new (break) lines. Only the last character of each row should contain the new line to separate the items. The double quotes should be escaped with a slash or better changed with single quotes.

Each row should contain the following fields:
PRODUCT ITEM, NAME, DESCRIPTION, PRICE, MODEL, MANUFACTURER, MANUFACTURER_ID, CATEGORY, CATEGORY_ID, IMAGE_URL, URL, ADDED, MODIFIED, AVAILABLE

If you do not understand the above, you can send us an Excel file and we will make it work for you :)

- PRODUCT ITEM : The unique id of your product in your system (online store, website etc.)
- NAME : The title of your offer
- DESCRIPTION : The description. Any html code will be removed.
- PRICE : The price of your offer.
- MODEL : That would be the SKU code or another code to identify your product.
- MANUFACTURER : The name of the manufacturer. Currently not used.
- MANUFACTURER_ID : The internal id Currently not used.
- CATEGORY : Currently not used.
- CATEGORY_ID : Currently not used.
- IMAGE_URL : The full url to a thumbnail of each product.
- URL : The full url of your product as it appears in your site. Currently not used.
- ADDED : The date that your product was added in your site. Currently not used.
- MODIFIED : The date that your product was modified in your site. Currently not used.
- AVAILABLE : The date that your product is available in your site. Currently not used.

There is no problem if any of the above fields is missing. Currently, the only required is the name of your offer. But, your offer would be more attractive if it contains a small description, a photo and the price!