Last night I did something that I haven't done in a long time... I actually bought some Steem! Maybe I didn't quite "load up a truck"... I don't have a lot of disposable cash... so I guess it's more akin to "filling a fanny pack."
The last time I actually purchased some Steem with my own cash was more than a year and a half ago. I was rather fortunate as at the time I was making some purchases, Steem was trading somewhere around .10 to .15 cents in USD. I must admit, that price kind of spoiled me for further purchasing! Cognitively, I can't help but think of anything much higher as "expensive" even though I feel that Steem has a lot more value ahead of it and will gain significantly.
But with Steem falling under the $1 USD mark, it was just enough to nudge me into saying... "That's cheap enough to buy." I also think it's important for those who are able to "put their money where their mouth is" and actually support Steem a bit on the market.
For those who have never tried actually cashing in or out, the intermediaries I've always used are CoinBase and Blocktrades. At various times I've seen both of these entities take a bad rap for fees, unreliability, etc. but my experiences have only ever been positive. I don't think there is a single actor in the crypto space that hasn't faced a barrage of criticism at one time or another!
CoinBase handles the conversion from fiat to one of several cryptocurrencies they trade in, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, etc. Then Blocktrades can make the conversion to Steem deposited in your wallet, without the need to even set up any kind of exchange account. Depositing fiat currency can have a multi day waiting period, but with some liquid funds already in my CoinBase wallet, I simply immediately exchanged the amount of my pending deposit in order to create a more instant experience.
The send from CoinBase through Blocktrades and into my Steem wallet took a little under an hour.
After all was said and done a $100 USD investment translated into 97.393 Steem. At the time, Steem was trading at .97 cents, so my total value received was approximately $94.47. So, between the CoinBase deposit fee, Bitcoin transfer fee, and Blocktrades fee; about 5.5% in fees are taken. Not egregious at all. Possibly I could have shaved a couple percent off that with other means... but sometimes we just pay for convenience!
I may repeat a buy like this in the future, but for now I'm happy knowing that I have a bit more Steem Power working for me, compounding my earnings growth with every activity! Every bit will help me reach my personal goal of 10,000 SP sooner.
If you'd like to know more about exchanging Steem and "real money" there are many fine tutorials out there, but I'll do my best to answer any questions as well, mainly pertaining to US options as I'm quite unfamiliar with the rest of the world! I'd also love to hear everyone else's thoughts on buying Steem and personal SP goals!