With everything else that Steem is and can do, sometimes I forget it is a functional currency. Well last night I bought 10 pounds of bulk (recycled!) Lego from fellow Steem-ian and curb-recycling legend @steemmatt for the grand sum of 340 Steem. This is by far the largest purchase I have made directly with Steem (without exchanging into another currency).
This all started when I saw a post by awesome Steem-ian @brickmanbrad (who has an online Lego store that accepts Steem payment btw!!!) about how he had purchased Lego from @steemmatt with Steem, to be shipped all the way to Australia from the US! I thought to myself, shoot - I love Lego, I have some liquid Steem, and I am in the US so shipping should be easier. Bim bam boom and a few comment exchanges later, I was chatting with Matt on Discord to finalize a deal.
Why buy with STEEM?
I got a competitive price (there are some 10 pound lots for sale on eBay that are cheaper, but not with so many technic pieces which are more expensive) and didn't have to pay any exchange fees, nor does a cut of the sale go to eBay or Paypal or any other third party. Direct user to user sale on the Steem blockchain!
The more online sellers who accept Steem as a payment, and the more types of items that you can buy directly with Steem, the more utility the token has! Feeless transfers are nothing to sneeze at :)
I want to highlight @steemmatt's recent post putting some other items up for sale for Steem: https://steempeak.com/business/@steemmatt/experimenting-with-selling-recycled-inventory-on-the-steem-blockchain-a-grassroots-win-win-win-at-hand-with-your-help
I can say having just gone through the process of settling on a price and purchasing the items from Matt that he is very easy to work with and wants to make this a win-win. He will give you a competitive price and in all likelihood sell the item cheaper to you here for Steem than he would have sold it for fiat through other channels (or cheaper than you could have bought it for fiat through other channels). If there is something you need that wouldn't be prohibitively expensive to ship through the US, let Matt know and he may be able to find it for you! The guy is a magician at finding and reclaiming good usable stuff. Reuse and recycle - keep this stuff out of the landfill!
I will definitely make an unboxing post when the shipment arrives and I plan on making a freestyle Lego creation with the pieces, so stay tuned and Steem on!