A Gift from Myself, to Myself Journey # 7.5

Last Saturday, while writing my last long post, I had received a phone call. I was puzzled since my phone doesn't ring that often and I wondered who it was. It was an unknown number that I had no idea who it was. I answered the phone call, and a guy answered,

"Hello, is this Mr. Salazar? Your online order just arrived and I am on the way to deliver it."

Yes! I remembered. A day before Christmas I have decided to have a gift for myself for the successful year crypto has given me. Yes, I just started crypto last 2017, and it gave me a lot of changes in my life and my daily activities. So, I decided to buy something little from my little gains. I have intended my crypto holdings for long term. And I won't be withdrawing for the next two or three years. Or atleast, until something unusual on the crypto ecosystem happens.

During the dawn of December 24th 2017, while watching the prices of BTC and altcoins bleed, I had set leverage positions. I was playing with some gains that I had in selling alts. Out of nowhere, I thought of buying something that I would give to myself. It's the holiday season, why not spend a little to enjoy?

Back in the 10th of December I gave something from a godson. I gave him 0.1 LTC originally, but a community donated and it reached 0.6 LTC. I've talk about it on my last post. So, why not give myself something crypto-related, but this time, not actually crypto?

Having a good remembrance on my 1st year in crypto that won't be lost that easily(e.g. trading losses) was I had thought in my mind. Then, it popped in my mind; "What about something physical, which I could bring everyday, or atleast see it everytime I wanted to?"

And then there, as I was searching on online stores, I saw this gem worth looking at, A 24k gold-plated physical Bitcoin coin worth $15. I never tried purchasing online, and I thought to myself, it would be a good first experience since it's a crypto-related product. I had doubts on it's legitimacy, since it's an online store and I've heard a lot of scams happening on ebay and other online stores. But, I still bought it. 1:00 AM local time, I have completed my purchase. Then, I saw on the email that the package would be delivered by the 6th of January. All I needed to do was wait.

A few moments later, as the BTC price continues to crash, my leverage positions got slowly eaten by the unrealized losses as I convinced myself that there will be a pullback later that dawn. I've set my stop-losses and hedged a short, then went to sleep.

In the morning before Christmas eve comes, I sip my morning coffee and do some little meditation, and as part of my daily routine since crypto, check the market prices of cryptocurrencies on coinmarketcap. As I've seen the bitcoin price go way down to my liquidation price, I rushed to open my BitMEX account and check. I was a little happy since I thought I've made the right decision of hedging a short.

And then boom, my teary eyes see that both my positions got force liquidated. I wondered why. I'm 100% sure I've set a stop-loss(I do physical stop-losses since alarms don't wake me up). I saw the price chart of btc and my short position was liquidated first, and then my long. Why was it that my stop-losses hadn't triggered? Well, I knew the answer. I've set my stop orders in post-only to ensure rebates on fees. If the market goes on your order price, it makes sure that you are not the one executing the order, and if the price goes higher(short) or lower(long) than that of your position without filling your orders, BitMEX would automatically cancel your orders. Therefore, both got dead and lost my whole balance on BitMEX.

After that I forgot about the thing I ordered until the phone call. So, I waited for the delivery guy to arrive and then there he was. carrying a package with my name on it. It was cash-on-delivery and luckily I had some money in my pocket, I was able to pay for it. I technically forgot about it and was unprepared right?

Here goes, the moment I've been waiting. I rushed back inside and carefully opened the package. I gently shake it at first(I don't know why that was the first thought that came into my mind).





I slowly opened the plastic package and saw inside was a small carton box, with some QR code that I never bothered to look into at what it is.





I wondered why the box was a bit big. Is the coin like the size of my palm? I shake the box again and the rustling now is a bit clearer. I believe it won't be that large, or I should've ended up paying a little more than what I paid.





Then inside the box was a paper wrap and carefully opening it, there I saw the little gift a gave myself. And yes it was. A gold plated bitcoin. Phew! I thought I'll receive a plastic one. It was encased in a plastic container.





It was a little bit heavier than I expected. I got what I really expected, and I was happy. Circling on the edges of the coin was written:

Bitcoin. Digital. Decentralized. Peer-to-peer.
1 Troy Oz. 999 Fine Copper. MJB Monetary Metals

I'll be keeping this for storage, and I plan to start collecting from other alt chains. I plan to do this at least once every year. Maybe a physical Steem coin, that would be great! Or one day, a real Casascius coin. For the Filipinos, you can buy this here.