The Berkbridge Foundation - Questions Regarding Legitimacy 8 8

[James J Johnson]

30 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

ya i don't mean to be snippy or anything, even cgc has newton rings....

suddenly the world feels very circular ...... @kav

 

31 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

ya i don't mean to be snippy or anything, even cgc has newton rings....

suddenly the world feels very circular ...... @kav

Love is like:

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

 

Love is like:

 

 

 

[Catwomancomics]

11 hours ago, Naphtha said:

 

There were two types of price manipulation that I could see. One where the book was listed, sold, and then immediately relisted at the same price using the last sale as bait. The other used two books of the same grade, one BIN and the other auction. The BIN (usually less desirable) would sell ~4-7 days prior to auction end so that last sale would again bait higher bids. I for one think that charitable sales should immediately be cut from GPA. If we are assuming that these books are being sold with either no consequence from a seller's perspective or that the interested buyer's are generally willing to pay more for a good cause, then they should not be used to generate FMV. Any situation in which a higher sale benefits the seller in any other way other than simply validating the price they paid should be exempt. I also don't mean to include situations where the seller is motivated due to health issues or personal reasons. This type of sale doesn't motivate buyers with tax deductions.

 

On the subject of possible price manipulation, all the seller would have to do is mark the book as paid and shipped, even without any real money exchanging hands.  There would be no fees for eBay to collect because of the charity umbrella and then GPA would mark it down once the transaction is completed.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Catwomancomics

[Naphtha]

37 minutes ago, Catwomancomics said:

On the subject of possible price manipulation, all the seller would have to do is mark the book as paid and shipped, even without any real money exchanging hands.  There would be no fees for eBay to collect because of the charity umbrella and then GPA would mark it down once the transaction is completed.

This is what I was explaining in the Mandela thread.

Now imagine someone comes to you, hands you a book and says, "I want it sold at this price." 

You find a couple more in a the same grade and you play it slow....or do it 4 times in a few weeks.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Naphtha

[grebal]

1 hour ago, Catwomancomics said:

On the subject of possible price manipulation, all the seller would have to do is mark the book as paid and shipped, even without any real money exchanging hands.  There would be no fees for eBay to collect because of the charity umbrella and then GPA would mark it down once the transaction is completed.

True. But the feebay rule described up-thread (by icefires) said the "charity" must donate 100% to get 100% credit on FVF and listing fees. 

I may be dumb but don't see an obvious means of profiting, unless a charity also lies to overgradebay about donation % and gets to keep some of the (possibly inflated) sale proceeds.  Unless there is a second (affiliated) seller, a confederate who might be backed by same people, who profits from the supposedly inflated prices when they later sell the same books, that could work.   It's not like the charity itself could keep changing statuses, right?  5% one week, 100% the next?

 

On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 7:47 AM, icefires said:

From Ebay Charity Donation Help & FAQ:

What are the benefits to selling for charity?

Items tend to sell more often and at higher prices because buyers are more willing to purchase items that benefit a nonprofit

Your item will stand out because we add a unique charity ribbon icon to the search view and the full details of the charity donation on the item description

Your item will appear in searches where buyers are specifically looking for items that benefit charity

If the item sells, your listing and final value fees will be discounted by the same percentage that you donated. For example if you donate 25% to charity then you will get a 25% discount on your listing and final value fees. Learn more about eBay for Charity Fee Credit Policy

On Wall St. the practice of fraudulently creating artificial stock prices is illegal, and known as "painting the tape," and involves creating fake buy/sell trades to set a false price.  Same kind of things alleged could be happening here.  But would require a bold district attorney to try to bring a case of market manipulation in comic book trading on bitemebay, although avoiding bad data from corrupting GPA price data would still be worth finding out. 

Wouldn't you suspect that there is already some mechanism in place to test the authenticity of charitable organizations by e.g. buggerbay, in addition to potential of IRS audits etc. to confirm things like the 5% disbursement of total assets rule someone mentioned above?  That's not really the question here, right?

[Catwomancomics]

4 hours ago, grebal said:

True. But the feebay rule described up-thread (by icefires) said the "charity" must donate 100% to get 100% credit on FVF and listing fees. 

I may be dumb but don't see an obvious means of profiting, unless a charity also lies to overgradebay about donation % and gets to keep some of the (possibly inflated) sale proceeds.  Unless there is a second (affiliated) seller, a confederate who might be backed by same people, who profits from the supposedly inflated prices when they later sell the same books, that could work.   It's not like the charity itself could keep changing statuses, right?  5% one week, 100% the next?

 

On Wall St. the practice of fraudulently creating artificial stock prices is illegal, and known as "painting the tape," and involves creating fake buy/sell trades to set a false price.  Same kind of things alleged could be happening here.  But would require a bold district attorney to try to bring a case of market manipulation in comic book trading on bitemebay, although avoiding bad data from corrupting GPA price data would still be worth finding out. 

Wouldn't you suspect that there is already some mechanism in place to test the authenticity of charitable organizations by e.g. buggerbay, in addition to potential of IRS audits etc. to confirm things like the 5% disbursement of total assets rule someone mentioned above?  That's not really the question here, right?

These Berkbridge auctions are set up to donate 100% of the hammer/BIN price to the Berkbridge Foundation.

The questions we are asking here aren’t being answered by Berkbridge Foundation. Instead, they’ve threatened us as a community through litigation as a means to keep us quite. This behavior raises a bigger red flag. Why are they not sharing all the wonderful stories of everyone they’ve helped? Or better yet, do those stories exists?  If so, why hide them? 

 

[namisgr]

31 minutes ago, Catwomancomics said:

Why are they not sharing all the wonderful stories of everyone they’ve helped? Or better yet, do those stories exists?  If so, why hide them? 

 

There don't seem to be any to be found using the Internet.  Possibly reporting bogus transactions to GPA may be the least of their indiscretions.

Edited September 16, 2019 by namisgr

[Naphtha]

6 hours ago, grebal said:

On Wall St. the practice of fraudulently creating artificial stock prices is illegal, and known as "painting the tape," and involves creating fake buy/sell trades to set a false price.  Same kind of things alleged could be happening here.  But would require a bold district attorney to try to bring a case of market manipulation in comic book trading on bitemebay, although avoiding bad data from corrupting GPA price data would still be worth finding out. 

Wouldn't you suspect that there is already some mechanism in place to test the authenticity of charitable organizations by e.g. buggerbay, in addition to potential of IRS audits etc. to confirm things like the 5% disbursement of total assets rule someone mentioned above?  That's not really the question here, right?

I'm going to make an assumption that once registered within ebay, they likely didn't need to worry about resubmitting status. I doubt there are a lot of ebay sellers donating to charities (especially 100% of sales). If there are, I could probably count on one finger the number that were selling the likes of 100K per month. 

[Catwomancomics]

2 minutes ago, Naphtha said:

I'm going to make an assumption that once registered within ebay, they likely didn't need to worry about resubmitting status. I doubt there are a lot of ebay sellers donating to charities (especially 100% of sales). If there are, I could probably count on one finger the number that were selling the likes of 100K per month. 

And only comic books 

[Catwomancomics]

Why would any eBay seller donate 100% of sales to a charity that is currently inactive?

Why would an inactive charity , Berkbridge Foundation as reported by corporationwiki, accept donations from anyone?

[Sweet Lou 14]

5 hours ago, Catwomancomics said:

Why would any eBay seller donate 100% of sales to a charity that is currently inactive?

Why would an inactive charity , Berkbridge Foundation as reported by corporationwiki, accept donations from anyone?

As far as I can tell, the eBay account is representing that it IS the charity, not just that it will donate to the charity.  They are one and the same.

[thehumantorch]

16 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

As far as I can tell, the eBay account is representing that it IS the charity, not just that it will donate to the charity.  They are one and the same.

I think that's reasonable to assume that the seller was set up expressly to sell and direct funds to the charity as they have the same name, I don't see any auctions that don't direct the funds to that charity, and the auction seller is giving 100% of the sale to that charity. 

If the charity is inactive what are they doing with the funds?  Perhaps the bigger question is, how does ebay vet these charities and ensure money is contributed to a legitimate organization?  The only info I can find on ebay is

https://charity.ebay.com/help/seller#selectcharity

"My charity listing was removed. Why?

There are many reasons that a listing might be removed -- see the original email you were sent or contact customer service to find out why. There are two charity-specific reasons that typically apply:

• The charity may ask eBay to remove an item listed on their behalf
• The charity's account has been closed by the PayPal Giving Fund"

[comicwiz]

13 hours ago, grebal said:

True. But the feebay rule described up-thread (by icefires) said the "charity" must donate 100% to get 100% credit on FVF and listing fees. 

I may be dumb but don't see an obvious means of profiting, unless a charity also lies to overgradebay about donation % and gets to keep some of the (possibly inflated) sale proceeds.  Unless there is a second (affiliated) seller, a confederate who might be backed by same people, who profits from the supposedly inflated prices when they later sell the same books, that could work.   It's not like the charity itself could keep changing statuses, right?  5% one week, 100% the next?

 

On Wall St. the practice of fraudulently creating artificial stock prices is illegal, and known as "painting the tape," and involves creating fake buy/sell trades to set a false price.  Same kind of things alleged could be happening here.  But would require a bold district attorney to try to bring a case of market manipulation in comic book trading on bitemebay, although avoiding bad data from corrupting GPA price data would still be worth finding out. 

Wouldn't you suspect that there is already some mechanism in place to test the authenticity of charitable organizations by e.g. buggerbay, in addition to potential of IRS audits etc. to confirm things like the 5% disbursement of total assets rule someone mentioned above?  That's not really the question here, right?

I gave you a trophy just for changing the feebay naming convention on these boards, who seem to be benefiting in some way, shape or form by hyperlinking their site here.  You're the only person I noticed other than myself who I see doing it.

One of the things I really loathe about the new forum software/boards. Stop giving them clickbait traffic.

Edited September 16, 2019 by comicwiz

[Krismusic]

so is anyone able to do anything such as inquire about the charity? Or is there a law that protects them? Do they have to defend themselves or just ignore us on the forums? 

[comicwiz]

The last thing this thread needs is a meta-discussion to further confuse a complicated situation. However, I really feel this is an important talking point to raise. And because I know eBay's monitoring team will pick-up this discussion, here's something I'd like to see happen.

To eBay

Ditch the dumb idea of using CGC to grade from a scan or picture for a fee, and replace it with a useful service like charity navigator to vet charitable listings. I would spend the $5 for a screening from Charity Navigator to find out if the charity has met filing procedures and is compliant. If Charity Navitagor gives it a score card or rating of some sort, it could not only help someone with a decision whether they want to support that charity, but it could also allow eBay to properly vet these charities the moment someone orders that charity to be reviewed.

As you can see after 17 pages, we're still in the dark about a charity that operates on your selling platform, and they haven't done themselves any favours by not posting in a transparent manner. Worse of which, they've been threatening legal action. Maybe it's time to get an impartial third-party involved with vetting these charities, and help restore confidence back to bidders on your auction and selling platform.

Edited September 16, 2019 by comicwiz

[Domo Arigato]

14 minutes ago, Krishosein said:

Do they have to defend themselves or just ignore us on the forums? 

 

It appears they are no longer even bothering to login to the forums.

 

[Krismusic]

1 minute ago, Domo Arigato said:

 

It appears they are no longer even bothering to login to the forums.

 

[namisgr]

26 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

The last thing this thread needs is a meta-discussion to further confuse a complicated situation.

   Whether the Berkbridge Foundation is a legitimate charity making donations to the needy from its sale proceeds was an issue raised in the first post in the thread:

Questions have been raised about how the fund operates, and how funds are dispersed.

Given that the "foundation" is a registered charity in the state of Nevada, it's probably with that state that a concern could be filed that raises questions  about its legitimacy as a charitable organization.  An alternative would be to file a complaint with the IRS.

Edited September 16, 2019 by namisgr

[Naphtha]

1 hour ago, Domo Arigato said:

 

It appears they are no longer even bothering to login to the forums.

 

They likely believe the commotion and apathy of the community will eventually just grow bored and we'll all go back to talking about how sad everyone is that Spiderman's leaving the mcu. What they've truly underestimated is...

Edited September 16, 2019 by Naphtha

[Hollywood1892]

11 minutes ago, Naphtha said:

They likely believe the commotion and apathy of the community will eventually just grow tired and Well all go back to talking about how sad everyone is Spiderman isnt in the mcu anymore. What theyve truly underestimated is...