The Berkbridge Foundation - Questions Regarding Legitimacy 8 8

[James J Johnson]

19 hours 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.

That much is true. A 100% all proceeds to charity ebay auction is the perfect way to manipulate the market. A seller doesn't need to cancel the sale to his shill winner to recoup the fees because there aren't any fees. There are far more ways to manipulate and exploit the market operating 100% charitable auctions that I can think of. I just don't want to give anyone bright ideas that haven't thought of it already, which is likely anyway.

Edited September 16, 2019 by James J Johnson

[Buzzetta]

12 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?

Because it might be a sham? 

[James J Johnson]

Berkbridge busted their cherry. First negative of the 12 month period (unless there were other negatives removed by ebay, as I'm sure this one will be very soon). .

	Was quoted $69 less than what I paid. Hostile attitude - negative experience.	c***n ( 470)	During past month
	FANTASTIC FOUR 50 CGC 8.5 OWW ~ BEAUTIFUL UNDER GRADED ~ SEE OUR SILVER SURFER 1 (#283587797263)	US $1,499.00 Best Offer Price was Accepted	View Item

[Xenosmilus]

3 minutes ago, kav said:

why would someone pay more than they were quoted?  Just dont buy it.  If someone quotes me $100 for a comic then I pull out my wallet and they say 'ok that'll be $120' I'll say nah.

Thats what I thought too.

[James J Johnson]

6 minutes ago, kav said:

why would someone pay more than they were quoted?  Just dont buy it.  If someone quotes me $100 for a comic then I pull out my wallet and they say 'ok that'll be $120' I'll say nah.

It's a BIN. Not an auction, so an offer had to be accepted. Now even though an offer is accepted at a price that has been agreed upon by seller and buyer, the seller still has to fill in the invoice, so it is possible for this complaint to be valid.

Say Berk wrote a message to the one making, for example, a $1000 offer, stating, "If you offer $1200, I'll include postage. So the buyer offers $1200, Berk accepts, and instead of charging $0.00 for postage, adds in $69 for postage, thus "charging the buyer $69 more than was quoted", that's possible, though I'm not saying that's what happened.

But there are other ways that complaint may be valid, an agreed upon price being invoiced at a higher price than the agreement called for.

[Cat]

5 hours ago, Krishosein said:

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? 

Yes, anyone can inquire about them. As a 501(c)3, they are legally required to provide certain documents upon request, including their 3 most recent information returns (their 990's) among other forms. 

This is what I alluded to in my opening post, and to be frank I find it rather suspicious that they chose to ignore that invitation and request in their only post here, and instead go guns ablazing with a vague and ridiculous 'legal threat' (vague and non-specific legal threats are the calling card of the caged, desperate, and unintelligent combatant hoping to intimidate by puffery and confetti) while ignoring the larger issues and instead focusing on the one incredibly minor part they 'knew' they could refute. To me it seemed like a murderer being caught on 4 cameras on CCTV and and a DNA test, but attempting to overturn his sentence because his documents listed his court-date as 'Tuseday'. Robert Jalali had a perfect opportunity to show us all the wonderful things that the Berkbridge Foundation was doing for single mothers, and there's simply no good reason why a legitimate chsrriy wouldn't have jumped on this opportunity to get this community on board. 

Anyone can request their financials (if you'd like to know the specific forms to request, I can add that, or just PM me). As I said above, they are legally obligated to provide them to you, and there are fines if they do not. Transparency is key. Their contact is info@berkbridge.org

 

 

[Buzzetta]

22 minutes ago, kav said:

 

 

[Xenosmilus]

25 minutes ago, kav said:

 

 

3 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

 

 

[Sweet Lou 14]

6 hours ago, Naphtha said:

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...

There were people tracking their activity and posting screen shots like the above -- I'm sure they didn't like that.  So the most likely explanation is that they just stopped logging in under the Berkbridge account.  I forget if you can lurk on these boards without a login, but if a login is required there is nothing stopping them from lurking under another user name.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Sweet Lou 14

[Catwomancomics]

You can lurk all you want without logging in. Just can’t post.

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, Catwomancomics said:

You can lurk all you want without logging in. Just can’t post.

Maybe they're even craftier than we suspect, and being ebay veterans for 20 years, and likely during that time, some amount of tenure on these forums as this and that handle, that they choose to remain mute, rather than be deposed by forum members.

I'm amazed that nobody here can answer the simple question of, "what was Berkbridge's ebay name for their first 16 years on ebay?". Just that answer alone may go a long way towards transparency. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

[Foley]

On 9/12/2019 at 2:35 AM, BerkbridgeFoundation said:

Any document required by Berkbridge Foundation to be made public, for viewing and inspection, under the provisions of IRS' "Exempt Organization Public Disclosure and Availability Requirements" can be accessed digitally on the aforementioned web site or by written request directly to: info@berkbridge.org

Has anyone made a written request for their documents yet?

I can do so myself, but it may be a quicker process for someone with a U.S. postal address? 

[Catwomancomics]

10 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

Maybe they're even craftier than we suspect, and being ebay veterans for 20 years, and likely during that time, some amount of tenure on these forums as this and that handle, that they choose to remain mute, rather than be deposed by forum members.

I'm amazed that nobody here can answer the simple question of, "what was Berkbridge's ebay name for their first 16 years on ebay?". Just that answer alone may go a long way towards transparency. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

What was their name prior? If they had an account that was primarily for buying and switched it over to sell under a new name? There isn’t an option for sellers to save their favorite buyers.

 

edit: maybe the community should take a peak at what Berkbridge is selling to see if they used to own it?  Then back track to figure out who it was sold to.

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Catwomancomics

[Naphtha]

11 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

There were people tracking their activity and posting screen shots like the above -- I'm sure they didn't like that.  So the most likely explanation is that they just stopped logging in under the Berkbridge account.  I forget if you can lurk on these boards without a login, but if a login is required there is nothing stopping them from lurking under another user name.

Yes, this was me. @kav and I discussed some of these sales with GPA. I have multiple snips of ebay sales.

[bababooey]

[Naphtha]

6 hours ago, Foley said:

Has anyone made a written request for their documents yet?

I can do so myself, but it may be a quicker process for someone with a U.S. postal address? 

Yes, we wrote it here a few times in this thread and previous ones as well.

I actually requested to volunteer and help through their registered site about 12 months ago. Number was a dead end and any "link" tried wasn't actually linked to any forward site.

[Naphtha]

35 minutes ago, bababooey said:

I'm struggling to understand your resentment towards the issue. There are plenty of threads, and digging only stands to benefit everyone in the hobby.

[Naphtha]

10 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

I'm amazed that nobody here can answer the simple question of, "what was Berkbridge's ebay name for their first 16 years on ebay?". Just that answer alone may go a long way towards transparency. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

This.

[blazingbob]

52 minutes ago, Naphtha said:

This.

Call Ebay and see if they will give you the information you are requesting.  
 

[Foley]

1 hour ago, Naphtha said:

7 hours ago, Foley said:

Has anyone made a written request for their documents yet?

I can do so myself, but it may be a quicker process for someone with a U.S. postal address? 

Yes, we wrote it here a few times in this thread and previous ones as well.

I actually requested to volunteer and help through their registered site about 12 months ago. Number was a dead end and any "link" tried wasn't actually linked to any forward site.

My apologies, I meant a formal request sent to the email address they provided. Since they’ve ignored the requests here, I think sending one via email would be the next step. 

I believe one of the links on the IRS website said they have 30 days (possibly 60?) to respond with the documents. 

If they fail to do that, I would think a complaint could be made directly to the IRS.