The Berkbridge Foundation - Questions Regarding Legitimacy 8 8

[James J Johnson]

4 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

@icefires @comix4fun Thank you both for these substantive posts.  Without saying more than I'm at liberty to share, I can tell you that you're not alone in making these document requests and the responses you're getting are similar to what I'm hearing from others who have contacted me privately.  (Apparently, they are being told that they must send checks in the mail, because Berkbridge isn't "set up" to receive PayPal payments for any purpose other than eBay sales.  Obviously this is a ludicrous stalling tactic.)  You're doing a great service to the community by keeping the pressure on Jalali.

One other detail I will add is that I'm hearing, second-hand, that the IRS in its current (gutted) incarnation is not in a position to rigorously enforce its own policies.  My sense is that anyone wishing to get results is more likely to make progress working through the State of California (Attorney General's office, etc.) than through any federal agency.

You need to address the agency that is directly responsible for issuance and enforcement of the tax exemption status for charitable institutions.

[GACollectibles]

On 9/16/2019 at 9:37 PM, James J Johnson said:

On 9/16/2019 at 9:27 PM, 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.

It could have been sales tax.

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, GACollectibles said:

It could have been sales tax.

If so, I may be wrong, but I don't think a seller any longer has a choice regarding the collection of sales tax by ebay. If I read the guidelines on it correctly, there's about a dozen or so states where it's automatically included on the seller generated invoice. Also, I don't think the seller has a hand in the collection, those funds routed somewhere and held for that state's sales tax agency in an account separate from that of the seller.. I may be wrong but I remember reading something to this effect in one of ebay's sales tax collection articles.

[GACollectibles]

3 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

If so, I may be wrong, but I don't think a seller any longer has a choice regarding the collection of sales tax by ebay. If I read the guidelines on it correctly, there's about a dozen or so states where it's automatically included on the seller generated invoice. Also, I don't think the seller has a hand in the collection, those funds routed somewhere and held for that state's sales tax agency in an account separate from that of the seller.. I may be wrong but I remember reading something to this effect in one of ebay's sales tax collection articles.

Yes, tax is automatically assessed & collected by ebay and (in theory) paid to whatever state tax agency it is due to, the seller never sees those funds. 

[Badger]

58 minutes ago, GACollectibles said:

Yes, tax is automatically assessed & collected by ebay and (in theory) paid to whatever state tax agency it is due to, the seller never sees those funds. 

Is tax still collected on charity sales?

[comix4fun]

10 minutes ago, Badger said:

Is tax still collected on charity sales?

Yes, the only exemption from sales taxes charities can obtain is one for items they purchase and intent to use for the operation of their organization for charitable purposes. 

[lizards2]

2 hours ago, GACollectibles said:

Yes, tax is automatically assessed & collected by ebay and (in theory) paid to whatever state tax agency it is due to, the seller never sees those funds. 

Is tax still collected on porn sales?   

[batman_fan]

30 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

Is tax still collected on porn sales?   

I sure hope not 

[lizards2]

Just now, batman_fan said:

30 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

Is tax still collected on porn sales?   

I sure hope not 

well, if it is, I hope the bill comes in a plain brown wrapper....,  

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, kav said:

So one of those BINs where the shipping isnt given in the listing.

No, as someone stated, it's likely the sales tax! The sale was somewhere in the $1000 to $1200 range and the amount over the agreed upon price mentioned in their negative feedback was $69. $69 is around the 6 to 6.5% mark of $1000 to $1200 area for many states so that would make sense it's that.

What I think happened is that buyer and seller agreed on a price and neither took note of or broached the subject of sales tax. The seller might not have known the buyer's state would impose sales tax on his invoice to the buyer, the buyer might not have known, it is a new thing only since June, more states added in little by little, and figured he'd see an invoice for the agreed upon amount instead of the agreed upon amount plus the sales tax, which the seller hasn't a choice in collecting, it's automatic.

This is probably the case and if it is, I'm surprised that Berk didn't use his business savvy and communication skills to smooth things over tactfully. Either suggesting to give the buyer a rebate of the overage, or even more fairly for both, suggesting to split the $69 difference, thus both sharing the burden of the unexpected or ill considered surprise sales tax and sending the buyer a refund for half the tax, say $34.50 if the buyer agreed with that suggestion.

At any rate, if this is the story of the negative, I think it's undeserved, and the buyer blaming Berk for circumstances beyond his control that they both should have thought of before arriving at that mutually agreed to total. To receive a negative for something that is an ebay policy, like ebay's automatic invoice imposition of and collection of sales tax on sales to certain states is harsh. Before that feedback was left, they should have talked about a mutually acceptable remedy and come up with something they both were happy with, and if it meant that the buyer was unmoving, Berk should have given him a rebate for the full sales tax, for $69, thus avoiding a negative. It also would have gone a long way to assure that buyer would be back for more seeing how the seller went out of his way to provide a fix for a misunderstanding. Would have been much better PR than the neg, which probably will be removed by ebay anyway.

Edited September 20, 2019 by James J Johnson

[GACollectibles]

4 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

At any rate, if this is the story of the negative, I think it's undeserved, and the buyer blaming Berk for circumstances beyond his control that they both should have thought of before arriving at that mutually agreed to total. To receive a negative for something that is an ebay policy, like ebay's automatic invoice imposition of and collection of sales tax on sales to certain states is harsh. Before that feedback was left, they should have talked about a mutually acceptable remedy and come up with something they both were happy with, and if it meant that the buyer was unmoving, Berk should have given him a rebate for the full sales tax, for $69, thus avoiding a negative. It also would have gone a long way to assure that buyer would be back for more seeing how the seller went out of his way to provide a fix for a misunderstanding. Would have been much better PR than the neg, which probably will be removed by ebay anyway.

Quite often a buyer will leave negative feedback before bringing the issue to the attention of the buyer so it could possibly be resolved.

[James J Johnson]

5 hours ago, kav said:

yep the neg is gone.

Deserved or not, and in this case it was undeserved if the reason was as proposed, ebay is not going to let a negative stay on the feedback page of a seller moving $120K of product monthly or more, even if they're not collecting one red cent from seller's fees.

Edited September 20, 2019 by James J Johnson

[Bejack3]

Sometime in the past I purchased a book from them that was damaged during shipment. At the time, in my opinion, there were things that were incongruous to me and I left negative feedback on Ebay. They had some strange attorney contact me and it scared me at the time. I lawyered up and my attorney suggested to ignore them. This was a formative experience that lead me to take my civil engineering degree to law school.

[James J Johnson]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 5:09 PM, comix4fun said:

That doesn't seem accurate, for several reasons.

1) all the documents that must disclosed or made available to the public, either through physical in person inspection or through requesting copies through the mail, are NOT available on the IRS Web Site. 

The documents required for disclosure include the form 1023 Exemption Application and all supporting documents, attachments and addenda. Those are not available on the IRS website and are a required public disclosure upon request.

As well the form 990 tax returns for the last three years must also be made available. From what I can see on the IRS website only the 2018 post card return (indicating less than $50,000 was taken in, gross) was available.  

The 990 returns for the last three years MUST include all attachments, exhibits or other supporting documentation. 

2) The written request need not be sent by mail. The IRS explicitly states that requests made by fax, email, or private courier all fulfill the written request requirement. 

3) The types of payment accepted must include certified check, money order, personal check or credit card. In the case of a charity set up to take donations and payment through PayPal for their eBay auctions it would not be a difficult obstruction complaint to lodge if, suddenly, they would not accept payment via the same means that any and all donations to their organization have been made through eBay. As well, not allowing for ALL types of payment allowed by the IRS may be seen as unduly obstructionist to the clear rules for disclosure.

4) As for the amount they are allowed to charge. The IRS charges (for copies through a FOIA request) $0.20 per page and 501 C 3 organizations are not allowed to charge any more than that.  So a breakdown of the $5 charge (number of pages, type of postage, etc.) is not a question that is out of line to ask. If they are going to fully comply (1023 application, all supporting documents, the last three years 990 returns, and all supporting documents) perhaps this is a reasonable amount, but it should be disclosed in detail. 

Any responsible 501 C 3 organization takes the compliance rules seriously. First off, it allows people considering donating to their organization the comfort and knowledge that they are dealing with a reputable and honest organization. No reputable or honest organization would set up an unreasonable barrier to the public in determining that the organization is worthy of support. Should the logic of that common sense reason fail the organization there are always the penalties enforced by the IRS for non-compliance....$20 per day, per infraction, or (in the case of willful or intentional non-compliance) a $5,000 fine per return or application. 

All 501 C 3 organizations have gone through a great deal of paperwork to attain and maintain their status, one of the simplest requirements if that of public disclosure. I'd be shocked if someone would fail to understand the very simple requirements they are held to in such a situation. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nevada Secretary of State:

re: Berkbridge Foundation

Filing type: Domestic Non-Profit Corporation

Status: Inactive

State: Nevada

State ID: E0626592014-5

Date Filed: 12-15-2014

Date Expired: 01-01-2019

Source: Nevada Secretary of State

Data last refreshed on Wednesday, 05-08-2019

 

And BTW, has anybody here won anything from Berkbridge over the past two weeks? If so, there's a fairly disconcerting message on his recent past listings:

THIS SELLER IS CURRENTLY AWAY UNTIL OCT. 10, 2019, AND IS NOT PROCESSING ORDERS AT THIS TIME. 

I hope my hypothetical scenario from the "Paypal's Greed" thread doesn't turn from hypothetical to thetical and a bunch of buyers don't find out next month that they're holding the bag.

 "Now this is hypothetical and I'm using Berk as an example because we discussed their taking in $118,000 "for charity" last month. But say paypal facilitated $118,000 worth of sales for them last month for them, the money went where it was supposed to, to whatever account Berk has those funds transferred to in those 100% charity auctions. Over a period of 2 weeks, they gradually spend the money through a third account, having been disbursed from the charity account. A charity investing to amplify their donations, let's say. The $118,000 worth of books they bought through another account have almost all come in, and any money left in the account that didn't go to purchase more inventory has dwindled to almost nothing. Now Berk is holding $118,000 of product, almost all delivered after two weeks of buying, and almost nothing in cash in either paypal account, or a third for buying.  But let's say while doing this, Berk has not sent out any of the books that the winners paid for! Let's even assume that Berk might answer questions of "Have you sent out my books yet?  by stringing buyers along, "I'm so sorry. An unexpected death in the family. I'll get them out to you as soon as I'm back in town, you can count on that". But the tracking info never comes, the complaints start coming in to paypal and ebay and guess what.... too late for paypal to recover $118,000 to pay back the claims for buyers who did not het their material, many of which funded the purchase with credit cards. Now paypal is on the hook for some, a lot, or most of that missing $118,000!"

Edited September 23, 2019 by James J Johnson

[Buzzetta]

4 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

And BTW, has anybody here won anything from Berkbridge over the past two weeks? If so, there's a fairly disconcerting message on his recent past listings:

THIS SELLER IS CURRENTLY AWAY UNTIL OCT. 10, 2019, AND IS NOT PROCESSING ORDERS AT THIS TIME. 

The last recorded sale was on September 20th.  No other sales have occurred or no books have been made to be available since then. 

Not assuming you do not know but in case anyone does not, there are two ways to shut down your eBay store.  In one scenario, you are marked as 'seller is currently away and there may be a delay in processing your order" while your inventory is still available to view and purchase.  In another scenario you are marked as 'seller is currently away...' but your inventory is NOT made available to view or purchase. Berkbridge has elected to shut down their store without displaying their inventory. 

I have another question that I am investigating on my own to which I do not want to publicly say.  Why tip off the unscrupulous, whoever that may be?

 

[James J Johnson]

11 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

The last recorded sale was on September 20th.  No other sales have occurred or no books have been made to be available since then. 

Not assuming you do not know but in case anyone does not, there are two ways to shut down your eBay store.  In one scenario, you are marked as 'seller is currently away and there may be a delay in processing your order" while your inventory is still available to view and purchase.  In another scenario you are marked as 'seller is currently away...' but your inventory is NOT made available to view or purchase. Berkbridge has elected to shut down their store without displaying their inventory. 

I have another question that I am investigating on my own to which I do not want to publicly say.  Why tip off the unscrupulous, whoever that may be?

 

Struck me as highly unusual, can't say I ever saw that before. A very high level and active ebay comic book seller (seemingly, at least $1,000,000+ per year in sales) announcing suspension of shipments for over two weeks. Can't imagine why who appears to be such a highly successful, accomplished businessman such as Robert wouldn't potentially envision that as an ill advised business move. Especially with legitimacy issues being discussed openly and added to frequently on a forum, membered by what amounts to be the watchmen of this hobby.

[ADAMANTIUM]

22 minutes ago, kav said:

Who watches the Watchmen, tho?

the watchwomen,,,,,, whhhooo doggie  

Edited September 23, 2019 by ADAMANTIUM

[Catwomancomics]

On 9/9/2019 at 7:56 PM, Catwomancomics said:

@BerkbridgeFoundation

 

Considering what being reported about the feebay account, I thought this post could use a bump.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Catwomancomics

[vheflin]

sooo...he's doing a 110 mph non-stop desert run to the Mexican border?

 

[namisgr]

11 minutes ago, vheflin said:

sooo...he's doing a 110 mph non-stop desert run to the Mexican border?

 

Maybe with a pregnant woman alongside who's been the 'single mother' recipient of the 'charity' largesse.  

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by namisgr