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Would you consider this lost income?
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Say you had some $50,000 in merchandise out on consignment and regularly sold $2500 a month over the last year and a half.  Now those sites are closed. I won't sell any books so no check this month, but the books will still be there when they reopen. Would you consider this lost income? 

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1 minute ago, shadroch said:

Say you had some $50,000 in merchandise out on consignment and regularly sold $2500 a month over the last year and a half.  Now those sites are closed. I won't sell any books so no check this month, but the books will still be there when they reopen. Would you consider this lost income? 

Technically speaking no.

I am going to assume this is MCS?

What if you had a slow month?  What if no one bought the books you were selling? You still have the books.  I think I would only consider it lost income if the books disappeared.  Personally to me, there is no difference to that and me having a book on eBay that is not selling.  I still have ownership over the item... it just isn't selling.

 

That's one way to look at it.  What can I say.  I'm an optimist. 

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2 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Technically speaking no.

I am going to assume this is MCS?

What if you had a slow month?  What if no one bought the books you were selling? You still have the books.  I think I would only consider it lost income if the books disappeared.  Personally to me, there is no difference to that and me having a book on eBay that is not selling.  I still have ownership over the item... it just isn't selling.

 

That's one way to look at it.  What can I say.  I'm an optimist. 

I agree with you.  I would think of it as revenue shortfall compared to forecast.  You just didn't see the sales you expected.

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10 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Technically speaking no.

I am going to assume this is MCS?

What if you had a slow month?  What if no one bought the books you were selling? You still have the books.  I think I would only consider it lost income if the books disappeared.  Personally to me, there is no difference to that and me having a book on eBay that is not selling.  I still have ownership over the item... it just isn't selling.

 

That's one way to look at it.  What can I say.  I'm an optimist. 

Is this really any different than a dealer missing a few shows? 

When I'm having a slow month, I throw stuff into the auctions so its a steady income. 

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Tricky but I'd say it was lost income if you are a business.  The profits lost in a comic book business is the same as any other business.  Who knows how many iphones are going to be sold in a month?  Who knows how many people will walk into a restaurant in a week?  There are a ton of variables for most businesses and the lost income is still the same for all of them if there is a shut down of that industry.  Your lost sales are the same as lost profits regardless if you are selling comics or burgers.  Using the logic used above then McDonalds can't claim lost profits since their burgers are still in a freezer and ready to be bought when things get busy again (example only).

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It's not lost if in June an July things come roaring back and all that pent up demand results in increased sales over the norm, just delayed, but yeah, if that's how you make a living it sure feels like lost income. And I wonder how many folks have $100K+ in stuff with MYCS and the consignment sales are what they live off (or are a major portion of their income). On the other hand, one could say the same about lost ebay sales...we just don't know yet how this is impacting those ebay sales. Nothing is stopping them per se, true. Fact is, mycs being out of the market may be propping up the rest of ebay a bit, who knows?

 

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5 hours ago, shadroch said:

Say you had some $50,000 in merchandise out on consignment and regularly sold $2500 a month over the last year and a half.  Now those sites are closed. I won't sell any books so no check this month, but the books will still be there when they reopen. Would you consider this lost income? 

I'm not sure where I fall on this issue. Would you be using this in an attempt to collect unemployment benefits? If this is the case, then it doesn't matter what we think. The opinion of whatever state entity that is in charge of unemployment benefits is the most important.

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If you are operating as a business, and you have a Business Interruption Insurance clause in your policy, it might be possible to put in a claim.  You would have to check your policy and consult with your agent. 

I had a comic store in a mall.  A local contractor broke through a main service line, and the mall was down for the whole weekend.  We lost $5,000 in sales.  I put in a claim for Business Interruption and got paid a portion.  There were deductibles, many variables, supporting data to show the profits lost on those potential sales, etc.  Certainly SOMETHING happened to cause me to lose money I counted on as a regular course of business, which was not of my own doing.  I still had to pay the rent, the utilities, buy products.  I am not guaranteed to sell at a particular rate, but if you can show a track history of sales, and then that disruption by a certain, specific cause, you have a basis for a claim to funds that your policy provides.

Despite the examples people are giving above about still having your inventory to sell, if you have PAID into the premium for that specific coverage, THAT'S what it's for.  So it's time to collect if the unfortunate happens.  That's the whole idea of insurance, spreading the risk among those who might be affected.  Many paid in and received nothing.  Of course, they could call this an act of God, and you're back at square one.

 

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9 minutes ago, Lightning55 said:

If you are operating as a business, and you have a Business Interruption Insurance clause in your policy, it might be possible to put in a claim.  You would have to check your policy and consult with your agent. 

I had a comic store in a mall.  A local contractor broke through a main service line, and the mall was down for the whole weekend.  We lost $5,000 in sales.  I put in a claim for Business Interruption and got paid a portion.  There were deductibles, many variables, supporting data to show the profits lost on those potential sales, etc.  Certainly SOMETHING happened to cause me to lose money I counted on as a regular course of business, which was not of my own doing.  I still had to pay the rent, the utilities, buy products.  I am not guaranteed to sell at a particular rate, but if you can show a track history of sales, and then that disruption by a certain, specific cause, you have a basis for a claim to funds that your policy provides.

Despite the examples people are giving above about still having your inventory to sell, if you have PAID into the premium for that specific coverage, THAT'S what it's for.  So it's time to collect if the unfortunate happens.  That's the whole idea of insurance, spreading the risk among those who might be affected.  Many paid in and received nothing.  Of course, they could call this an act of God, and you're back at square one.

 

the loss was charged to the contractor's carrier. your carrier actually made money, if your carrier paid for your loss.

the present situation will most likely fall under the government emergency action clause, which is super bucks to get a rider to cover, and 99% of policies do not have the rider.

interestingly, some old ho4 homeowners policies had the rider, and were honored, when the person had a business in their home and it was properly licensed by the municipal zoning authorities, meaning the person paid taxes for the exception zoning in order to conduct business.

 

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3 minutes ago, evilskip said:

Ask the IRS.

they don't pay off anything except when ordered to, and then it is like pulling teeth to get it, as we are all experiencing. 

you ask them. bet the answer is....lemmmee guess....no.

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3 hours ago, Ryan. said:

Of course it's lost income. You are literally unable to receive income from the inventory due to a forced shutdown during a specific period of time. While the inventory will still exist after the closure, the opportunity sales are gone forever

No, not unless some potential customer dies or gets the same book elsewhere and won't be shopping. Yes, the opportunity to sell in April and may is gone forever, sure, but the same customers may very well be available looking in june or whenever.

 

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Books that bought and can not sell because no one is buying is lost income because the money is not available. It is inventory that should be moving but isn't, no different than a car dealer not being able to sell. I assume you do this as a part time profession, correct? If so you are losing money for a few months because you are not selling = lost income. 

Now this is only true if you are claiming "your selling" as income before this happened.

No lose if you never claimed.

Just my thoughts as a business owner.

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47 minutes ago, the blob said:

No, not unless some potential customer dies or gets the same book elsewhere and won't be shopping. 

What else would I be talking about? 

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1 hour ago, the blob said:

No, not unless some potential customer dies or gets the same book elsewhere and won't be shopping. Yes, the opportunity to sell in April and may is gone forever, sure, but the same customers may very well be available looking in june or whenever.

 

I would say it’s lost income, I don’t think a lot of collectors are squirrelling their money away to spend in August or whenever. Comics can still be bought currently at quite a few different  venues. If the OP’s source is closed the buyer will buy somewhere else - tons of sales currently on Facebook, IG, eBay etc 

I think there will be a loss of profit with the influx of collectors selling their possessions out of necessity. 

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