• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

What the eff's going on with ebay?
1 1

37 posts in this topic

7 minutes ago, october said:

You can always try selling here or on Facebook/Instagram. No 13% fees on those platforms, which is nice. 

I think many people are sick of getting nickled and dimed to death. I know I am. 

Hi october, cool name. Actually I came back to say that now that we are aware of what is happening with this I would hope that the sales thread here should pick up a little. From now on all my graded books I sell will be sold here for a fair price and on one of the Big Three auction sites. And of course I will declare every penny when the time comes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

You can add decency, tollerence, compassion, selflessness and probably, many more. 2020 really brought out the worst in people. Was always there simmering under the surface but last year made it OK for many to spew it at will. 

Isn't the only real tolerance the ability to tolerate viewpoints other than your own?  (shrug)

That sensible and decent people far and near might come to a problem with a different set of experiences and opinions, and that the best answers to our problems usually lie somewhere in-between??

I don't know why that seems to have become such a distasteful notion...  :sorry:

You know, the puppeteers who knowingly and callously cast us as opponents and galvanize us into diametrically-opposed factions overwhelmingly do so simply to consolidate and fortify their own petty power structures. Have so many good people ever been so set upon as pawns as they are today?? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

There's one thing that isn't in short supply these days: self-righteousness. 

Maybe I am self-righteous...

Or, maybe I am tired of people complaining about using services like PayPal, eBay, government services and not wanting to pay for them.

PayPal charges 3% for good and services transactions. To facilitate these transactions, they incur costs, like website hosting, IT and customer service professionals, and what they pay to the credit card companies. Asking someone to do a goods and services transaction as friends and family is trying to weasel out of paying for the service PayPal is providing.

Taxes are required by law. You can hide sales from the IRS if you want and might get lucky, but if you aren't, it will not be fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, D84 said:

Maybe I am self-righteous...

Or, maybe I am tired of people complaining about using services like PayPal, eBay, government services and not wanting to pay for them.

PayPal charges 3% for good and services transactions. To facilitate these transactions, they incur costs, like website hosting, IT and customer service professionals, and what they pay to the credit card companies. Asking someone to do a goods and services transaction as friends and family is trying to weasel out of paying for the service PayPal is providing.

Taxes are required by law. You can hide sales from the IRS if you want and might get lucky, but if you aren't, it will not be fun.

I definitely see where you're coming from. The concern for me is, at my level of sales, it simply isn't worth selling if I am to be arbitrarily defined as a business rather than a hobby. Trust me, I spend way more on my stuff than I've ever sold. The value-added has come primarily from work, and those dollars have been taxed, and more than once in most cases. It just isn't worth sifting through thousands of eBay end-of-auction notices from twenty years ago or making some reasonable estimate of cost that can be challenged by the aforementioned agency with windbreakers and assault weapons on a silver age Blackhawk that I sold for eight dollars. Add to that my accountant now has to file a separate Schedule C so that I can take my due deductions, thereby statistically increasing my chances of a sour tryst with that same aforementioned agency. As I originally stated, for me, it's not worth the hassle. It's more about the cavernous lack of return on my time invested than me skating around paying taxes.

And consider for a moment, a simplified example: let us say I still have that Blackhawk from when I was a kid. What is it worth $10? Maybe I paid twelve cents, but I can't prove it, so as mentioned above, maybe I forego the exposure by claiming a reasonable estimate of cost. More than likely, I paid a buck or two for it at a show. Same thing - not a lot of local cons in 1978 were handing out receipts, and I know the flea markets weren't. So I have this ten dollar Blackhawk now I scan and list and package and trudge off to the post office and sell for maybe full price - ten bucks. Well, at my effective tax rate (not marginal!) I am to pay almost three dollars in federal taxes alone. Okay, cool, I fancy myself a patriot so I send off the check in April (or estimated payments throughout the year, even more work!). Now, as I am prone to doing, I buy another comic; yet, I only have seven dollars left. That's cool: maybe I can fill a hole in my bronze age Power Man run. Once I've read them and decide like Sea Devils that is wasn't the best-written run ever, maybe I decide to sell it. Again, scan, post, package, ship. Sweet, seven bucks to buy another book! Not so fast, you say - I have to pay $2 again in taxes, unless I keep those immaculate records. Records, mind you, that better hold up under scrutiny. Don't forget: windbreakers and assault weapons. At some point all the books have to appreciate dramatically just to beat the time I'm investing just so I can read comics and enjoy the pleasure of thumbing thru these old keepsakes. Otherwise, I'm just working to lose money.  :whistle:

Edited by PopKulture
grammar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taxes and how to handle them have been discussed a million times on this forum.  Cliffs notes: If you aren't sure if you're a business or a hobbyist when it comes to filing income taxes, you're 99% a hobbyist.  Don't just default to "I guess I have to file a Schedule C and pay my accountant more when I shouldn't be because I just put my money back into comics."  That's the end of it.  I'm going nowhere near the politically explicit and undercurrent components of the posts here.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A quick word on taxes. Not an accountant but fyi the threshold for business activity vs hobby is more stringent primarily because losses can be applied to personal income as a business, but only against profit when a hobby.

Not that any of you lose money!  In today's skyrocket comic environment that would make you...well, a loser!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Transplant said:

Taxes and how to handle them have been discussed a million times on this forum.  Cliffs notes: If you aren't sure if you're a business or a hobbyist when it comes to filing income taxes, you're 99% a hobbyist.  Don't just default to "I guess I have to file a Schedule C and pay my accountant more when I shouldn't be because I just put my money back into comics."  That's the end of it.  I'm going nowhere near the politically explicit and undercurrent components of the posts here.  

Its got nothing to do with business or politics or any other undercurrent components. If I spent 100.00 on a book- sold it a year later for 200.00 and charged 10.00 to ship - paid 13.5% in fees then my profit is not 210.00 which is what I will be taxed on. I guess I have no choice now in giving most of my profit to BLANK but I don't believe it to be unreasonable to be only taxed on the profit. Same rules apply to flipping a house which is very common. I have had my taxes done professionally a few times and this is how we did it, we only declared the profit and it was accepted. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Somebody has to pay for this out of control pandamic. “Stimulus checks” are not free. Me, I’d much rather not get a check and get a tax break instead. Anybody who thinks taxes aren’t going to go up are delusional. 

The underground economy of eBay was bound to crash sooner or later anyway. 

That is a fact. I was trying to tell people a couple of things before the election:

1. There's no WAY the rich are going to be heavily taxed. Simply will not happen unless they build some loopholes in at the same time so they can dodge as always.

2. WE will be paying the brunt of taxes as usual. All they said was income taxes wouldn't go up for us but they have SO MANY other delightful ways of taxing us.

I'm sorry. I like Mars as much as the next guy but maybe the billions being spent would be better served dealing with a planet that has an atmosphere, absolute PROOF of sentient life and an ecosystem. Even if Mars is colonized, the resources needed aren't going to come from Mars. Gonna come from Earth. Our (their) priorities are really messed up.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, D84 said:

That requires honesty, which appeals to be in short supply nowadays. 

Yes. A few years ago Paypal did the same thing. Now I get a 1099 every year so I can report the income I get from clients. I reported it before but now it's all legal eagle. People will just complain "Awww. I have to pay a fee AND taxes too? NOT FAIR!" While the other side of their mouths say "I am a GOOD American! I PAY MY taxes!" :angel:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/23/2021 at 9:52 AM, Professor Chaos said:

Its got nothing to do with business or politics or any other undercurrent components. If I spent 100.00 on a book- sold it a year later for 200.00 and charged 10.00 to ship - paid 13.5% in fees then my profit is not 210.00 which is what I will be taxed on. I guess I have no choice now in giving most of my profit to BLANK but I don't believe it to be unreasonable to be only taxed on the profit. Same rules apply to flipping a house which is very common. I have had my taxes done professionally a few times and this is how we did it, we only declared the profit and it was accepted. 

You can deduct your initial cost and all fees when declaring income from selling comics, there are even spaces for it on the schedule C. I keep a record of what I pay for everything, and trust me, the IRS is so understaffed that they won't be knocking on your door asking you to show a receipt for each book. Business income is still largely taxed on the honor system for sole proprietorships. The odds of anyone getting a complete and thorough audit asking to justify their expenses to the dollar is pretty slim, just don't be stupid. Unreported income is seen as tax evasion, disallowed deductions are generally seen as not criminally motivated.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/22/2021 at 10:33 PM, PopKulture said:

I definitely see where you're coming from. The concern for me is, at my level of sales, it simply isn't worth selling if I am to be arbitrarily defined as a business rather than a hobby. Trust me, I spend way more on my stuff than I've ever sold. The value-added has come primarily from work, and those dollars have been taxed, and more than once in most cases. It just isn't worth sifting through thousands of eBay end-of-auction notices from twenty years ago or making some reasonable estimate of cost that can be challenged by the aforementioned agency with windbreakers and assault weapons on a silver age Blackhawk that I sold for eight dollars. Add to that my accountant now has to file a separate Schedule C so that I can take my due deductions, thereby statistically increasing my chances of a sour tryst with that same aforementioned agency. As I originally stated, for me, it's not worth the hassle. It's more about the cavernous lack of return on my time invested than me skating around paying taxes.

And consider for a moment, a simplified example: let us say I still have that Blackhawk from when I was a kid. What is it worth $10? Maybe I paid twelve cents, but I can't prove it, so as mentioned above, maybe I forego the exposure by claiming a reasonable estimate of cost. More than likely, I paid a buck or two for it at a show. Same thing - not a lot of local cons in 1978 were handing out receipts, and I know the flea markets weren't. So I have this ten dollar Blackhawk now I scan and list and package and trudge off to the post office and sell for maybe full price - ten bucks. Well, at my effective tax rate (not marginal!) I am to pay almost three dollars in federal taxes alone. Okay, cool, I fancy myself a patriot so I send off the check in April (or estimated payments throughout the year, even more work!). Now, as I am prone to doing, I buy another comic; yet, I only have seven dollars left. That's cool: maybe I can fill a hole in my bronze age Power Man run. Once I've read them and decide like Sea Devils that is wasn't the best-written run ever, maybe I decide to sell it. Again, scan, post, package, ship. Sweet, seven bucks to buy another book! Not so fast, you say - I have to pay $2 again in taxes, unless I keep those immaculate records. Records, mind you, that better hold up under scrutiny. Don't forget: windbreakers and assault weapons. At some point all the books have to appreciate dramatically just to beat the time I'm investing just so I can read comics and enjoy the pleasure of thumbing thru these old keepsakes. Otherwise, I'm just working to lose money.  :whistle:

This sparked more of a debate than I'd anticipated.  But I feel anyone's pain about creating the schedule with sales from ages ago and once had an accountant call me to ask if I really had saved a receipt for a Silver Surfer book which I had listed as costing me 25 cents.  I told him I did not have a receipt but believed I'd bought if off the stands and 25 cents was the cover price, and yes that actually led to a discussion about whether tax could be included, and mileage to the store could not be factored in because I had ridden my bike.  The conversation was mostly joking, I think.  I hope.  There's no way that the money can save meticulously calculating expenses on books like that (even stacks of books like it) is worth more than just throwing up your hands and paying the tax as if you got it free.   I haven't sold much on ebay in the last few years, so when my son asked me to list some of his old video games I was below any threshold where a government would care so I said "why not?" only to find that now I may have to account for and pay taxes on things I bought for him 10-15 years ago and which we're now selling to get back maybe a fraction of their original cost.   It would bug me less if I didn't know people with nine figure bank accounts who pay lower rates than I do.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone knows the secret “rich person” methods to avoid paying taxes, please send me a pointer.  Over the last 10 years I have spent a fortune on various accountants and haven’t found any magical legal way to do it.  Best option is leveraging the lower tax on dividends which pegs it at 20% versus the 37% you would pay for regular wages (federal only).  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
1 1