And by the way, on a sort of related note, we've all seen/heard how many people are not super happy with Ebay's new Authentication Program (AP) in regard to sports cards. Was just another recent thread complaining about the additional delivery time required. And have heard most all of the various thoughts and ideas behind why Ebay started the program, but one I haven't yet heard of anyone even mentioning or talking about is that the whole idea may actually have to do with Ebay now looking at ways to potentially keep up with and/or counter potential competitors. Do PWCC and Goldin, or most any other AHs out there, deal and transact mostly through Paypal G&S like Ebay does? I believe the answer is a resounding NO! This newly lowered 1099-K reporting threshold doesn't really directly affect any buyers on Ebay, but it does potentially directly affect literally millions of their sellers. And if these sellers start looking for and can find new platforms/ways to sell that doesn't have their sales being reported to the IRS, we all know a lot them are going to start making that switch. But most Ebay buyers are hooked into and love the ease of using Paypal. And isn't one of the main reasons that buyers love Paypal G&S so much is because of the protection it offers them? Hmmmm, so what is Ebay to do if they start losing more and more sellers due to such a change in the tax reporting requirements?
What about coming up with an idea to offer an alternate way to help protect buyers, like something similar to this Ebay AP, so they can then really push offering alternative ways for sellers to get paid that doesn't result in them getting those sales reported to the IRS, and sellers jumping ship from the Ebay platform as a result? And of course, before you do anything that potentially radical, wouldn't you maybe try rolling it out on a bit of a test basis first, to see how buyers and sellers react, how well it may actually work, and allow for feedback and tweaking the process to make it as seamless and acceptable as possible? And then, if you can get most of the bugs out, and make it more accepted by both Ebay buyers and sellers, maybe expand and roll the AP concept/idea out to pretty much everything sold on Ebay. And that way, you can start to offer sellers and buyers an alternative way to transact business on Ebay that doesn't necessarily mean pretty much all seller sales are subject to tax reporting, yet buyers can still have that feeling of safety and protection they had under the old Paypal G&S payment service. I could then see Ebay starting to push the use of a different payment platform/method that doesn't require sales being reported to the IRS, like Zelle, as an alternative to Paypal G&S. But since Zelle doesn't provide the same buyer protections as Paypal G&S does, can fully understand how buyers may not be so taken with the idea of switching, so Ebay needs something else to fall back on to keep up that buyer confidence. Doesn't mean it is why all this may be happening, but can certainly understand if it is at least of part of reasoning why.
And before any one of you jumps in and says the Ebay AP came out before the new law lowering the reporting threshold was ever sign signed, so the one had absolutely nothing at all to do with other, don't even bother. Do any of you really think the idea for the changes to the reporting threshold just suddenly appeared after the September 2020 rollout of Ebay's AP, and miraculously before the March 2021 signing of the new law that included the lowered tax reporting threshold? Ebay was obviously aware of issues with counterfeits and fakes of high value and collectible items on their platform, so the AP was also an obvious attempt to see about dealing with that also. But with the somewhat limited rules as to what items that otherwise qualify for the AP, but don't get subjected to it because of the ease of what sellers can do to get around it, like saying something being sold is part of a set or adding a second card/item to what is being sold, the idea that Ebay's AP was solely for protecting buyers of such high vale/collectible items doesn't quite make total sense.
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