Any fears in selling large $ items on ebay?

[glchen]

Peter, my point is for the sales tax issue, it is simply too easy to get caught. The figures and paper trail are right there. If you are audited once, you are dead meat. You'd have to be an idiot to try to avoid giving the state their taxes due. For monitoring shilling, you can probably try to claim benign neglect or something similar, but sales taxes are an open and shut case.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by glchen

Peter, my point is for the sales tax issue, it is simply too easy to get caught. The figures and paper trail are right there. If you are audited once, you are dead meat. You'd have to be an idiot to try to avoid giving the state their taxes due. For monitoring shilling, you can probably try to claim benign neglect or something similar, but sales taxes are an open and shut case.

So offenses that are easily caught don't get committed? I don't follow you. To the contrary, many people who commit such offenses (talking now in the abstract) delude themselves into thinking they are above the law, will get away with it, etc. I see it time and again -- just as one example, smoking gun memos instructing employees to obtain phony sales in order to create the appearance of higher revenues.

[glchen]

Well, of course, some still happen (Watergate quickly comes to mind). However, you'd have to be an idiot. I am not a lawyer or in law enforcement, but I always thought most of these tax fraud cases occur when using cash only transactions with no receipts. Here the receipts are digitally stored in a third party (in eBay's system). You're not going to be able to get away with that.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Again speaking in the abstract, a lot of fraudsters are idiots, delusional, arrogant and driven by hubris, etc.

And regarding sales tax, I am aware of instances where there was a complete paper trail, with the buyer requesting an item be shipped to a state that had no sales tax in order to avoid it. I am sure many cases involve cash, but again, ease of detection does not prove to me the offense did not occur.

[calvindog]

Gary, do you consider Bill Mastro, Doug Allen and John Rogers to be idiots? Because I understand there were some paper trails there too.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Gary, do you consider Bill Mastro, Doug Allen and John Rogers to be idiots? Because I understand there were some paper trails there too.

Unfortunately not as many as there used to be.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Leon

Unfortunately not as many as there used to be.

Idiots in the hobby? Oh sure there are. Just re-read the PWCC thread. This one too.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Gary, do you consider Bill Mastro, Doug Allen and John Rogers to be idiots? Because I understand there were some paper trails there too.

Mastro and Legendary owned their own auction software, so they probably thought they could hack it when the authorities came calling. This would be similar to a fraudulent business having two sets of books. In PWCC, these are in the hands of a third party (ebay). Regarding the T206 Wagner, Mastro probably thought he was in the clear once PSA authenticated the card as an 8.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by glchen

Mastro and Legendary owned their own auction software, so they probably thought they could hack it when the authorities came calling. This would be similar to a fraudulent business having two sets of books. In PWCC, these are in the hands of a third party (ebay). Regarding the T206 Wagner, Mastro probably thought he was in the clear once PSA authenticated the card as an 8.

You'd be wrong on all counts here. It's almost uncanny.