ebay authenticity guarantee limits now 250/750

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by BobC

I agree with you John, they have no special expertise. But just like how they suddenly decided to start collecting sales tax for every auction, I think a lot of their reasoning was that they figured that if they didn't, they could be losing sellers. Think of all the people selling on Ebay that don't really know, or want to know, about collecting and remitting sales taxes. Also, that would have called for all their sellers to start registering with various states for licenses to collect and remit sales taxes. My guess is that Ebay saw that a lot of sellers would be gun shy and not want to bother doing that, or ever put up with the hassle of sales tax collection at all.

I forget the specifics, but my understanding on the sales tax decision was that a court case came down which put the handwriting for that on the wall. I'm not sure if eBay was compelled to put that in place by a certain date or if it was just obvious that they would soon be challenged if they didn't. I will agree between issues like this, and changes to policy such as surrounding authentication - it would seem more difficult to business on eBay than ever before.

When I first joined eBay, you could see full info. on both sellers and buyers, and even message competing bidders. I once contacted a bidder who kept topping me saying "Hey could I persuade you to let me win this (vintage scouting photo...) because my father-in-law is in it, and I would like to give it to him as a gift." The guy wrote back and graciously agreed. Can you imagine anything like that happening today?

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I forget the specifics, but my understanding on the sales tax decision was that a court case came down which put the handwriting for that on the wall. I'm not sure if eBay was compelled to put that in place by a certain date or if it was just obvious that they would soon be challenged if they didn't. I will agree between issues like this, and changes to policy such as surrounding authentication - it would seem more difficult to business on eBay than ever before.

When I first joined eBay, you could see full info. on both sellers and buyers, and even message competing bidders. I once contacted a bidder who kept topping me saying "Hey could I persuade you to let me win this (vintage scouting photo...) because my father-in-law is in it, and I would like to give it to him as a gift." The guy wrote back and graciously agreed. Can you imagine anything like that happening today?

John,

Ebay has definitely changed over the years, as you noted. They don't want anyone talking and sharing info so they potentially can have them go and deal off Ebay. They are just as strict and concerned with keeping their business with these other moves they are making as well. That seems pretty clear. I've worked with so many different businesses and business owners over the years, nothing surprises me as to the extent and levels many businesses will go for to see their goals achieved. Ebay does not have a monopoly on being an online sales platform, and they know it. Yet, they are the biggest and most well known platform out there, and stay there by being pre-emptive and taking care of things before they become a potential problem. This is all part of them staying #1.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by BobC

John,
This is all part of them staying #1.

Of course. I'm just reflecting on how innocent it all once seemed to be.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Of course. I'm just reflecting on how innocent it all once seemed to be.

Yeah, it may have seemed innocent to you and me, but to Ebay it has always been serious business to them. It is just that we maybe haven't really been paying attention to everything they're doing until more of these recent moves that seem unusual to many. I would think most everything Ebay does is calculated and with a purpose that they aren't going to just openly tell us about.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by BobC

Yeah, it may have seemed innocent to you and me, but to Ebay it has always been serious business to them. It is just that we maybe haven't really been paying attention to everything they're doing until more of these recent moves that seem unusual to many. I would think most everything Ebay does is calculated and with a purpose that they aren't going to just openly tell us about.

Bob, the point of all this seems to be that the serious business and profit motive are not necessarily in the best interest of all buyers / collectors. Would you agree? Of course eBay is not going to advertise their motives in detail to their customer base.

I would think that this means that many are looking for ways around such formal platforms with fee structures and tax reporting requirements. To your earlier point, many (N54 is one) still exist, and I would guess that other ways to do business off the cuff would continue to arise.

Interestingly enough, the one thing I saw on Facebook last night related to this authentication model, and the customer was very happy with it. Of course he had just bought a '52 Topps #311, so that might have been worth waiting an extra 2 days for.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Bob, the point of all this seems to be that the serious business and profit motive are not necessarily in the best interest of all buyers / collectors. Would you agree? Of course eBay is not going to advertise their motives in detail to their customer base.

I would think that this means that many are looking for ways around such formal platforms with fee structures and tax reporting requirements. To your earlier point, many (N54 is one) still exist, and I would guess that other ways to do business off the cuff would continue to arise.

Interestingly enough, the one thing I saw on Facebook last night related to this authentication model, and the customer was very happy with it. Of course he had just bought a '52 Topps #311, so that might have been worth waiting an extra 2 days for.

John,

I absolutely agree some business, like Ebay, isn't necessarily doing things for the benefit of their buyers and sellers, they are doing it for their own bottom line. Don't forget, Ebay is a publicly traded company since 1998, and answers to their shareholders, not their buyers and sellers. It just works out that in some instances, what is good for Ebay, is to be doing good things for their buyers and sellers so they keep coming back.

Ebay didn't start collecting sales taxes on behalf of all sellers because they wanted to. Same with things like these authentication programs. Ebay was doing well and making lots of money before instituting such changes, why would they suddenly decide to go through all the additional time, effort, expense, and hassle to do these new things if they didn't think it made sense to them from a business standpoint in the long run?

And as you noted, some of these new changes they've made are actually going to work against Ebay's business. Like sales taxes being collected on all sales now. Buyers hate that they are now getting hit with sales tax on everything. Just go back and read posts from some members on here in threads right after that new rule was put into effect by Ebay. So Ebay may lose some buyers from making that change. But in doing so, Ebay is likely also thinking about the additional hassle and work their sellers are going to have to now deal with in regards to sales taxes, and how that may drive many of them to stop selling on Ebay. So by taking on the sales tax collection, remitting and reporting obligation for all sellers, it removes that burden from them and makes them more likely to continue selling on Ebay. And something else many people probably didn't even consider, it also appeases many of the bigger sellers on Ebay who would have had to start collecting sales taxes in various states due to that Supreme Court decision back in 2018 regarding sales taxes for online sellers, South Dakota vs. Wayfair. Because of their larger sales volume, many of these bigger Ebay sellers would be forced to start charging sales taxes in many states, whereas the smaller Ebay sellers wouldn't reach those thresholds requiring them to collect sales taxes, and wouldn't ever have to charge sales taxes on sales made to other states. This would give an unfair advantage to smaller Ebay sellers over the big sellers, which would piss the big sellers off. By Ebay deciding to just handle the sales tax themselves on all Ebay transactions, it appeases all the sellers, and especially their biggest sellers, by not giving some of their competitors who otherwise wouldn't have to charge a sales tax, a price advantage over them due to the sales tax. Ebay may lose some customers who don't want to pay the sales tax, but they won't lose them all. But if you lose the sellers, there are no Ebay customers at all because nothing is being sold.

See the logic behind such a business decision? I'm guessing there is similar thinking and logic behind these other decisions and changes Ebay has been making as well.

[Exhibitman]

Then don't be a business on eBay. eBay is no longer meant for scofflaws who want to hide taxable income or for dealers who want to pretend that they are hobbyists or investors rather than dealers.

Personally, I love selling on eBay because they determine, collect and remit the damned sales taxes for me. No muss, no fuss. Makes reporting my sales taxes each quarter a snap.

As for taxation, without getting into the specifics, filing as a business gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of timing, realizing and offsetting losses and claiming expenses.