Hot Rods eBay is what's wrong

Boy oh boy, has this thread been a fertile ground for contrarian views. Sales Tax! Make no mistake, I DO NOT seek ways to pay more taxes. I do believe, as a nation, we are over taxed. Why and how are not permitted here.

However, that said, we DO have a statutory obligation to pay some form of sales tax on all purchases in those jurisdictions that have ‘sales tax’ or ‘retailer’s occupation tax’ etc. In most places, if tax isn’t exempt because one is a wholesaler, tax is to be collected on the retail sale, and we were not charged tax by the seller, we have a statutory obligation to report such taxable purchases annually and pay the tax due. I don’t believe in the ‘tooth fairy’ (anymore) so I do not suppose that most people, (including your faithful scribe), actually follow that legal obligation.

On the other hand, whatever location we live in operates solely on tax revenue....roads, bridges, fire protection, law enforcement, public health departments, etc. So, when we avoid the taxes we are statutorily obligated to pay, one of two things happen. We experience a reduction in services, or, we are subject to increased taxes that apply to things we cannot avoid paying. The odds are with the ‘House’.

Ray

 

I'm not talking about the market. Seller's fees and percentages that eBay takes off the sale price and their return policies etc., etc., etc. And there's no alternative to speak of as they are so large.

 

Add fees based off shipping charges. A crock of ....

 

Take vocabulary lessons? Avoiding taxes is fine.

"Evading" is the word you're looking for. Completely different.

 

I believe the O.P. Stated he bought and sold cars around the country, I don’t care , it is what it is , I haven’t been able to make much on cars as long as I have felt with them, I’m a buy high sell low kinda guy

 

I'm just saying it started out great, and they more or less took a big dump on the people that made them successful. Individuals and small businesses. I didn't say those people were poor, just pissed off.

 

Well said Ray .

 

But there are always two sides of every coin. eBay wants buyers , low life's or good people more than they care about the seller .

 

Well, we certainly have THAT in common! And I am serious......

Ray

 

Is this the 'Weekly Whinge' thread??

 

I don’t know.........please define ‘Whinge’....

Ray

 

If

If you don't get the clutch or need some info/advice,call around noon EST and ask for Dave. Ky Clutch 502 955 9173. He's a nice older guy who used to own the place. He goes over there everyday at lunch time so Chris can go to lunch. Old time racer/rodder who is very knowledgeable. They can usually get you fixed up with something.

 

We have two large indoor swap meets every year in Louisville. They are held at the Fairgrounds where the Street Rod Nationals is also held. The spring meet is always packed and fills two large interior areas and even has gone into a third area of the building in recent years.
The fall meet is held in the same area and can't even fill one large area. Its been around for many years, but after going last fall I doubt I will attend it anymore. It just keeps getting less and less. I'll be sorry to see it go, but I think its days are numbered. Don't know how well they fare in other areas of the country but I think many people attend it as a social event as much as actually looking to buy anything.

 

You know what rubs my gord?
Guys who buy something in good shape, offered at a bargain price, and turn around and flip it for top of the mark.
Then they brag about how they really made a killing on a car forum like this one.

LOL!

 

Not so fast Grasshopper...... ”


You will note that each word you cited as having different meanings is mentioned in the definition of the other. That situation can be referred to as “a distinction without a difference”.

They can be used interchangeably in many/most circumstances without a loss of meaning. For absolute precision of language, a case can be made for choosing one over the other. That is something I used to strive to for.....to be accurately understood......until I realized that it can only be accomplished if the person reading or hearing the words has the same definition in mind. You only have to listen to common use of language to realize that is a fool’s errand.

Ray

 

http://www.portlandswapmeet.com

 

LOL!! Tell that to the IRS, Gus. It's a legal term.

Avoiding tax is perfectly legal, lawful, and the goal of any good tax attorney.

Tax Evasion gets you thrown in Prison.

Now you know! And knowing, as they say, is half the battle.

 

Well, I gess you got me. small win tho....I am just an ‘ol country boy who dint gradiate high skool!

but gramma alwaz told me to respeck my betters. I dont know wut that means, but it sonded like good advize.......

thanx for pointin’ out my mis take. I gess its no wonder the irs has axed me to come for a vizit next weak.

gus

 

As a TEN YEAR EBAY POWERSELLER with MANY 10,000$ months under my belt, and then a ten year dabbler still in good standing, I have seen eBay slowly transition from an open marketplace where sellers rented internet "store floor space" for me to deal with my customers, into a place where ebay declared they "owned" the sellers customers which I had for many years before ebay even existed. they suddenly OWNED my customers ??
I used to be able to talk to my customers, then it became very monitored, censored, manipulated... it felt like a totalitarian govt eventually.
My customers used to be people to cooperate with and work with, until ebay gradually transformed it into a buyer vs seller battle.
That poisoned everything in my opinion
They made people adversaries.
After about three seller revolts, I closed my doors (ebay store) too.
I still have an account in good standing, but I will NEVER sell like I used to due to the poisoning of the customer/seller relation.
Now its a cheap chinese trinket market mostly.
Long gone are the days we used to buy at a local market or pawn shop, or manufacture our own hot rod parts, and then sell at a profit on ebay.
Now chinese parts are selling for less than our materials costs before machining, and pawn shops go straight to ebay without there being a small cushion for us "sellers" to buy and then go to ebay to resell.
Times change. After a really good run, I just don't care to mess with it any more.
I wish I could still buy hotrod stuff without the hated speculator markups. I wish hotrodding wouldnt be such a big business for ppl with visa cards wanting cool stuff they know little about, so guys like me could still build cool stuff without everything being priced out of reach by people who arent " real".
If you havent searched the junkyards for just the right piece, sanded your own fenders, welded your own linkage, hammered your own shapes, sprayed your own paint, then you may have contributed JUST AS I HAVE TOO, to the more commercial nature of the ebay side of the hobby.
I plead guilty too because I wanted to make a lot of money making stuff for people who wouldn't make their own.
Good or bad ?
Who knows?
I can afford to buy more tools than I used to afford, but I can't sell as well... good or bad ??




WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

My biggest problem with selling on Ebay is you can't trust the shipping calculators. I can't sell low dollar items anymore because there is no money in the deal when the shipping costs me more than the customer paid. I lose money when that happens and being honorable but wishing to stay in business, I just can't sell stuff for less that $20.00. When you factor in time to take photos, weigh and locate a box, shipping tape and list it, losing some of your sale price (Which a chunk goes to ebay)sucks. And many car parts are heavy.

 

I used to get a lot of ebay warnings near the very end about my heavy brake sets costing "excessive shipping" due to the heavy weights, but you can't explain to a brain dead robot that brakes are heavy.
It doesnt matter, the computer declares you to be charging excessive fees anyway because some programming kid typed in the algorithm anyway.
You lose.



WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

eBay remains a necessary evil IMHO.
It serves a purpose and you treat it that way.
It is not a one trick pony that can be all things to everybody.
Exploit it as it tries to exploit you.
Make it work for you and if it does not then find another platform that does.
I found eBay one tool that could help me find stuff all over the country that I would have even know about.
When I don't need stuff I just don't visit it.
I do prefer seeking items out off Forums as generally you find you are dealing with like minded folks and have less chance of meeting opportunists.
Happy parts and old car hunting...

 

Actually I think you are both right about avoid and evade.......even when the word is applied to taxes. If the reason someone is able to evade a tax is legally acceptable, you can evade a tax. An example would be where you would normally be required to pay a tax but a gray area in a law or a loophole made you exempt. By presenting evidence of why you should be granted a waiver, you evaded the original requirement............or was that avoided I think avoided means that you were able to strike a deal that didn't require taxes to be collected. Kinda like eBay used to be. All that being said, I think I could mount an argument that refutes what I just said. So I think both of you are right depending on the situation.

 

Wonder if anyone bought online to save on taxes then complained about the roads where they live?
Just a thought.

 

What I think, is they should spend road taxes on, you know, roads.

It is SOP to raid piles of money set aside specifically for roads on say, bicycle trails and all sorts of stuff not directly related to maintenance. It is very easy for people to be generous with somebody else's money, they can't do math, and feel very virtuous, and the sums are so huge they can't comprehend them anyway.

Most people don't begrudge taxes so much as they become incensed at the misuse or wasting of the tax dollars.

 

No, this is the point. Words mean things, and especially in the legal system, they are not interchangeable.

Tax evasion is always and ever unlawful.

Avoiding or minimizing tax, is your choice, and is not unlawful. It is what every tax attorney or tax preparer does for you. If for some reason someone feels they are not taxed enough, they can cut a check to the gubbmint. The check will get cashed. Here's the address:

Bureau of the Public Debt
Dept. G
Parkersburg, West Virginia

 

I buy a lot of car parts on eBay, I have quite a lot of saved sellers I go back to. Pay my $$ and make a choice, plain and simple. I usually am able to shop around and get a good deal. I look for free shipping when possible, the sales tax thing has caught up with most transactions.

 

I generally won't mess with selling stuff for under $40 these days. It ain't like it used to be. The shipping cost thing...20 years ago, shipping cost a lot less than it does today. I don't know for sure what happened, but I think it's the shipping companies (USPS included) all giving huge price breaks to the bulk shippers, and leaving us mere mortals to foot the bill when we ship things one at a time.

 

Same old place that never was, only more so.

I can't even ship an empty box across town for the price foreign sellers on the other side of the world can ship their product here to the US, they land at New York or Long Beach, and the good ole Post Office takes it the rest of the way, at a huge loss. I try not to think about it too much. Those 2nd graders chained to a work bench need jobs too, ya know.

 

We're quickly getting off topic, but a few things I feel I need to point out.

Sales tax was always due, even on internet sales, but it was up to the buyer to claim as use tax, and it was so easy to not do it that the general public just wrote it up as "tax free". As much as I hate to say it, because I benefited from it for a long time, that truly was tax "evasion" and not "avoidance".

Second, fees collected on shipping, and eBay making it difficult to communicate with buyers, is because shitty sellers took advantage, trying to move deals off of eBay to avoid paying fees (Call me at XXXXXX if you have questions! wink, wink), and also selling things for 99 cents with $30 shipping (or similar) to avoid fees. It's yet another case of people doing things they think are clever when really they just ruined a good thing for the honest people.