A few lessons learned from selling a lantern on eBay recently. Stoves would also fit this category. I can only speak to ebay sales in the US as the rules probably differ from nation to nation. 1) When you list a stove/lantern it is designated as a ground shipment within the US. I suppose it's a safety issue in their minds. If you choose to ship it to another country, you do so without the support of eBay. You're jumping outside the system and doing the legwork they would normally do (Calculate shipping, provide you shipping label and tracking to seller). I wasn't interested in jumping outside the eBay system. 2) The serious collectors from overseas are prepared for this. The winner designated the destination to a re-shipping facility. Southern Ca. is where this facility was located. The re-shipping facility sends it off to the winner. The winner pays shipping once to the reshipper thru eBay. Next steps are made by them through the reshipper to get the item to their residence. Paying shipping for two legs vs. one is probably a bit more expensive but the charges to S Cal were $23 so not a big expense in the grand scheme for a desirable stove/lantern. 3) I had several requests to send it to another country. I suspect this was to save them a bit of shipping costs. I politely said no and recommended they use a re-shipper. This makes the transaction MUCH simpler for the seller. The transaction was VERY simple and smooth. 4) New for 2022 - I was disappointed to learn that the threshold for annual sales on eBay to be taxable income is now $600. Prior to this is was $20k! EBay takes out the estimated tax from your payment. If you have a stove that you think is worth close to $600, you might try a BIN price of $599. Also, if you're thinking about lightening up your collection, you might consider selling a few per year to stay under this threshold. Our little hobby has gotten more complex. Hope this helps any of you potential sellers, Jerry
@Metropolitantrout, Thank you for that. Yes, your post convinced me not to sell a new WM Cypress GWS sleeping bag that would list for $1,100. And that would be one item on eBay so I'm done for the year. I have multiple stoves & hundreds of record albums that I'd like sell but now it doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble. It would take a year or two to sell everything without having to report the sells to the IRS.
I've had a few overseas sellers say they would send to a reshipper, but I had no idea how to go about that, so I only use contacts for rare stoves to be sent to them, then they ship to me. Just glad most of my Primus 96 collection is complete. I would buy a few more stoves overseas but don't want to wear out my welcome with my contacts. I'd read that eBay was going to send sellers in the USA a 1099 form. Duane
For stove sales, eBay requires a US address from the seller so you have no responsibility sourcing that. The seller knows this and finds the reshipper. I suspect many collectors from other countries have their "US address" listed as the reshipper address.
Metropolitantrout, thank you for this thread it is helpful (and can continue to be helpful). I've never "liked" ebay but with all it's negatives, for collectibles it has been the best place for selling and buying. Beginning is 2001 I was mostly seller (stuff), became mostly buyer (stoves) my change back to mostly seller is overdue (stuff & stoves). I began an attempt to sell an item 2 months ago, what a PITA that has become. I'll have to get back at it... not looking forward to it. thanks again
The way a ebay overseas member uses a reshipper is by using the reshippers address as the members shipping address. That way the shipping address is within the USA. And as a seller that's where your responsibility for the item ends as soon as the reshipper receives it.
Hello, just passed through a little nightmare with DHL Express, identifying 2 lamps that I had just shipped to China as WMD (weapons of mass destruction). A Petromax 827 unfired and a Coleman 243b, clearly cleaned and dismantled before shipping as only a collector can do. To explain better, there are more flammable liquids inside a kitten than into those lamps. After almost 200 items sent to other collectors during the last years this is the first time I passed through such a problem, that I fortunately solved by signing and sending two declarations that my boxes were not containing any dangerous or forbidden item. So shipping worldwide is always problematic for many reasons, but clearly allows to get better offers. I wouldn’t be able to sell a Comet 6 for 1 euro at my local flea market, so enlarging the market is a good thing. Having around 700 items in my collection and being a compulsive purchaser, selling is vital to keep some free surface in my house, so I have to deal with these troubles if I want to keep collecting. Now a consideration about re shipping. I would love to sell only inside Europe and force my buyers to use re shipping for the rest of the world, but I am confident to deliver safe and clean items to be re shipped, making compact but well made packages to avoid extremely high rates on worldwide shipping. This is my case because I know how to do. But is not always me packing or selling. When I buy from Germany, for example, I receive extremely big packages that if re shipped would be extremely expensive. Many times items contain fuel inside and that would be a problem on worldwide air shipping. So relying on re shipping is possible but I am not sure it is really attractive for worldwide collectors, that would always have the doubt about how the item has been packed (re shipping companies wouldn’t post a smelly box with a lamp with fuel inside and would apply very high fees). Probably the buyers would accept the risk of re shipping only for very rare items but not for the common ones. So, in conclusion, for the sellers would be a good idea to describe how items will be cleaned and packed compactly to optimize re shipping, communicating to the buyer collector that the seller knows how worldwide shipping works and that he will do his best to meet the international shipping standards, also if he will only handle the domestic by road safe shipping. Nicola
This April 15, 2022 Wall Street Journal Article discusses the $600 1099-k reporting threshold for sales on sites such as eBay. Here are some main points: 1. Sales reported are not all taxable income. Sales - Costs = Income. Used items sold below original cost produce no taxable income. Inherited items get a step-up so cost basis is updated to value at day of death. 2. Some politicians are trying to get the threshold increased, possibly next year. 3. The “$600 … derives from a 1950s provision that wasn’t adjusted for inflation. If it had been, … [it] … would now be about $6,000.”
Thank you. Esp. for this: 1. Sales reported are not all taxable income. Sales - Costs = Income. Used items sold below original cost produce no taxable income. Inherited items get a step-up so cost basis is updated to value at day of death. We already see fellow stovies incl. members past & present "selling off" (i need to). I dreaded the relatively new ebay sales tax. I still dread the reporting but with the sales - cost = income calculation, adds more "to do" for seller but for a year of sales IRS/Ebay's 1099 amount - deductions = taxable income. Can make a huge difference vs paying on Ebay's 1099 amount.
Geez, you do the same thing sellers have done for years - Bidding starts at $1, shipping price is $600. Can't charge tax or withholding on shipping fees. Murph
