Should eBay Require Sellers to Provide Receipts?

by: Snapped

The short answer, is this is rot.

The longer one -

When this net is lazily, arbitrarily, and ignorantly cast against all ‘fish’, it will include a haul of unnecessary and inapplicable edibility, such as the stated intent (such as THAT is) applies here.  Plenty of examples say so.

What this also does though, be it by intent, or further ignorance, is serve to curtail any links between the undocumented ‘cash economy’ transactions in the resale market, and eBay’s myopic and thus further ignorantly attempts to be relevant in the online retail marketplace.  Another ‘can’t list it’ road mine.

Imagine.  If only some human could be made to see where this ‘provide a receipt’ attempt at establishing providence while it has a place, serves only to diminish potential when so arbitrarily applied.  At all levels.

Then again, imagine if eBay themselves might be acting under some, call it an order, to start ‘forcing’ such documentation be made, and taxed accordingly of course, where it is largely ‘unlikely’ to occur otherwise. Perhaps you may be aware of such a trend for that stuff in the past couple years.

There was a time, not so long ago, when either of these scenarios was unimaginable. As was the very imaginable damage now that any breech or misuse of the topic subject ‘data’ to be scraped from said receipts may ensue.  

See, that same ‘regulating body’ yanking the public purse strings hasn’t yet gotten around to sufficiently enacting regulation and subsequent recompense standards for business source data malfeasance as exists for say, PII.

By the way, the very same question may occur to Mr and Mz garage sale in any reluctance to scratch out a receipt.  Can’t blame em really.  

Meanwhile, eBay’s denial of whatever alternate ‘evidence’ one does take the effort to amass says all that needs saying about their embedded infectious obfuscation mentality than any desire to ‘help’ as is always claimed from the base of their very ever rotting foundation.  

by: etectra

They did that to me after 27 years years. They wanted receipts for all items listed and sold for the last 60 days. I told them where they could stuff their wild goose chase. They do not want seasoned sellers on their site that know all their dirty little secrets - they want newbs.

99.999% of items purchased at multiple party estate auctions. There you will get a bidder number, which has the name of the auction company on it, with or without their address and other contact information such a phone number. Just depends on how much money the auctioneer wants to spend on custom clerking forms. At one local auctioneer I have a permanent bidder number from decades of buying.

Old school auctioneers will record each lot purchased on three part clerking sheets. The top copy stays with the auctioneer. The second middle copy goes to the consignor. The third bottom copy consists of either paper or thin manilla card stock and goes to the high bidder.

These are serrated along the edges to they can be separated into individual tickets for each item. The first copy remains intact. The second copy is only separated when more than one consigner items share the same sheet. The third copy are almost always separated into individual tickets and sorted into a pigeon hole filing system according to bidder. When you go to pay you get these small manilla tickets which list the bidder number and a very short description. A winning bid on a lot of "books" for $2.50 could mean one box, two boxes or even dozens of boxes of books.

The $2,200 Barbie I sold nearly 20 years ago ($3,400 adjusted for inflation) was recorded as a box of dolls for $22.50. That same Barbie now only sells for $1,600 so whoever "invested" it has lost money. Having a copy of the bidder number form this auction and the ticket for this action will tell you nothing! The location and date would be recored on a hand written mileage log sheet that I created.

Other auctioneers may record bids on a laptop and print out a list of items purchased, but once again its only generic descriptions since providing itemized lists for every single item would mean they would not be able to conduct busy at all. Auctioneers move fast, some times conducting multiple rings at once. If they do not get a opening bid of say $2.50 for choice of boxes on a banquet table they start selling half the table at time, or the whole table for one bid. At farm auctions they may sell the entire contents on north wall of an outbuilding and then sell the contents on another wall.

In the case of choice of boxes the description will simply be recored as "choice", with the quantity purchased, price for each and total, along with my bidder number.

I recently digitized many boxes of receipts for several decades so the area they kept can be used to store other items. Items currently listed could have been purchased years ago as they are retrieved from storage. I am not investing hundreds of hours of work looking up records for them that will tel them nothing.

Absolutely none of eBay's business where I buy items, how much I paid, when I buy items and other details are my TRADE SECRETS! I am not one of these dudes who go on YouTube and tell everyone where you can find the pot of gold at the end of rainbow - I keep it for myself.

Once again, thats eBay demanding records after 27 years on eBay without a single chargeback. If eBay going to accuse someone of selling stolen or counterfeit items with no evidence they are going to financially pay for it!

by: airbrake

No - Absolutely not. It is none of Ebays' business what you paid for and where you got some widget from. If Ebay believes most items on their site are stolen, and they want to play Physician, then, Physician, heal thyself. Besides, anyone can come up with any kind of a receipt if you have a mind too.

This requirement also would open the door for the Treasury Department to come in and start nosing around in a Sellers items for sale. Remember, if you bought a widget say 10 years ago and then sold it today for more than you paid for it, the IRS considers that extra you got to be declared.

by: gabesfinds

eBay is constantly looking for new ways to lose business a/k/a sellers. These draconian measures smack of moving away from the casual reseller to major retailer resellers, which is eBay's perogative. However, don't try to BS us by claiming you are "making the marketplace safe"-what an ignorant phrase. If you're "only a marketing platform" as you deceivingly claim to be, then keep your f***ing paws off our privacy-we have enough to worry about with the Feds. Who the hell keeps receipts for a tool you bought back in 2006 or your grandmother's jewelry you inherited in 1978? My opinion is this push is probably arising from the rampant theft problems in major cities but screwing the rest of us over isn't going to either solve the problem nor prevent it. eBay is not some "pawn shop" where accepting stolen items is a real risk and one factored into the cost of doing business. I really hope this takeover by Gamestop works out, I mean how much worse can it get? I don't profess to know all the intricacies of running a company like eBay but aren't some things are just common sense-something eBay seems to be losing at an alarming rate.

by: pace306

This is the kind of thing that GameStop found out about when he listed items.

It’s not eBay’s business- they aren’t the police.

If you want to limit a brand (and they used to do exactly that via Vero) that’s wrong too.

Just make sales and stop playing around

Fighting fraud is one thing, being annoying and stupid is another  

by: NJSRR

Been doing business on Ebay since 1998 and have never been asked to provide any kind of receipt for purchases.

by: LJW

Do yard sellers have receipts for their items? Ebay has almost always been an online yard sale/flea market. Now they want to be Amazon, well Amazon is Amazon and will stomp Ebay into the dirt if they ever get close.
I can see if you are trying to sell very high end items, BUT in the very common case that you purchased something 20 years ago for $10 and now it's worth $2000 where does the receipt come from? It's a dumb idea for a platform that's never needed them before.  

by: Bidonmine

My problem is that I ran an antiques and collectable business for almost 40 years. I retired and sold the business 4 years ago. However,  I still have a storage garage full of items that did not go with the sale. I have been slowly selling off these items that were accumulated over 40 years that I did not ever put in my store.
I have no receipts for these items other then the receipts stored with my tax filings for the last 10 years that show starting, ending inventory and dollar amounts purchased and sold. There are no receipts except for the most recent, within 10 years, purchases and there is no way I can go through the thousands of receipts.

by: Rogue

  When it comes to selling on 🤡E~Bays, businesses platform, a crucial factor for sellers to conceivably consider is encountering vending limits imposed by the platform However, these perimeters are subject to potential modifications.🤡E~Bay engages these hindering profitability restraint’s contingent upon the viable verification status of potential sales income, These confines are designed to regulate and effectively manage 🤡E~Bays profit margin inventory effectively, and maximize their potential income. Understanding 🤡E~Bays industry’s nuances reveals their insatiable need to form opinions on what is conceivable manageable tolerances for acceptable income for OTHERS.  Ensuring an Accumulating, thus quantitative and qualitative positive cash flow for Nobody but 🤡E~Bay.  

by: RKTOYS

The answer is malicious compliance.  Open Photoshop or Word and bang out a "receipt" that's faker than a $3 bill.  You're under no obligation to satisfy their stupid little fishing expedition.

by: my2cents

Amazon has done this for YEARS too.  I won't comply when they ask me for this info since they often compete with me on stuff I sell.  I will in no way give my detailed supplier info to a competitor.  That simply is not good business sense.  I just don't sell whatever it is they want receipts for on their site and take it elsewhere to sell.

With Ebay, I can see both sides of this.  Ebay sometimes gets sued and even held responsible for knock offs and stolen items being sold on the site.  So if it is on stuff that can cause exposure for Ebay, then I understand.  But other stuff no.  I think it has to be on a case by case basis.  

by: pdxBuys

I want to sell my grandma's toaster which she purchased in 1973. I do not have a receipt for it. What do I do?

by: Rogue

Get your 🤡E~Bays executive’s address book out and go old school !
                                        Door to Door!!
    Jamie Iannone
      President and CEO; Director
    Jordan Sweetnam
      SVP, Chief Commercial Officer
    Mazen Rawashdeh
      SVP, Chief Technology Officer
    Cornelius Boone
      SVP, Chief People Officer
    Julie A. Loeger
      SVP, Chief Growth Officer
    Samantha Kevin Wellington
      SVP, Chief Legal Officer
    Rebecca Spencer
      VP, Chief Accounting Officer
    Perry Marques Traquina
      Director
    Logan D. Green
      Director
    Aparna Chennapragada
      Director
    Zane C. Rowe
      Director
    Mohak Shroff
     Director
     Better Demand Cash $ for this family Heirloom;
As they're Checks/Credit Cards are probably   NO GOOD!
Best to get picture of the purchase; (you know for clarity and training purposes)