4 ms·

Etsy isn't a garage sale. When we with my ex started selling handmade stuff there, we had revenue above 20k in the first year knowing almost nothing about anyt

by lstodd 4y ago

Etsy isn't a garage sale. When we with my ex started selling handmade stuff there, we had revenue above 20k in the first year knowing almost nothing about anything. Mind you, handmade isn't IT, margins are thin. Yes, we had that as an ongoing source of income. Why is this a reason for doxxing us?

squeaky-clean 4y ago
Etsy can be a garage sale. It may be dominated by dropshippers at the moment, but the average person selling real DIY things on Etsy is not making anywhere near 20k/yr. You two must be very skilled at your craft to be able to do that within your first year, even if revenue != profit. Either that or you're selling a couple things that cost 10k+ to make (Which actually wouldn't count as high volume because you also need 200 sales)
- lstodd 4y ago
  20K rev divided by 200 sales is $100/sale. We dıd about $200-$300 on an margin of about 2%, we got like $1K profit, which considering how much went into "capital" as in buying tools and learning how to use them becomes very negative value. In fact we went into black on our third year. And now this. Okay, fuck Congress. Maybe I'll buy it and fire everyone just like Musk did with Twitter. :=/
  - tptacek 4y ago
    You're making exactly the distinction I am; you've literally built a business, and invested your earnings back into it. You're not a casual seller.
    - lstodd 4y ago
      Etsy was never about casual sellers by your definition. Ebay might have been in some ancient history, but not for last 15 years at least. All this crap does is to introduce more friction into markets which very much don't need this bullshit just right now.
      - tptacek 4y ago
        I'm not sure anybody should care what Etsy is "about". What I'm saying, positively and not normatively, is that the distinction the statute makes is between casual sellers and people who sell as a recurring source of income. I'm really not sure what part of that you're trying to argue with here. You can not like that distinction, but you haven't rebutted that it is a meaningful distinction. Both Etsy and eBay have sellers who use the site to, like, clear out their basements and workshops every once in awhile, or to get rid of an old piece of equipment when something newer comes along; the moral equivalent of the customers of a used record store. The distinction prevents those people from being inconvenienced; sensibly, because they aren't businesses.
        lstodd 4y ago
        I'm not sure why this distinction has any right to exist. (as "in between casual sellers and people who sell as a recurring source of income")
        Espressosaurus 4y ago
        There is a qualitative and quantitative difference between someone who runs a literal garage sale once a year to clear stuff out and someone who is running a garage sale every day, 365 days a year, buying product for the sole purpose of reselling it at their permanent garage sale. Local regulation usually places a fairly arbitrary but still useful benchmark of 4 garage sales a year before you need a business license. At 4 per year and a max of 1 day per garage sale chances are you're not making tons of money. When my family would run their garage sales back in the day a hundred dollars would be a big day. It was more about clearing stuff out than trying to make money. This is placing a fairly arbitrary but still useful benchmark of 200 sales or $5,000 in revenue in a year to be considered using this as a business. If you sell 200 distinct items I'll buy that it's a business. If you're selling $5,000 of merchandise, I'll buy that it's a business (or you're selling a used car or something of similarly high value). Either way you're a business and need to start abiding by business regulations, including things like having a known address.
        4y ago
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    If this was the way things work, then technically Twitter isn't a business since they've been cash negative for their entire history.
anigbrowl 4y ago
That seems like high volume tome. You're not being doxxed, you're operating a business. You need to be legally reachable somehow.
- richiebful1 4y ago
  If you operate an LLC in the US, you need to have a mailing address listed. Perhaps a phone number too. I believe this information is typically made public. No one said your business mailing address has to be your place of residence

by lstodd 4y ago

squeaky-clean 4y ago

Etsy can be a garage sale. It may be dominated by dropshippers at the moment, but the average person selling real DIY things on Etsy is not making anywhere near 20k/yr. You two must be very skilled at your craft to be able to do that within your first year, even if revenue != profit. Either that or you're selling a couple things that cost 10k+ to make (Which actually wouldn't count as high volume because you also need 200 sales)

lstodd 4y ago
20K rev divided by 200 sales is $100/sale. We dıd about $200-$300 on an margin of about 2%, we got like $1K profit, which considering how much went into "capital" as in buying tools and learning how to use them becomes very negative value. In fact we went into black on our third year. And now this. Okay, fuck Congress. Maybe I'll buy it and fire everyone just like Musk did with Twitter. :=/
- tptacek 4y ago
  You're making exactly the distinction I am; you've literally built a business, and invested your earnings back into it. You're not a casual seller.
  - lstodd 4y ago
    Etsy was never about casual sellers by your definition. Ebay might have been in some ancient history, but not for last 15 years at least. All this crap does is to introduce more friction into markets which very much don't need this bullshit just right now.
    - tptacek 4y ago
      I'm not sure anybody should care what Etsy is "about". What I'm saying, positively and not normatively, is that the distinction the statute makes is between casual sellers and people who sell as a recurring source of income. I'm really not sure what part of that you're trying to argue with here. You can not like that distinction, but you haven't rebutted that it is a meaningful distinction. Both Etsy and eBay have sellers who use the site to, like, clear out their basements and workshops every once in awhile, or to get rid of an old piece of equipment when something newer comes along; the moral equivalent of the customers of a used record store. The distinction prevents those people from being inconvenienced; sensibly, because they aren't businesses.
      - lstodd 4y ago
        I'm not sure why this distinction has any right to exist. (as "in between casual sellers and people who sell as a recurring source of income")
        Espressosaurus 4y ago
        There is a qualitative and quantitative difference between someone who runs a literal garage sale once a year to clear stuff out and someone who is running a garage sale every day, 365 days a year, buying product for the sole purpose of reselling it at their permanent garage sale. Local regulation usually places a fairly arbitrary but still useful benchmark of 4 garage sales a year before you need a business license. At 4 per year and a max of 1 day per garage sale chances are you're not making tons of money. When my family would run their garage sales back in the day a hundred dollars would be a big day. It was more about clearing stuff out than trying to make money. This is placing a fairly arbitrary but still useful benchmark of 200 sales or $5,000 in revenue in a year to be considered using this as a business. If you sell 200 distinct items I'll buy that it's a business. If you're selling $5,000 of merchandise, I'll buy that it's a business (or you're selling a used car or something of similarly high value). Either way you're a business and need to start abiding by business regulations, including things like having a known address.
        4y ago
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  If this was the way things work, then technically Twitter isn't a business since they've been cash negative for their entire history.

anigbrowl 4y ago

That seems like high volume tome. You're not being doxxed, you're operating a business. You need to be legally reachable somehow.

richiebful1 4y ago
If you operate an LLC in the US, you need to have a mailing address listed. Perhaps a phone number too. I believe this information is typically made public. No one said your business mailing address has to be your place of residence