5 ms·

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

by 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.
  - tptacek 4y ago
    We regulate businesses in the US. Have since the time of the founders.

by lstodd 4y ago

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.
- tptacek 4y ago
  We regulate businesses in the US. Have since the time of the founders.