Ebay in France?

[Kitty]

I have a whole load of things to sell.

I never have enough time in England to sell things on Ebay but was wondering whether to do it from France.

Would anyone recommend it, bearing in mind the length of time and the cost of postage?

Alternatively, is there a French Ebay where I could sell my things?

[tj]

Hi Cathy

depends what you have to sell?

But generally not much point with the french ebay,    ebay.co.uk and .com ( america) still have more money and the americans dont mind the postage costs.

 

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

The buyer always pays postage so that isn't an issue.

We sold most of our stuff on ebay from Australia before coming over. It was a lot of work, and I suppose overall we got what we expected we'd get (lost on some, made on others).

[Bassman]

Here it is[;-)]

 

http://www.ebay.fr/   

[Suze01]

[quote user="Cathy"]

Would anyone recommend it, bearing in mind the length of time and the cost of postage?

[/quote]

I've sold 30 items totally 150 euros over the past 6 months on eBay France.  Only a few items didn't sell.  It's mainly been outgrown but good quality kids clothes and a few household ornaments.  In fact on Saturday I sold 6 items inlcuding a pair of jeans that my son never wore as they were too small for more money than I paid for them in Auchan [:-))]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

If you do use ebay, download a program fom their site called turbo lister as it will make listing things a lot quicker.

[Bassman]

Ah the wonderful world of eBay [:-))]

 

I once bought  a bass speaker cabinet 2ndhand from a local music shop for £120 after useing it for a year I bought some better(read expensive) new ones so I bunged the old one on eBay starting at £50 (fair I thought) well it went past £50 and £90 and £100 and £120 ......

 

 

 

 

 

 

It sold for £201 !!!!!! and the buyer was chuffed [8-)]

 

 

 

 

But not as chuffed as I was [;-)]LOL

[Kitty]

I have enjoyed reading all your replies.  This forum is SOOOOOOOO useful.  It looks as if I am going to be spoiled for choice i.e. selling stuff on Ebay UK or Ebay France.  I shall try both and report back.

Most of the stuff is things that I inherited when I cleared out Mum's house (oodles and oodles of fabrics - more than I need) and when I cleared the chai in my French house (French artisan things, such as pate pots, fishing tackle, hunting gear etc).

It is going to be fun as all the proceeds will be profit.  First though, I need a better computer...

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Cathy"]

It is going to be fun as all the proceeds will be profit.  First though, I need a better computer...

[/quote]

You could always buy one off eBay.....

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I don't know if it's possible in France, but in Australia, I bought around 800 of those bubble wrap envelopes you can get, in 4 different sizes. Australia Post give a 50% discount by buying them in bulk like that rather than individually. Don't know if La Poste can do that or you can go to a newsagent for them, but it kept my postage costs down which in turn made the items I was selling more saleable because of the slightly lower postage rates. It also makes packing up easier as you have all your materials to hand instantly.

We sold over 1000 items in 4 months, with only 1 negative feedback because the stupid idiot couldn't read my description properly.

[Darren, Vicky and Amelia]

We have used Ebay for years as buyers and sellers, with very little trouble. We tedn to advertise on Ebay UK just for simplicity. As said use Turbolister, put plenty of info, state that the item is in France not UK, normally not a problem, I just sold some earrings that went to USA.

For those whom use Ebay alot check this link out, makes me die laughing everytime I see it.

 

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/ebay-song-p1.php

 

Have fun

Vicky

[Herring_Brother]

Does anybody know what the tax implications are of using ebay.fr (or ebay.co.uk for that matter).

thanks,

HB

[Clair]

[quote user="Herring_Brother"]Does anybody know what the tax implications are of using ebay.fr (or ebay.co.uk for that matter).thanks,HB[/quote]

See this brief article about ebay trading in France:

LA JUSTICE commence à s'intéresser à eBay.

Le 12 janvier, un vendeur a

été condamné, par le tribunal correctionnel de Mulhouse, à 1 500 euros

d'amende pour « travail dissimulé ». Il lui est reproché d'avoir

revendu 470 objets de collection de 2003 à 2005, sans avoir déclaré son

activité à l'Urssaf et au registre du commerce. Une première en France,

qui pourrait en appeler d'autres. Car si, officiellement, eBay s'en

défend, la fraude - parfois délibérée, le plus souvent pratiquée par

ignorance - est répandue sur le site de vente aux enchères. Pour s'en

convaincre, il suffit de lire le forum de discussion des utilisateurs

d'eBay.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I don't know what the post above me says as I can't speak French that well yet, but if you're selling you're own posessions second hand there shouldn't be any tax implications as it is classed as a hobby. Certainly if you don't keep records of it, then there's no way the tax dept will ever know anyway.

[Juswundrin]

"Certainly if you don't keep records of it, then there's no way the tax dept will ever know anyway"

Your naivete is touching...

[Ron Avery]

True but L&R are actually correct, there are no tax implications to using eBay in France or the UK, provided you are selling your own possessions.  That article was stating , as would also be the case in the UK,  of a trader who was using eBay to sell goods as part of a business and was avoiding paying tax on those sales...... and that is illegal.

Have a look at a lot of the "businesses" or "shops" that you may have bought from on eBay in the past that have not charged VAT, how many are still registered? Me eight "shops" used , all no longer registered.  The UK tax man and it would seem, the French tax man,  regularly look at eBay to pick up illegal retailing by businesses, but really they are not interested in you selling your granny's toby jug collection although I notice that a lot of UK sellers have cheques "made out to the wife", making sure perhaps that as she does not work there are no tax implications in the future.

[Clair]

The person mentioned in the article was not a professional vendor.

Through inheritance, vide-greniers and marchés aux puces over a period of several years, he had accumulated a large quantitiy of various objects his wife got fed up with and she more or less gave him an ultimatum.

He decided to sell them through Ebay.fr and the gendarmes turned up on his doorstep when a vase he had purchased from a vide-grenier some time before was recognised on Ebay as a stolen item.

Because of the number of sales involved, the tribunal decided he was an undeclared professional vendor even though he had a perfectly legitimate oncome through his job and was already paying his due. According to them, he should have been registered with the Chambre de Commerce, keeping a register of his sales and paying the relevant contributions and so forth.

This has now created a precedent in France. More details about it here:

http://www.journaldunet.com/0601/060117vendeurebay.shtml

http://www.atelier.fr/article.php?artid=31285&catid=21

http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=351667

[Kitty]

Thanks Clair for the details.  It seems pretty harsh to me.  Perhaps this is an example about what is being said about the criminal justice system being so far removed from what we expect :  law abiding people getting penalised etc.  However, why would he have a stolen item for sale?

[Russethouse]

I expect he bought it quite unknowingly, its easily done, but there are very few unique items that could be recognised this way, perhaps there was a disinguishing feature, chip, mark for example.

I think even if you were 'private' and you sold a lot through ebay, the taxman would take an interest.

 

[Ron Avery]

Clair said  that "The person mentioned in the article was not a professional vendor"

But he was a professional vendor in the eyes of the authorities Clair, and that is what matters.  It says that there is a fluid and fine line between professional traders and individuals and they decided that as he had bought the articles and then resold them he was a "professional"

If you are selling such volumes of items or if you are acquiring items for resale and profit, to bring you to the notice of the authorities,  then it is likely that it not a hobby and a means of getting rid of unwanted items, but is in fact a business.  There are plenty of sellers on eBay who would be treated as professional by the criteria used by the French authorities.  Look at some of the sellers of children's clothes for example,  many buy them cheaply at boot fairs and on Ebay from others and sell them on, that is making it a business, which should be considered for registration and taxation, but as many of these sellers in the UK are "housewives" they would have to make a lot of profit to be of interest to the tax people, however, it seems that in France they may be taking a different view or this is a case of a test case as eBay and such sites are taking off.  It does say that he is  considering an appeal, but his defense of "I was ignorant of the law" but " I asked eBay what the limit was for an individual  and they said there was no limit"  needs a bit of strengthening, perhaps he should have asked his accountant, because as the French saw it, he was not an individual, he was operating a business. Its also possible that they did not believe his wife told him to get rid of the junk story!!

[andyh4]

But Ron, that is exactly the nub of Cathy's question.  At what stage does selling a few personal items become a business in the eyes of the Franch (or UK) taxman?

The fact that the individual bought the items seems to be a key point.  What the **** did the authorities expect, that he should have stole them!!!!!  That would have been OK then I take it.

So OK seriously it sounds as if he might have been OK if he had inherited them, but it still leaves open the key question. 

I have a collection which I have amassed over 20 years.  Most items have been bought second hand and I have no receipts for anything, although many of the boxes do have prices marked on them - not necessarily what I paid (which I do keep a record of purely for insurance purposes).  So if through failing eyesight, or maybe due to hard times, I decide to sell, what is the position?  Am I liable for tax or not?  If I sell privately to a trader as a job lot, is that different from offering the items individually on E-Bay?

 

I think this is a can of worms and my best advice to Cathy would be to sell say 25 items and then change your identity on e-bay.  You could still be traced, but it makes it much more unlikely.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

What's the difference to selling your second hand items on ebay to selling your second hand items at a car boot sale?

[Jc]

You don't have to stand out in the rain!

[zeb]

In France, you are only allowed to have a stall at two vide-greniers a year unless you are a registered trader.

[Athene]

You will need to be able to write in French fluently to list articles on E-Bay France remember! I have bought a solid fuel fire on E-Bay France and paid for its shipment 400km to where we are with UPS.(pronounced OOPS hope this will not be an oops for you!)