[Milsurplus] Big Brother Comes to Our Town

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:17 AM, John Hutchins
<olegerityincj at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> I am lucky to break even.

You and me both, Hutch. I've been shipping out items that ended
Sunday, one box was an $8.99 item that I charged $8 shipping for and
it ended up costing $11.89. Working on the last one now, a 50s
receiver which is doubled boxed with its speaker in a separate box.
Somehow I don't think the $65 shipping fee is going to cover it.
Fortunately I'm only selling there to help cull the herd, not to get
rich. Try to figure just the time spent packing, if you added that to
the shipping at a paltry $10/hr you'd get no bidders!

I've wondered for a while when the IRS would pounce, mainly because of
the high volume sellers like ebay stores or power sellers. While I'm
sure some run it as a business and pay taxes, I'd bet a lot do not.
Regardless of having already paid tax on the money earned to buy the
item initially, then often on the item itself, you just know the IRS
is going to be looking under every rock to fund the current spending
binge in DC. Long before it became a fashionable campaign slogan, the
IRS was using the motto 'yes we can'.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4