How to stop eBay touts

B

BA Baracus

Guest
So, we all know that the only way to get a Wii in the next few weeks is via eBay. I will make two suggestions to either make the prices cheaper on eBay or make the eBay seller feel a bit of financial pain.

1. Do not buy the Wii via eBay

Obvious, but true. Its all about supply and demand. Here we are fighting over Wiis which pushes the price up on eBay. If nobody bids in eBay then the price will fall like a stone. They'll even sell at a loss to get rid of them, the seller wants the cash not a pile of Wii boxes.

2. Report the eBay seller to HM Revenue & Customs

If it is a private individual selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more income tax and national insurance because they are trading. If it is a company selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more corporation tax and VAT.

Follow my ideas and the seller will either not get the sale or will have to pay up to two hundred pounds in tax, so less in their grubby paw.

Seems fair to me. :)

Any other ideas?
 
1. Unfortunately if everyone decided not to purchase a Wii on eBay then this would mean less people bidding which would keep the price down. Everyone would then see how little they are fetching and would suddenly start trying to buy them again thereby driving the price up !

2. I'm sure HMRC is looking hard at clamping down on traders on eBay but they are not going to be able to jump in right now on individual sellers.

Xmas isn't here yet and there is still time for Nintendo to get more Wii's to the UK.
 
NO offence but these posts get MIGHTY boring.

Why are people so bitter? So you didnt get one and have to wait a week. I am sure you will live.

I had to buy a 360 from Ebay last year but I didnt whine
 
So, we all know that the only way to get a Wii in the next few weeks is via eBay. I will make two suggestions to either make the prices cheaper on eBay or make the eBay seller feel a bit of financial pain.

1. Do not buy the Wii via eBay

Obvious, but true. Its all about supply and demand. Here we are fighting over Wiis which pushes the price up on eBay. If nobody bids in eBay then the price will fall like a stone. They'll even sell at a loss to get rid of them, the seller wants the cash not a pile of Wii boxes.

2. Report the eBay seller to HM Revenue & Customs

If it is a private individual selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more income tax and national insurance because they are trading. If it is a company selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more corporation tax and VAT.

Follow my ideas and the seller will either not get the sale or will have to pay up to two hundred pounds in tax, so less in their grubby paw.

Seems fair to me. :)

Any other ideas?
I read HM Revenue and Customs were looking on clamping down on big profits from Auction sites, so soon you may be seeing the end to huge prices for the PS3 and Wii on Ebay and other auction sites.
 
I read HM Revenue and Customs were looking on clamping down on big profits from Auction sites, so soon you may be seeing the end to huge prices for the PS3 and Wii on Ebay and other auction sites.

Er, why should that be? Even if you have to pay tax, a big profit is a big profit!
 
Bitter? A strange way to describe somebodys point of view.

What the eBay sellers are doing is perfectly legal, and if people want to pay prices like that then that is up them. But if the sellers want to play fair then be up front, let everyone know that you are trading and pay the taxes - we all do.

Not only are they screwing the buyer but also dodging the tax man, just so they can make a quick buck.
 
80% of them on there are single units bought my people like me and you.

How do you know that the ones selling 10+ (there arent that many) arent VAT registered etc and will be declaring this?

I didnt say you were personally bitter, just everyones attitude because people are making money and they didnt get a console!
 
80% of them on there are single units bought my people like me and you.

How do you know that the ones selling 10+ (there arent that many) arent VAT registered etc and will be declaring this?

I didnt say you were personally bitter, just everyones attitude because people are making money and they didnt get a console!

care to give a source for that 80% figure?

yes im mad at ebay touts, i also got my wii on launch day at rrp. im also mad at people starving in the 3rd world, doesnt mean i have to of been there to find it unsettling
 
Next he will be saving the world, i cant believe how bitter people are getting, its a Wii being sold at a profit, get over it!!

If you dont want dont buy, if everybody did it they wouldn't be forsale, and your just going to single out people selling the Wii when there are 1000's of people buying and selling stuff o ebay and not paying tax from cars to electronics to boats to clothes,i bet you would shop nextdoor to the police if the tyres on their car were getting low.
Should we feel sorry for the goverment because they are not taxing sellers on ebay, i bet you would soon moan then if you bought items and got hit on everything, you dont want to go down that road.
 
stupid thread, i dont understand why people are crying over not getting a wii!

just wait for ur turn and u will get one m8, theres no need to cry over it. Its not our fault that you didnt preorder one, should have done wat the rest did and not rely on going into a store on launch day to purchase one.

There is nothing wrong with selling 1-3 consoles on ebay, although u could be right about business people who have stacks of them on ebay, those ones could be charged VAT etc.. but its difficult to find out who those people are!
 
its part of the must have one now generation, i mean, you wait months and months for the wii, whats te dela with waiitng an extra month, i mena i would udnerstand it maybe if all the cables etc were releeased and mroe games were out.

I waited 12 months before getting a 360, just called patience, alot fo the people that buy on ebay have none of it.

Also you get some people who dont want to upset their young kids, how do you weed them out though?
 
The parents buying for kids argument is lame, if they were better parents then they'd have several preorders and be waiting in in a que if it was that important.
 
1. We live in a free world (free-ish anyway). Usually any effort against a demand/supply price fails in a free world. Only half do-able effort comes in by the government to fine large manufacuturer for profiting from monopoly situations etc.

2. For an average private individual, why is it you are looking at his sales profit only. I am sure the average Joe have sold some stuff (2nd hand) at a lost (cars, tv etc). For a business trader, totally agreed, needs to pay tax.
 
2. Report the eBay seller to HM Revenue & Customs

If it is a private individual selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more income tax and national insurance because they are trading. If it is a company selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more corporation tax and VAT.

Follow my ideas and the seller will either not get the sale or will have to pay up to two hundred pounds in tax, so less in their grubby paw.

Seems fair to me. :)

Any other ideas?

You forgot to add the links on how to do that...
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...&_pageLabel=pageContactUs_CustomsConfidential

And...
http://www.direct.gov.uk/MoneyTaxAn...Articles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10010579&chk=KPU9JS

Than again, I don't think it will get very fair...First of all, those 'companies'/individuals won't supply you with a VAT invoice. So they don't actually charge the buyer the VAT, thus don't collect it, thus don't have to transfer it back to HMRC...Unlike the original retailer...

And then lets say they do have 10 consoles, that is worth ÂŁ1799.90. Unless they do lots of other trade, they are well below the threshold for being obliged to charge VAT.....

Income tax could be a very different story but that is getting so personal that you can't be even suggesting that people should/shouldn't declare it on their self-assesment.....

Now, I fully agree with your first point....Don't pay the money, that is the only wait to stop the touts....
 
My two cents - I got a Wii, could have had three, but put two back in the queues at those shops as thought it was wrong to profit on them on eBay.

If people are allowed to pre-order more than one console and then make huge profits on eBay, then eventually when a new console comes out there won't be any in the shops because 99% will be on eBay at stupid prices. You could wait and not get a new console until a few months are passed, but if you are a big Nintendo/Sony/MS fan then I can see why this would be difficult.
The console manufacturers and eBay could stop this easily. A clause on the terms and conditions stating that it was illegal to sell the console on within the first 3 months of it's life would stop it. I would think that one person employed in each eBay area to look for auctions of the offending console and then report the auction to eBay for them to take down would work. Manufacturers then know that their fans aren't being ripped off, eBay make so much money anyway that the PR this would generate would be worth it.
 
I'm sorry but this is just a ridiculous thread.

I made two pre-orders to make sure I got a machine. One from Woolies, the other from toys r us. I expected to be let down on the Woolworths one, but I managed to get both. Was going to give one of them to a friend at rrp, but fell out with him recently (long story, silly argument), anyway seeing the prices on ebay I just put my spare one on a days auction. Started the auction at rrp (179.99) however it has just ended at £350.

I have done nothing wrong, ripped nobody off. As far as i'm concerned if the auction had ended at 179.99 + p&p they would have got it for that price. Turns out there are plenty of people willing to pay over the odds and that is their problem.

The people willing to pay stupid prices are the ones you should be aiming your rants at, not the sellers. At the end of the day, although I feel some sympathy for those who got shafted on their launch day pre-orders, people who could not be bothered getting out of bed and queuing for one don't deserve one. That's the route I would have taken had I not pre-ordered and got mine. I know for a fact I would have got one this way as another friend of mine did from our local shopping centre after waiting 30 minutes in a queue outside tesco's.

Dave.
 
Last year on the launch of the 360 my pre-order didn't arrive (play.com) so I went into town and managed to get hold of 2!! The first was in a bundle the secound wasn't. So I thought I could stick one on ebay and make a killing, then I thought how anoyed I was that my preorder hadn't come and the main reason peoples pre-orders don't come is because people pre-order from several places, and several arrive so they sell them on ebay! visious circle.

So i decided to break the circle and take mine back to the shop (you should have seen the look on there face!) and get a refund so someone else wouldn't be disapointed.

I know its legal, but it isn't right. I don't agree with people doing it, its no different from ticket touts bying all the gig tickets up to sell them on at a higher price.

p.s. I didn't have a pre-order, so I'm going to get one when the availability is better.

All above JMHO
 
So, we all know that the only way to get a Wii in the next few weeks is via eBay. I will make two suggestions to either make the prices cheaper on eBay or make the eBay seller feel a bit of financial pain.

1. Do not buy the Wii via eBay

Obvious, but true. Its all about supply and demand. Here we are fighting over Wiis which pushes the price up on eBay. If nobody bids in eBay then the price will fall like a stone. They'll even sell at a loss to get rid of them, the seller wants the cash not a pile of Wii boxes.

2. Report the eBay seller to HM Revenue & Customs

If it is a private individual selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more income tax and national insurance because they are trading. If it is a company selling a stack of Wiis then they should be paying more corporation tax and VAT.

Follow my ideas and the seller will either not get the sale or will have to pay up to two hundred pounds in tax, so less in their grubby paw.

Seems fair to me. :)

Any other ideas?

This whole issue is getting very boring.

Best get your PS3 pre-order in now.
 
The parents buying for kids argument is lame, if they were better parents then they'd have several preorders and be waiting in in a que if it was that important.

Or just not give in to their offsprings demands and pick one up at a later date, when all the furore has died down.
People really do lose it at Christmas time....
 
My two cents - I got a Wii, could have had three, but put two back in the queues at those shops as thought it was wrong to profit on them on eBay.

Whats to say the people who bought them instead didn't put them on EBAY. If you were so concerned then why didn't you buy them and put them on these forums or EBAY at RRP. Even then people could have still bought them and put them on EBAY again

Theres no way you can stop unless you want to buy all the consoles you can then sell them when supply is better, but no one is gonna do that
 

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