No need to answer this, anybody -- but I am pretty gosh darn surprised that no investigative journalist did any news story about the New Hampshire law that you gotta have an auction LICENSE to sell on eBay, or else you are committing a FELONY.
Great!
I mean I knew, I really did know that there'd be GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION, cuz NONE of the online auction VENUES, "Only a venue, Only a dollar!" NONE of them would regulate themselves, and so everything was unsafe for BOTH bidders and sellers.
You know, what I *really* feel bad about? What I feel the worst about is all sortsa private emails I've gotten from sellers describing THOUSANDS of dollars worth of stock they ain't getting bids on, AND now we get to pay a LICENSING FEE of hundreds of dollars for the "pleasure" of all this work, only to either have no bids, or else THRill bids?
posted on December 1, 1999 07:43:44 PM new
Day after day after day after day there have ben stories about how the feds ain't gonna do nothing to e-biz, as they wanna encourage e-commerce.
I am waiting to see a major newspaper article on the fact that New Hampshire and North Carolina have imposed licensing requirements on online auctioneers.
I do not know of other regulations by either states or feds which regulate other commercial activities on the Internet.
Well yes it is a story and if I were an editor, I'd assign someone to write it.
But having worked in newsrooms recently, I'm going to say, "OK, guys, find me someone that has been nailed by the state's auctioneering board!"
They call the NC State Auctioneering Board and the guy there say, "Ain't nobody been cited or arrested or nothing."
The reporter comes back and tells the editor that and the editor says, well, it'll be a story when someone does get 'rrested so go over and cover the cooking contest at the highschool instead.
Sites such as auctionwatch and even CNN online and some others have had the story and are following it for developments.
But it hasn't impacted the folks in Raleigh or Charlotte yet because the NC Board of Auctioneers hasn't been enforcing it.
Indeed, I talked with Bob Hamilton and he came across as a relatively reasonable fellow who, like most, is not going to go out looking for "trouble."
But if a brick and mortar auctioneer gets cut out of a deal by a seller who wrote a contract to sell an estate online, you can pretty much bet he's going to investigate that "unlicensed auctioneering firm."
These types of state occupational boards all work on a complaint basis. If you sell your home yourself, you're not going to be bothered but if you start selling your neighbors house and others in around with out having a "real estate" license, you can be the "real estate agent who thought he'd get that business" is going to complain to the real estate board. Ditto a Dentist who had state law written so that denturists can't fit dentures (and he finds one doing it.) or hairdressers, etc.
I guess the point is that if you open up the biggest antique mall in five counties and draw folks to it because you sell their stuff online for a fee, your local auctioneer may complain.
But just like "For Sale By Owner" homesales, if you're doing what is permissable, selling your own stuff, you're not really going to draw attention or even be expected to comply.
Bottom line, I don't think anyone in the industry is overjoyed with these efforts by the states to regulate the industry but I also think we need to be realistic about them.
And, if you insist that you want to avoid that type of regulation, you best consider BidSafe only auctions or possibly other automated billing tools from other sites.
I say that because, if the online auction handles the money for you, the case of the state regulators is compromised. That is because if the only "direct" contact between you and your buyer is your pasting the shipping label on the item and sending it to customer, it would be hard to get a jury to buy your are the auctioneer or even much of an auction firm.
The strongest case, IMO, is in the case of BidSafe as it also adds the added benefit of auctions.com actively playing the role of "intermediary" in ensuring the buyer's satisfaction.
