Additional Income from Ebay, etc.?

[flower04]

With our attorney's advice, we are trying to sell some 'collectibles' that we have on Ebay and other sites and live off that income right now, touching as much as our wage income as little as possible. We will file next month...What happens if you sell something for a large amount of $$ AFTER you file...I assume you can keep the money, but what do you have to tell your trustee?

Thanks

[laurannm]

I would think if it's a large enough amount, the trustee will want to know about it. But it may depend on your district\trustee.

Why does your lawyer want you touching your wages as little as possible?

[gymbo]

I don't have answers but many of the same questions - I have been frantically selling on ebay to try and keep my head above water - now that I am planning to file - will they expect that income to continue (becasue it probably won't).

What about my Paypal account - will they want to see that?

[Flamingo]

There has been much discussion on here about eBay and Paypal accounts. Do a search on here as to either "PayPay" or "eBay." A lot of your questions will be answered.

[buchanj]

Im not 100 percent certain but I dont think the trustee has the time or the interest in you selling things on e-bay. I dont think you need to tell them about it anyway. They simply dont have the resources to watch every thing you do.
Dont talk to the trustee or as I call mine "pig vomit".

[flower04]

Thanks, I'll search for paypal, etc.

[Flamingo]

Im not 100 percent certain but I dont think the trustee has the time or the interest in you selling things on e-bay. I dont think you need to tell them about it anyway. They simply dont have the resources to watch every thing you do.
Dont talk to the trustee or as I call mine "pig vomit".

Attorneys and trustees are well aware of eBay and PayPal and if you do a search on here you will find out that quite a few have been very interested in eBay selling and PayPal accounts. If one does business on eBay, sells frequently and not occasionally selling the kids outgrown clothing, it is an income source and needs to be brought to the attention of one's attorney at the time of BK discussions. Trustees have a job to do and that is to collect funds that are due and owing by debtors to creditors and it is their responsibility/duty to find all they can to ensure the creditors are paid back as much of the debt as possible. They didn't put the filer in the position to file - the filer did.

[jgarton244]

I can only comment on my experience. When we were in our BK 13 plan, I sold on ebay on aregual basis. I would average about $500. month. I took the position that it was no different then having a yard sale, and selling items we no longer wished to keep. It was never an issue, but I did not disclose the activity. I was prepared to take the position that I was selling unmeeded items, as I would at a yard sale, but ebay allowed me a larger consumer base to secure higher prices then if I had a sale in our small town of 1500 people. Other than reviewing my annual tax returns, the trustee never looked at any other financial transactions, like our checking account.

[Flamingo]

I can only comment on my experience. When we were in our BK 13 plan, I sold on ebay on aregual basis. I would average about $500. month. I took the position that it was no different then having a yard sale, and selling items we no longer wished to keep. It was never an issue, but I did not disclose the activity. I was prepared to take the position that I was selling unmeeded items, as I would at a yard sale, but ebay allowed me a larger consumer base to secure higher prices then if I had a sale in our small town of 1500 people. Other than reviewing my annual tax returns, the trustee never looked at any other financial transactions, like our checking account.

Let's put it this way - if you were averaging $500 a month on eBay and consider it to be equal to a yard sale, 99% of us would like to know how we all can do a yard sale outside each month and make $500! :-) If you had $500 of "unneeded" items each month for sale on eBay each month of your Plan, you must have held quite a bit back from your attorney! It could have been considered a "business" out of your home at that amount per month. Most folks have an average of one or two yardsales a year, luckily generating $200-$250 each time depending on what is for sale. You were lucky to have gotten away with this - many do not and it is always best to divulge any income coming in to one's attorney to be on the safe side because risking a Chapter 13 dismissal is not a place one wants to be. There have been many questions and responses along these lines on here over the past years and they are increasing in number as trustees and attorones are becoming more aware of eBay and PayPal accounts.

[buchanj]

I won 9 dollars on a scratcher..Ill be sure to inform the trustee flamingo.

[jgarton244]

We were fortunate in having a lot of items that we had accumulated through auctions, yard sales and thrift stores over the years. I had been buying small items for at least twenty years prior to our filing. We had a very large set of Pfaltzgraff folk art pattern, which had been purchased at outlets and on clearance sales in the 1980's. We no longer used it, and it brought over $900. just by seliing piece by piece. We sold our kids clothing from which they no longer fit. You would be surprised what good used childrens clothing will bring. I had a box of old keys that I paid $5. for several years before. They sold for over $1,000 in lots. Who knew people wanted old keys that said Ford, Chevrolet, etc. I had several pocket knives that went high. I used to play war games in college. They sold for over $100 each, 25 years later. I had many "hot Wheel cars from when I was a kid. I had no idea that they would sell for $50 - $150 each. I had a few hundred.

So yes, I had a large amount of valuable junk. I did not use pay pal. I only took postal money orders. I would then cash them at the post office.

I am not saying anyone else should do the same. We were a 100% pay back, so they got paid back all we owed. Ebay sales were just a way to meet some of the tight times for us.

[MajorMike]

I won 9 dollars on a scratcher..Ill be sure to inform the trustee flamingo.

Newbie!
We're not talking about $9 here and before you start being disrespectful to Flamingo, who knows what she is talking about, you better just keep keep your snide comments to yourself.

[buchanj]

hey major [expletive deleted by moderator] !

[MajorMike]

What is your problem???


I can't believe the mods left this sit here for 2 days and haven't banned this person.

[lrprn]

What is your problem???

Well, the incredibly condescending tone in your "newbie" reply to his post sure did open the door to his over-reaction, MM.

What is the point of you posting these comments to others here? This isn't what this board is about.

I can't believe the mods left this sit here for 2 days and haven't banned this person.

If one of us had seen it before now, we would have dealt with it swiftly as we always do.

We mods try very hard to keep up with all the posts, but with 75-100 new posts to check out every single day (and each of us do have very busy full-time jobs in the real world, you know ), some bad posts are inevitably going to be missed.

Perhaps instead of being so judgmental of our efforts ("I can't believe the mods let this sit here...") - implying we knew about this offensive post but did nothing - you would have a better outcome by showing some understanding about the incredible amount of time it takes to moderate a very active Internet board with hundreds of posters with very complex problems. Shaking your condescending, judgmental finger at us too doesn't help your case one bit.

Next time it happens, MM, even though you are a valued forum member you will get the same seven day ban from posting that buchanj just got. Think before you post, ok? No more poking the bear.