BGG shutting down Marketplace

Now the Flea Market is already DOA: boardgamegeek.com/thread/2915757/geekmar...e-classifieds-coming

Msample wrote: Now the Flea Market is already DOA: boardgamegeek.com/thread/2915757/geekmar...e-classifieds-coming

Can't have that without TOS getting a cut.

I'm glad they're nixing the flea market forum. I was already getting an annoying amount of notifications from them.

Classifieds seem basically like it will be a less good version of the geekmarket, which seems like probably the best possible outcome of this.

In case you're neck had recovered from the last round, the Geekmarket is back...sorta: boardgamegeek.com/thread/2923566/launchi...geekmarket-next-week

Basically, the game listings and price history will remain, the "checkout" process and cart are going away completely (just use geek mails and mark it as sold when done), and feedback is being turned to number of sales. But don't worry, BGG still wants their 3% "commission" for providing a less functional tool. Speculation is still that TOS is doing this to keep from running afoul of the new tax regulations, but I have to question if they can really do that while still taking a percentage of the sale (as opposed to some fixed listing fee or something).

Then again, in another thread, they mentioned that commissions were always done on the honor system and implied they were donations. I wonder if they will try to walk the tightrope of them being optional but required...

How much do I get for turning them into the IRS for tax evasion?

I was complaining about the complainers on the TWBG discord wrt to the new market and 3% fee but was missing some essential context. I didn’t realise that they had been implying that the 3% fee was some optional donation.

I don’t know the legalities of fixed vs percentage fees and I leave that to their legal counsel but if they want to collect a percentage fee but make it pseudo-optional to shirk the law then that’s super unethical, just charge me a price for a service and run your business like a business. It’s okay to make money, just be transparent about how!

I don’t think the IRS gives a rats ass whether income is a donation/optional whatever. It’s INCOME . Servers who get tips are supposed to report them as income for instance even though the tip is theoretically optional. And despite their kumbaya vibe BGG is assuredly a for profit business.

Somebody get Stormseeker in here. He's a chartered accountant.

I'm sure they report the commissions as income to themselves either way. I'm guessing what they're trying to avoid is being tied to the actual game sale so much that they're required to issue 1099-Ks to sellers or have to manage sales taxes, which I completely understand.

In case folks don't check ToS regularly, this message just went out to every user with a current Marketplace listing:

"Here is a summary of how listings work in the new BGG GeekMarket:

• Creating a listing is the same - you say what you are selling, for how much, and where you will ship to.
• You will no longer need to confirm receiving an order before working out details with a buyer. Instead, buyers will message you directly when they are interested in your listing and you will communicate directly with the buyer to finalize the deal.
• Mark your listing as SOLD after making a deal with a buyer. You will be able to cancel the sale for up to 60 days after marking it SOLD in case something goes wrong where you need to refund the buyer.
• Successful listings (i.e. listings that are marked SOLD) are charged an advertising fee of 3% of the listing price. Your fees can be paid at any time here: /market/account/payfees
• Your number of completed sales with fees paid will be displayed on your other listings so buyers will be able to to evaluate sellers at a glance."

I'm getting the vibe that BGG's commission is now on the honor system? HA.

"Successful listings (i.e. listings that are marked SOLD) are charged an advertising fee of 3% of the listing price."

No longer a commission - I'm sure someone here will explain what they have weaselled around under US sales/tax law

INALB, classified listings are supposed to be immune to the tax laws because they don't have any way to track the purchase price. This is clearly not true here, so who knows the actual legality. And they only mentioned that payments were on the "honor system" one time as far I can tell, but many dispute that claim. Clearly they won't come sue you for the cash, but I'm pretty sure they'd lock your account if you abused it. Of course you could try to dodge the fee by not marking the item as sold when you're done, but then some others have mentioned that BGG monitored the messaging system for the beta marketplace (not sure if that was separate or geekmail) because he got a warning for suggesting they do a bulk transaction on the old marketplace instead of the beta one. So I presume negotiating sales over geekmail and avoiding the fee would probably eventually get shut down.

Interesting that we've gone from "impossible" to "totally possible" within the space of a few weeks.

This is the weirdest series of events for what has ended up being functionally the same system in place.

I'm happy the marketplace, with its price history, will still be around. I can leave all my for sale stuff sitting there and, unless I missed something, can still post auctions. Though, it does make me think that Noble Knight might just be the easiest way to dump a bunch of games at once.

I find this interesting - if you look at the new page to pay your marketplace listing fees, it says "Pay Ad Fees". It uses similar language on another couple of headings.

So their claim then is that you're paying for the advertisement of your sales I suppose, instead of a cut of the sales themselves.