Pennsylvania takes on online auctions

[Mugu]

By Bob Fernandez, Inquirer Staff Writer, philly.com

WALNUTPORT, Pa. - Mary Jo Pletz was really, really good at eBay. But now the former stay-at-home mother and gonzo Internet retailer fears a maximum $10 million fine for selling 10,000 toys, antiques, videos, sports memorabilia, books, tools and infant clothes on eBay without an auctioneer's license.

An official from the Department of State knocked on Pletz's white-brick ranch here north of Allentown in late December 2006 and said her Internet business, D&J Virtual Consignment, was being investigated for violating state laws.

snip

Thousands of jobs and the fate of a new-economy industry in Pennsylvania could be at stake. There are 400 so-called Internet retail drop-off stores in Pennsylvania, according to state officials, and 14,000 state residents who earn most of their annual income selling on Internet auctions.

snip

Some Pennsylvania officials now acknowledge that Pletz, with her heart-tugging story, was not the best person with whom to make a legal point. The 33-year-old opened her Internet business in 2004 so she could stay home with her 6-month-old daughter, Julia, who was diagnosed with a hypothalamic hamartoma brain tumor.



Complete article

[Richard Steele]

1. Grrrecommended.

[Cassandra]

2. She's not the auctioneer.

Ebay is.

[leftofcool]

3. That was going to be my first response until

I realized she is the one taking bids and money. Is Ebay the auctioneer or just the holding place? Either way, the whole thing sucks!

[Cassandra]

4. She is acting as the person with goods to sell...

and setting the price and writing the copy but the actual bidding is managed by the software. Whatever the state licensing was set up to prevent, it wouldn't seem the customers are in danger of here.