If you are charging bidders for shipping supplies, you cannot take a deduction for those supplies on your taxes. If you do, that’s double dipping.
Whenever we see service terms like the one below, we hope the company is not double-dipping, charging bidders for packing supplies and then deducting those again on their income taxes as “expenses.”
Here’s an example of a Proxibid house that not only charges for the supplies but co-mingles employee compensation with that:
Handling fee of 9.50 will be charged … this is to cover the wrappers wage (our italics), bubble, box, tape etc. DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF ITEMS SELLING TO ON-LINE BIDDERS PLEASE ALLOW UP TO TWO WEEK FROM AUCTION DATE FOR SHIPPING.
In addition to paying for wage and tax-deductible supplies, the bidder gets to wait up to two weeks.
Is this a good business model, Proxibid?
Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.
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We use the flat rate boxes from USPS. As for the charges we $6 if it items will fit in a small box, just 20 cents over the actual shipping cost. There are times we will charge $3 for and item that ends up $3.05 with tracking so the 20 cents goes towards the overage. We do our best to keep the actual shipping cost as close to the pin as possible. Were not here to make up for misses in the sales with jacked up shipping rates. This isnt Ebay where people charge you 10 times the items price for shipping.
Thank you for sharing your shipping policy. You’re right about some sellers on eBay. We’re happy about your policy and always look forward to your auctions!