with the US$ to AUS$ and US$ to UK£ exchange rates so good for us (buying from the states) ive been buying a bunch of "things" for $40us, and selling them for £40 or $100oz.

i got an email from the people im buying the stuff of saying "legally we have to say these are for your private use as we are not a distributer"

my question is wtf? i didnt think there was any laws against buying and selling. any comments?

omfg u r DEAD!

Depends on the item I would say that there would be a particular dollar limit to the amount of items you could be recieving/selling.. Eg you'll essentially be making a profit on each and every item, the govt wants its cut of that wether they get you in the long term (if you're doing some serious shipping) or the short term (note you're getting alot of items in at once and customsing them to hell)

i think once you start buying a certain amount over a certain price you become a small business or something? or should be registered as one.

they're probably pissed off that you're selling their stuff and making money rather than them getting the sale.

hire some chavs to bash the sender of the email

mav is right

whoop is right

contact your accountant/tax dude...


you're prolly within your boundries, but best you check eh. a tex debt can follow you 'round half a lifetime

What kind of items and how did they find out you were selling them?

I swear I read the original post 3 times and all 3 times I read legally as illegally. stupid spaz.

Anyway, I *THINK* once you've bought something from a shop, who are an authorised reseller, you've bought a licence to use that item for your own personal use and it is a non-transferable licence. If you're not an authorised reseller of a particular item I don't think you're meant to sell that item because the original creator/distributor/artist/whatever doesn't get a cut of the profit. Like when you sell off your old, unwanted music cds, I don't think you're really meant to do that but no one really seems to care.

Don't quote me on any of that but I THINK that's what I read once.

My guess is the guys you're buying the crap off aren't really authorizsed to sell that particular item. How much of a problem that is depends on what it is you're buying/selling I suppose.

last edited by whoop at 19:37:49 23/May/06

If you go over certain thresholds - ie. numbers of items or $$ exchanged then you are effectively operating as an importer, and therefore must pay tax on your earnings, and duties/customs, etc. The thresholds aren't that high, and there are severe penalties for illegal importation.

www.customs.gov.au would be a good place to start checking your legalities.

Try asking pommie tax laywers... but I imagine there is import duty etc etc

it'll be evading import tax or something similar.

edit: oh im a couple of hours late with that one :(