Posted on 04/14/2008 8:23:51 AM PDT by grundle
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.
"I was dumbfounded," said Pletz, who led the dark-suited investigator to a side patio area, where he grilled her. "I told him I would just shut down," she said.
The Pletz case has unleashed a political storm in Harrisburg over what - if anything - should be done about regulating Internet auctions in Pennsylvania.
Two bills have been introduced. One would require Internet sellers who run a business to get an electronic auctioneer's license that would cost about $100 a year. The other would leave Internet auctions as the Wild West of retail.
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.
EBay opposes state regulatory action on Internet auctions around the nation and warns that it could threaten the livelihood of an estimated 430,000 people who "earn a substantial portion or all of their incomes selling on eBay."
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.
She cooperated when told it was illegal and works at dental offices in Allentown, Bethlehem and Lehighton as a hygienist to help pay the bills at home. Julia, whose health stabilized on medication, is enrolled in day care. Pletz also has a son, Douglas, 7.
Doing the math But the state has not dropped prosecution. It sent Pletz a complaint in April and an amended complaint in December. The complaint says she could be fined $1,000 for each violation of the state law. The April complaint noted 10,000 sales. Pletz and her attorney, Joseph V. Sebelin Jr. of Palmerton, did the math - $10 million in possible fines. The second complaint does not list a number.
A July hearing was canceled; a new one has not been scheduled.
In an e-mail Monday, a Department of State spokeswoman said Pletz faced a $2,000 maximum fine because of two counts listed in the complaint.
"Well, it's nice they told you, because they haven't let me know," Pletz said.
Because of the complaint, Pletz worries the state also could revoke her dental hygienist's license, which she earned by attending community college for seven years at night.
"I really wish that they will walk away from that one and prosecute somebody else," said State Rep. Michael Sturla (D., Lancaster), who is chairman of the House Professional Licensure Committee. "There is every reason in the world that if she is found guilty, she should be exonerated," he said.
Auctioneer's license Sturla has proposed the bill to create the electronic auctioneer's license. The license would require the Internet seller to buy a $5,000 bond for about $40 a year. This would protect consumers, he said.
Sen. Rob Wonderling (R., Montgomery), who labeled the Pletz case "bureaucracy run amok," has introduced a bill that would exempt eBay sellers from auctioneer's licensing.
Barry Fallon, in the Harrisburg area, is the only other person in Pennsylvania to face an investigation for selling on eBay without an auctioneer's license, according to officials. He closed his three-employee iSold It franchise store after the investigator showed up last year.
Fallon, 61, said an auctioneer offered to represent him for a commission of $1 per sale so that he could keep his business. "It's like the buggy-whip manufacturer's deciding whether these newfangled automobile manufacturers can do it without a buggy-whip license," he said.
"It's breaking new ground," Department of State spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said of the Pletz and Fallon cases. People who sell their own goods on eBay are exempt from the auctioneer's licenses, she said.
Pletz launched her business in 2004, when she realized she couldn't work full time because of Julia's medical tests and doctors visits.
In the hills around Walnutport, the word spread of D&J Virtual Consignment and Pletz's talent for selling on eBay. Many people in the area were not computer-savvy. Pletz's husband, John, 38, is a computer technician. Some people were uncomfortable supplying the Internet auction giant with banking information. Pletz was not. Customers, she said, paid a 30 percent sales commission.
"There were a lot of surprises," she said. A novel pull-along toy puppy sold for $600. A pull-along toy duck from the same seller sold for $200. "We were paying the bills. We weren't making a lot of money. I was able to stay home with Julia." She declared the income from the auctions on her taxes, Pletz said.
A few days after Christmas 2006, the state investigator drove up. She recalls his warning that the state was "drawing a line in the sand."
"I don't know how I won this lottery," she added, with her German shepherd, Ripley, running crazily around the kitchen, and Julia holding onto her leg. "I guess they wanted to go after somebody who was good at what they do. We were very good."
D&J Virtual Consignment had 11,000 feedback comments on eBay and 14 were negative, Pletz said, giving her a 99.9 percent satisfaction rating.
Amoros, the state spokeswoman, said investigations were a "complaint-driven" process but those complaints are confidential.
Pletz stayed off eBay for months.
"Maybe around October or November, I started again," she said. An aunt was downsizing into a smaller home and had items. "I thought, I'm going to sell. Now, did I take a commission for it? No."
But then the government forced her to stop doing that.
The government also forced a drop off auction site with 3 employees to go out of business too.
The STATE government did this?
To people using the INTERNET?
Time for a revolt.
Government hates business.
They believe like Democrats that if you are making money, the profits are obscene and should go to a social program.
Man, what a story. I teach information policy at the grad level and try to get my “young skulls full of mush” to understand that the government does not hold all the answers. We’ve discussed internet taxation policies and other efforts to rein in the internet; this will be a great addition to my collection of war stories.
GD government going after the mother of a disabled child. Have these people no shame? Going after users of new technologies and business models? Have these people no common sense?
I used to live in PA. Nothing surprises me that happens there.
Take a look at this.
Took the bastards long enough to decide to pull the Gestapo crap.
They are DYING TO FIND A WAY TO TAX THE INTERNET FOLKS!!!!!
Both these laws are a horrible step and another one is coming in under the radar.
There is currently a law that "continues" no taxes on the internet, but it is up for renewal soon (in congress). That means that if they don't "renew" it then: 'Oh gosh it looks like we couldn't get that darn thing renewed to prevent taxes and so..."
This is how they SNEAK A P.O.S. into LAW LIKE THIS~!!!!
They see something that is not taxed, pass a law that "continues" not to tax it for a few years (a law that says we will continue to do nothig until...), but then when the law "expires" ooops~! time for a tax on it.
This is how they want to raise taxes but voting not to "continue" the Bush tax cuts too.
ALL TAX INCREASES ARE PERMANENT - all cuts are temporary until they 'expire'
I suppose she could quit her business and go on welfare if that is what the state really wants.
No surprise here. PA is a big government state with a corrupt governor, Fast Eddie Rendell.
Well, this is certainly a good example of being a bad example, that’s for sure.
The Internet isn’t something that should be “regulated” in ANY manner.
It (Internet) is directly responsible for us not having to listen to the Big Three News agencies (four if you count CNN) - and a reason that FOX News came into being as well.
The Internet has given a lot of people a good start at business - and while you certainly still have to pay taxes, this is a totally ridiculous concept to start going after people selling items on eBay, by, if not taxing the hell out of them, forcing them to get “licenses”.
The “auctioneer” isn’t the person, in this case, it’s a web site. The PERSON is a SELLER by any rules and laws you want to look at. eBay merely enables the person to sell their stuff for a higher price by getting bids, so forcing individuals to get a “license” is nothing more than taking a whack at people like this lady.
A “nuanced” decision by any element of government is deciding whether to use the big club or the great big club.
“Time for a revolt.”
At least time for a serious a** whupping. Their greed and intrusiveness know no bounds.
I think federal preemption should shut those state desk jockey socialists down.
People hate freedom, for the most part. They should be just fine with this bit of tyranny. After all, there are doritos to eat and professional sports to watch.
A sure way to induce "death by a thousand cuts" to your buisness competition is to sic the government on them.
I did software programming for a county govt agency once- THOSE WERE THE MOST INCOMPETANT PEOPLE I EVER MET.
One was a database administrator who could not turn on the database - AND HE WAS A MANAGER. Another read the paper all day, another printed boxes of computer printouts that were then taken directly to an incinerator, another ran a 30 year old mainframe that took about 100 people to operate that could be replaced with one modern desktop server... They spent a quarter-million on a database program that we tried to tell them we could do ourselves in 3 hours...and this is the tip of the iceburg folks!
Your tax dollars at work
Don’t they call it the Socialist Republic of Pennsylvania? I heard the the state workers all greet each other by Comrade...
I saw someone on C SPAN yesterday morning - my TIVO is out for repair but I wish I could have tivo’d it.
I think his name was Grover Nyquist and he headed a tax reform agency. He was answering questions on how taxes are destroying the economy. He took a question from a black journalist about Obama.
He said he didn’t think “Obama had thought out the consequences” of his policies. He said basically Obama was going to tax small businesses at the rate of about 55%. He also said Obama was going to take a billion dollar sledgehammer to the economy if he did what he said he was going to do.
My son just paid his first small business tax - he says now he wants to go out and get a regular job. His brother earned three times as much and paid half the tax. And that was only 15%.
Most people believe that the high cost of living, and spiraling costs everywhere is due to greed or the "cost of doing business." They could not be more mistaken.
It is to cost of paying taxes at all levels, permit fees, and a huge, faceless, unresponsive bureaucracy.
Incompetent? That's putting a human face on it. "Criminal" is more accurate. And it's not going away any time soon.
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