Selling Parts on eBay

[tylerite3124]

I have been trying to get Texas titles for a couple of my salvage Alpines from the TX DMV. I just had a call from them asking what I do with these cars and I told them I salvage the parts and sell them on eBay. He then shocked me by telling me that selling parts on eBay without a license is against the law in Texas. What??? When I replied that there were 10's of thousands of individuals that sell salvaged parts on eBay, he responded that they are all breaking the law in Texas. He also told me that it would only be a matter of time until the law would catch up to us. Can you believe it?

Rick Guest

 

[DanR]

I can certainly see the rational "behind" what the Texas guy was saying!

It is entirely possible the untitled vehicle is stolen or being sold in whole or part by an unauthorized person.

Selling and parting out vehicles and other such motorized items such as motorcycles, 4 wheelers are a big business.

I'd suggest anyone selling components of untitled vehicles refrain from such action until a clear title is/was obtained.

After reading this THREAD I'm sure there may be some interesting discussion.

 

[65beam]

Dan,
This is typical of what you find when dealing with employees of a government agency. Over the years I had to deal with probably every agency you could think of. The DMV is harder to deal with than the EPA. The problem is that they make statements that will not get them in trouble if there is some deviation from what they think is written somewhere. They don't want the liability put on them which is understandable. Our company fleet operated in 13 states so we also dealt with federal regulations. That can get interesting . They don't use common sense because they're trained not to look at the whole picture. Just follow what they think is written for there area.

 

[Toyanvil]

I looked into this, and it looks like Texas just wants the taxes. Without a license you can not ask for the state tax money.
Sec. 1802.051. License Required.

(a) A person may not act as an auctioneer of real or personal property in this state unless the person holds a license issued by the executive director under this chapter.

So of you set up your ebay as "buy now" is it still an auction?

 

[65beam]

Wouldn't E bay be the auctioneer? I think there is a limit on E bay of 200 transaction a year or $20,000.00 per year in sales before E bay has to furnish you with a 1099 which means you then have to claim it as income and that means you pay federal, state and local tax on the sales. Sales tax is another issue. Would the seller have to charge Texas sales tax if the item is being shipped out of state. The next question is why would selling parts of a parts car require that you have a title for the car? We recently found out that here in Ohio that if you take a Sunbeam body and the title to a scrap yard the yard can not go into the DMV and cancel the title because there are not enough digets in the VIN.

 

[johnd]

Not to go all lawyer on y'all but Section 1802.002 (b) (14) states that chapter 1802 does not apply to "an auction of property through the Internet". https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/auc/auclaw.htm#1802.001

 

[bruce caldwell]

Sorry you are having a problem but based on what johnd said, I think you are OK. However, I have a number of friends who are government/bureau type employees. In their defense,
I think all should note that regulations are put in place based on laws passed by elected officials. The government employee will usually fall on the side of extreme caution because they know they will be thrown under the bus if something happens. It is the always the same deal- if the DMV/bureau/Department of Whatever is working well, it is because that good politician went in there and cleaned up those lazy government employees. If something goes wrong, it is because those lazy government employees are ignoring the rights of the the hard working citizens - according to the same politician!

 

[DanR]

Sounds as if the DMV Guy was wrong or ignorant of the law or did not know it existed or misunderstood what Rick was doing.

johnd provided some grounds for Rick to revisit the DMV if necessary with the following:

Section 1802.002 (b) (14) an auction of property through the Internet.

• (b) This chapter applies to a sealed bid auction.

 

[Jay Laifman]

Wouldn't E bay be the auctioneer?

Under this law, I'd agree. The definition of "auctioneer" is "any individual who sells or offers to sell property of another person by live bid at auction." (Section 1802.001(5)) Note that for the language to apply, you have to be selling property "of another person." I'm assuming you are not doing that.

The operative language of who needs a license is that an "auctioneer" needs a license:

"A person may not act as an auctioneer or associate auctioneer in this state unless the person holds a license issued by the executive director under this chapter." (Section 1802.051(a))​

I didn't see the definition of "live bid." In today's e-commerce world, I don't know if "live" includes electronic bids. So I would not exclude it on those grounds (without more info).

 

[Jay Laifman]

But that doesn't mean there are not other laws that might require some sort of license. As someone said above, most licensing laws are really only means to get annual license fees and taxes.

 

[tylerite3124]

Thanks for all your comments and legal interpretations guys. I'm sure if politicians knew there was some money out there via licensing sellers of auto parts on eBay, they would be all over it. It's amazing how efficient government is at getting in the way of a little guy trying to make some extra money. Promise not to report me and I'll keep taking parts off my donor cars and selling them!