Buying Cues on this site.

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Xdecemberguy

Member
Please be careful when buying from this site..everyone I have talked to and I mean everyone want you to use Zelle, Venmo, $CashApp, Apple Pay, US Postal Money Orders. All of which were never formed as a cash for product transaction. These are all to pay friends and close one's you know back. Or payment on site and exchange of product in person. Never trust these payment options. They can and in many case scam you out of your money and their is nothing you can do..
 
garczar said:
I think by now everyone tends to go with PP G&S. Really the only secure way to buy imo. If i REALLY know someone i'll do F&F but its rare.
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Yes. Same as you.

Xdecemberguy said:
Please be careful when buying from this site..everyone I have talked to and I mean everyone
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Everyone you have talked to? Wow. You know so many people here I guess. :rolleyes:

Obviously not.

I have returned to this thread several times considering how to respond. Honestly I had to get past my knee jerk response of: "Who the f*** are you?"

We have a community here with respected buyers and sellers. This isn't FB Marketplace, eBay, or some other such place.

The poster registered here in March of this year. I'll tell him now: The biggest risk for scams on AZB is new members. Let that sink in, then reflect on your post and how it will look to many in this community. Some of the biggest dealers and collectors have been regular members here.

The pool world, and cue world, is indeed rife with characters of wide ranging integrity. Know your surroundings. When you came here, did you know where you arrived?

The first time I did a cue deal on AZB it was a sale. In fact, I think my first two deals were sales. One a D series McDermott and the other an Auerbach custom. I did that with the specific intent of starting to build a reputation here. I actually rarely sell. I am a buyer, a collector. I built my reputation here so I could buy.

I only deal in PayPal because I have a business that takes in seven figures through PayPal and when I call them I get Gold level service. A real American answers the phone and shit gets done. I occasionally send with F&F on cue deals here. The people I do what with are known to me and/or others. Honestly, if they screwed me I would destroy them. We have a mutual unspoken understanding.

My advice is to get integrated into this community. It does not matter who you are before that. We have had people saying I am so-and-so or I know so-and-so sign up here like they are the biggest swinging dick in the room. It does not flush well.

I will assume you introduced yourself in the appropriate forum when you joined. I don't know, I didn't go check. I will take the opportunity to say welcome to the forum here and now. Many of us will look forward to getting to know you.

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I bought several cues here many years ago, always paid with PP, never had an issue. Sold a few as well.
I hope the community here is still tight and safe.

I miss the good old raffle days, won a few cues and case with them, those were fun. (never had issues with getting the cues won either)
 
Xdecemberguy said:
Please be careful when buying from this site..everyone I have talked to and I mean everyone want you to use Zelle, Venmo, $CashApp, Apple Pay, US Postal Money Orders. All of which were never formed as a cash for product transaction. These are all to pay friends and close one's you know back. Or payment on site and exchange of product in person. Never trust these payment options. They can and in many case scam you out of your money and their is nothing you can do..
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Those payments are meant to be electronic cash. There is no protection for a buyer. The only time I would do such a thing if the transaction was in person.
 
Buy the seller, not the cue. Say what you will about these kinds of forums, but I would rather do business here than on any other platform. Here I can look at history, previous posts, and past transactions to get an idea if I'm dealing with an actual person. I've done dozens if not hundreds of online transactions over the years, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've used a form of payment other than PayPal G&S. It's usually not even a discussion, nobody who passes the first sanity check of due diligence asks for anything else.
 
Truthfully this community is a rarity as it has an established group of individuals that have bought and sold from each other without issue.

I myself worry more about the mongrels the shipping companies and USPS employ stealing or damaging the cue in transit than I would about established sellers here.
 
Every year the federal government has been changing the limit- ABOVE which all dollars collected online for an individual seller by payment companies will be reported to the FEDS and income tax will be due from the seller. Forever the number was $20,000 -but , a few years ago it was primed to be only $600- we seem to never know until a few weeks prior to year end what dollar amount exactly, as cue sellers, the FEDS will require to be reported by PP G&S or E Bay.

SOOO, sellers have said enough is enough ; and are looking for payment venues that may not be subject to reporting to the FEDS, such as PP F&F, etc. I know that the purists will say that one should technically report all online sales and pay 10 to 30% or more income tax ( FED, State, local) on all of one's sales revenue- but do we really want to do that- most do not- that is just a fact of life.

Living in a high tax state, and having a fairly healthy total income- one cue sale of $3000 could easily result in $500 income tax due at year end - and you will need proof of what that cue cost YOU, as the basis for the total profit reported- no original purchase receipt on your cues and you owe tax on the full amount of the sale.

Yes, knowing a trusted seller is your best protection online for sure. No substitute for that, and credit card or Pay Pal G&S protections add another layer of safety.

Bottom line is that most sellers are honest, most sellers are not asking for these other payment vehicles to rip you off- many of them just don't want to have to deal with Uncle Sam on the back end, all the extra required tax documentation, and the risk of losing 10 to 30% on a sale down the road in income taxes.

I will add one more thing- there are BUYERS out there that are totally unreasonable in expectations, are ignorant when it comes to cues, or have regrets after pulling the trigger on a cue bc they were just satisfying a buying impulse ( addiction). - all frequent cue sellers have come across such buyers, and rather than get burnt on a chargeback, some honest sellers just will go with payment platforms that do not allow disputes/ chargebacks.
 
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If you do not know the other party, or the other party has no history, then yes by all means use a G/S payment. But there are also the guys with skin in the game and you will have zero problem with.

I do wish people would read the ad, if the payment terms are F/F only, don't try to slide in the G/S payment or pay the extra 3.5% and think you are good. There are reasons the buyer may have to not want a G/S payment, as mentioned a few posts up. Negotiate BEFORE you send money.

JV
 
7stud said:
Still...it would be nice if the site had an official escrow service.
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Official? I think the point is they don't want involved in the transactions.

Unofficial? Popular? Recommended? That might be something.

I haven't seen any escrow service spoken about since I came back here at the beginning of the year

Smaller transactions just don't warrant the additional cost though.
 
classiccues said:
What would you consider "proper" escrow services and how much do you think it should cost?

JV
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I used to offered escrow service but after Aug 29, Trump tariff law kicked in. It’s almost impossible for the transaction to go smoothly anymore. A normal 3-5 business day, but now it’s 2 weeks time.
 
mikemosconi said:
Every year the federal government has been changing the limit- ABOVE which all dollars collected online for an individual seller by payment companies will be reported to the FEDS and income tax will be due from the seller. Forever the number was $20,000 -but , a few years ago it was primed to be only $600- we seem to never know until a few weeks prior to year end what dollar amount exactly, as cue sellers, the FEDS will require to be reported by PP G&S or E Bay.

SOOO, sellers have said enough is enough ; and are looking for payment venues that may not be subject to reporting to the FEDS, such as PP F&F, etc. I know that the purists will say that one should technically report all online sales and pay 10 to 30% or more income tax ( FED, State, local) on all of one's sales revenue- but do we really want to do that- most do not- that is just a fact of life.

Living in a high tax state, and having a fairly healthy total income- one cue sale of $3000 could easily result in $500 income tax due at year end - and you will need proof of what that cue cost YOU, as the basis for the total profit reported- no original purchase receipt on your cues and you owe tax on the full amount of the sale.

Yes, knowing a trusted seller is your best protection online for sure. No substitute for that, and credit card or Pay Pal G&S protections add another layer of safety.

Bottom line is that most sellers are honest, most sellers are not asking for these other payment vehicles to rip you off- many of them just don't want to have to deal with Uncle Sam on the back end, all the extra required tax documentation, and the risk of losing 10 to 30% on a sale down the road in income taxes.

I will add one more thing- there are BUYERS out there that are totally unreasonable in expectations, are ignorant when it comes to cues, or have regrets after pulling the trigger on a cue bc they were just satisfying a buying impulse ( addiction). - all frequent cue sellers have come across such buyers, and rather than get burnt on a chargeback, some honest sellers just will go with payment platforms that do not allow disputes/ chargebacks.
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I had this occur last year. I received $ from someone via PayPal, $750, for a set of rims. I received a 1099 from PayPal, who when contacted stated it was a requirement they issue it per the evil government. I went to my accountant with it at tax time and she asked for all the documentation and said to just let her handle it.

Per what she told me, the intent was for the government to be able to get taxes from those running online businesses. She said the government, by the tax laws in place last year, have no right to demand tax be paid on monies I received for the sale of a personal item. I didn’t pay tax on it and I never heard another word about it. The advantages of a sharp accountant I suppose.
 
Frosty said:
I had this occur last year. I received $ from someone via PayPal, $750, for a set of rims. I received a 1099 from PayPal, who when contacted stated it was a requirement they issue it per the evil government. I went to my accountant with it at tax time and she asked for all the documentation and said to just let her handle it.

Per what she told me, the intent was for the government to be able to get taxes from those running online businesses. She said the government, by the tax laws in place last year, have no right to demand tax be paid on monies I received for the sale of a personal item. I didn’t pay tax on it and I never heard another word about it. The advantages of a sharp accountant I suppose.
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They have 7 years to audit you, although they would not audit just for $750 in revenue, a certain % of taxpayers in every income bracket get a "general tax compliance" audit- if you are selected at random- they WILL want your original purchase receipt on the rims or you will be liable for income tax on the full $750- don't celebrate just yet!
 
mikemosconi said:
They have 7 years to audit you, although they would not audit just for $750 in revenue, a certain % of taxpayers in every income bracket get a "general tax compliance" audit- if you are selected at random- they WILL want your original purchase receipt on the rims or you will be liable for income tax on the full $750- don't celebrate just yet!
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Perhaps. Per my accountant, she has already submitted paperwork for the transaction and challenged the IRS on their ability to tax me for selling a simple personal belonging that I already purchased and paid taxes on initially. Look at this way as it’s the example she gave me. If I had a car I no longer wanted and sold it to a private buyer, I’m not obligated to pay taxes on the money I received from that sale. The arm of the IRS is long, but there are limits to what they can tax you on.
 
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