I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

Would I get caught in a tax nightmare. Or do I get to keep all my profits.

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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

"Would I get caught in a tax nightmare"

 

Maybe, maybe not. 

 

"do I get to keep all my profits."

 

Profits?  OK now we have a tax implication.

 

Basically, if you sell "personal stuff" acquired over the years to recover some of your original cost, there is no profit and generally carries no tax implications unless one of the items (or a group/collection) sells for more than $1,000 (there could be capital gain in some instances)

 

If your worldwide annual revenues (sales and shipping charge) exceed Cdn$ 30,000 then you need GST/HST registration.

 

If you purchase "stuff" (even used stuff) for resale, then you need to report the income (selling price minus cost of goods minus related expenses) on line 135 of your annual personal income tax return.

 

In all instances I most strongly recommend you consult a competent accountant familiar with your personal circumstances and experienced in mail order business.

 

Good Luck

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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

If you are looking to divest, perhaps contact one of the existing eBay card sellers and offer to sell your collection for a bulk price.
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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

Don't open a Store.

You get 50 free listings on dotCA (here) and another 50 on dotCOM (the US /original site).

When you start you will have restrictions on the number and value of your listings. You can ask for these to be reconsidered every 30 days.

When you start Paypal will Hold your customers' cleared payments for 21 days. You have to ship as soon as they clear, not when the Hold expires.

Consider Free Shipping-- which just means putting the cost of shipping into your asking price.

EBay is not really an auction site anymore.

Over 80% of transactions are Fixed Price.

 

Pay attention to shipping.

Taxes are really not a problem (See 'restrictions' above).

 

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

Most cards can go LetterRate and don't require tracking.

 

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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

You have mounthly 50 free listnings at Canada Ebay and the ebay.com you have more 50 free listnings. Also germany does offer 30 free listnings.

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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

Germany eh, that would be nice, if we could meet the domestic time frame for deliveries when we ship from Canada.

Interesting proposal though.

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I,m retired with over 100 thousand hockey cards. As a hobby should i open a store to sell?

"As a hobby should i open a store to sell?"

 

I should have read your selling history on eBay before answering your question.  With thousands of sale transactions, I am not sure the word "hobby" applies in this context.

 

You are running a small mail order business.

 

As indicated earlier, as long as your annual revenues do not exceed Cdn$30,000, you need not be concerned with GST/HST.  However, "profits" made from your marketing business should be reported on line 135 of your tax return, even if the net profits are only a few hundred or thousand dollars.

 

As you may know, CRA regularly audits eBay sellers (personally I have been audited twice for eBay business, once prior to eBay).

 

Having or not having an eBay store is irrelevant to the tax question.  The high number of transactions - year after year - determines if it is a "business" or not.

 

Once again, a competent accountant should be consulted.

 

Good Luck.

 

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