MARKETPLACE RULES + Guide & VAT Policy (read before posting)

[Gallitin]

The Star Citizen Base Marketplace is a separate subforum within the main Star Citizen Base forums. It is intended for people to use this subform to trade their Star Citizen items or other items.

All Forum Rules apply to the Marketplace forums as well. In addition to the forum rules there is a separate set of rules specifically for the Marketplace. These are listed below.

 

Marketplace Rules

1: In the instance that we are contacted about any member here being a “bad trader” or a “troll,” we reserve the right to turn any and all IP and personal information we have on that member over to any law enforcement authorities and/or any other group or individuals we desire. If you do not agree with this rule, do not trade on our boards.

2: Use the correct tag for your thread.

• WTS = Want to Sell, WTT = Want to Trade, WTB = Want to Buy

3: No misleading titles or item descriptions.

4: No Price or “interest” checks

5: You must post a price unless the item is purely For Trade. (trading for cash still means For Sale) Posts advertising from external sites must include ships and prices. Posts linking to third party sites that require profile/login creation will be removed.

6: No pirated software sales or trades. No sale of NFR or Academic software. OEM software must be sold/traded in accordance with the terms of that software, usually with a piece of hardware.

7: Selling or Trading of CD-KEY(s) without the original disks or digital software is strictly prohibited unless the software was originally sold by the publisher without physical media

8: No auction style posts.

9: No multi-level marketing schemes. (Pyramid Schemes)

10: No sales of coupons or any other freely distributed items such as free beta keys, discount codes, or anything else obtained free from a public source. etc.

11: No panhandling (Requests for money, paypal, or goods and services for free)

12: No trading money for money. (Borrowing money with higher payback)

13: No thread crapping or derailing.

• Any communications on the threads should be about expressing interest in either selling or purchasing ONLY. Posts debating the price, offering “options”, debating the value, asking about the origins, offering payment information, discussions of purchase, etc… are derailing of threads, will not be tolerated, and will be subject to aggressive moderation if necessary. Questions must be sent to sellers/buyers via PM.

14: No alcohol, tobacco, firearms, weapons of any kind or pornography (anything that can be classified “Adult Material”) are to be sold here….. nothing that is governed by the Federal Government as interstate trade. Likewise, no pharmaceuticals, legal or otherwise, can be sold here.

15: The buying, selling, trading or solicitation of services is prohibited. This includes things like "Star Citizen Ship Rentals" for IRL money or in-game money.

16: Selling merchandise using Imperium or SCB's symbols or imagery without the express permission of the site owners who have copyright is prohibited.

17: Requesting a paypal transaction to be sent using “to friends and family” (which gives the buyer no protection) is not allowed. It violates PayPal's TOS. (formerly called “gift” payment in paypal)

18: No requests for personally identifying information that is unreasonable (i.e. requesting driver's license information, real address information, etc…)

19: No attempts to sell referral code uses.

20: Due to high incidences of fraud and abuse, no sales or attempts to swap virtual items from other games are allowed. (e.g. swaps or sales of in-game WoW gold, CS:GO weapons/skins, DOTA gear, etc…) This includes advertising for RMT websites.

21: Once a transaction is complete make sure you leave feedback for the user.

Spoiler

22: Members who wish to post on our marketplace may be required to provide verification information to the site admins And compliance with these requests is mandatory.

23: SCB staff may close sale threads that have not been updated within 6 months of the most recent post on the sale thread.

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The above rules are made for the protection of all. Failure to comply with the rules will result in suspension of your privileges to post in this forum, or forfeiture of your forum membership according to the severity of the infraction. The moderators and administrators of this board reserve the right to modify, edit, move or delete any part or all of a post or thread for any reason stated above. Forum staff also reserves the right to ban any user, at any time, and for any reason.

If you see something suspicious or have a concern, click the “Report” button on the post and explain why. Forum moderators will check it fairly quickly.

[Chimaera]

SCB and Imperium members,

 

Just like many Markets, SCB has had some issues related to scams, scammers, fencers, and all-around unseemly characters showing up on our forums and attempting to scam members or fence stolen products upon the entire Star Citizen Base (SCB) community. Because of SCB’s status as being both a Star Citizen-focused community AND the home of Imperium, we strive to make sure our community is as informed as possible when it comes to things related to the Grey Market.  So, without further rambling, here is a quick and simple guide to the standard “dos” and “don’ts” and “understoods” of the Grey Market. (Spoilers show the "Why")

1.  ALL TRANSACTIONS CONCERNING VIRTUAL GOODS ARE INHERENTLY HIGH RISK.

Whether it is buying gold from a Gold Farming site, buying an account off of ebay, or buying CIG ships from people, there’s always an inherent risk involved that goes above that of a normal transaction. Because of “customer service” policies by multiple online companies and currency handlers like Paypal, Ebay, Amazon, and etc… The “original owner” is always given the higher level of credence than the “buyer”. Because of this it is not uncommon for people to find they have bought a virtual good such as an account or asset like a ship or cash, only to be contacted by the company running the game and be told they are permanently banned for stealing an account or asset, or try to log in to the account they have bought to find that it has been “reclaimed” by its owner. In instances of this nature, rarely do things like emails, screenshots, or even recorded conversations actually matter, as the EULAs of most of these games state that the goods belong to the COMPANY that creates them, and that the original owner receives more trust than the buyer. As a result of this fact, a buyer of virtual goods should understand that they are doing so at a risk that is higher than that of say…buying a used car or a physical good, and any transactions they engage in are AT THEIR OWN RISK.

 

2. DON’T EVER PURCHASE FROM SOMEONE IF THE DEAL SEEMS “TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE”. (Unless it’s a “trusted” seller)  

Whether it’s an “at cost” LTI Aurora, a $50 Elite:Dangerous Premium Beta account because the seller “just wants to offload it”, or a $30 World of Warcraft account with a few 80s, a couple 90s, and 50k gold that the seller “just doesn’t want to think about anymore”, chances are if someone who doesn’t already have an established reputation on a marketplace is trying to sell something far below what is the “perceived” value of the item, it’s probably either a scam, or it’s a hacked item/account/etc… In some cases there are reputable middle-man sellers that are contracted to connect a seller and a buyer for a price, but at that point the “risk” is on the middle-man more than on the buyer. Either way, it is ill-advised to buy if a deal seems “too good to be true”.

 

3. DON’T BUY FROM UNKNOWN SELLERS.

Think about Ebay. If you happen to notice someone who has a rating of “0” on Ebay, are you likely to purchase much from them? Especially if they are offering items that could be “Too good to be true”? No. The Grey Market is the same. Anyone can sit back and type out a story about how they need to sell because of “x” or “y” reason, but in the end, the person taking the risk is YOU. Don’t buy from a “0” unless you are willing to take the risk.

 

4. DO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DELAYED PAYMENTS THROUGH PAYPAL. 

Whatever setting you have to use in Paypal, make sure you have a window of time in which you’ll see a “payment processing” window when dealing with virtual goods. Mind you,

IN THE CASE OF A TRUSTED SELLER, this is not necessarily needed. However, as with number 3, you need to consider your risk versus the pressure of a seller. If a seller is pressuring you to pay via an expedited payment system, do NOT comply, cancel the transaction, and protect yourself.

 

5. DO MAKE SURE THAT THE BUYER IS VERIFIED AS A SELLER AND THROUGH PAYPAL.

The verification process via Paypal requires that some level of personal identification has been shared and confirmed through Paypal. While this is not difficult to fake in many cases (such as a school dormitory or a large housing complex) it is an additional security verification step that a scammer/fencer must go through. To either PURCHASE FROM or SELL FROM an un-verified Paypal account is like walking into an Ebola infested village without a Hazmat suit and self-contained breathing system. You WILL get burned.

 

6. IF YOU ARE SUSPICIOUS OF A TRANSACTION, CANCEL IT.

Many people will purchase an item based off of a flashy ad, or a nice price, only to find their communications with the seller tend to be…less flashy for lack of a better term. If your gut tells you that something is off when negotiating or replying to communications related to a virtual transaction, LISTEN TO YOUR GUT AND BACK OUT. One of the things that scammers play on is people’s psychological unwillingness to back out of an agreement once they have made it.  If a transaction communication feels suspicious, don’t go through with it.

 

7. TAKE PRECAUTIONS THROUGH YOUR BANK.

If you decide to tie a bank debit or credit card to a transaction there tends to be a level of “purchaser protection” involved that can supersede Paypal’s levels of purchaser protection. If you have made a purchase and the money has been pulled, generally you have within the time-period of the monthly statement to dispute the charges or “catch” the charges and claim fraud. Be warned, however, that doing this too often will then put YOU on a FRAUD LIST in which your claims may be tagged as possible fraud in and of themselves.

 

8. USE COMMON SENSE.

Think about the real world. Think about doing transactions and sales in real life. Imagine that the “Grey Market” is like a giant Garage/Yard Sale, except the seller can claim you either 1. Stole his property (after you bought it) or 2. Will price to sell only to have seller’s remorse later.  Now, in the real world, is there really a way for the seller to counteract this? No. In the virtual world? YOU BET YOUR ASS THEY CAN! This is really the truth of the Grey Market/Online market. People who are disreputable are going to try to take advantage of anyone they can to get what they can, and then claim they were “hacked” or “cheated” or “phished” and the buyer ends up being banned, having their items removed, or just-in general-being out the money they paid for something that is very easy to “cheat” getting back.  For some reason new buyers to the Grey Market believe that taking screenshots, saving emails, copying conversations, etc… will help them in a dispute. 9 out of 10 times it does NOT because of the prevalence of “falsified” electronic evidence. Yep, that’s right-blame Photoshop.  The fact is, you should ALWAYS check yourself if you find yourself salivating at what appears to be a “too good to be true” offer.

 

9. THE SCB FORUM AND THE IMPERIUM FORUM ARE NOT THE SAME.

If you notice, the pre-amble to this huge wall-of-text started out with stating that the Star Citizen Base website has two layers. Layer one is the general community area for people who want to talk about, discuss, and enjoy waiting for Star Citizen. People who are only members of this community still have access to the Marketplace because we want to make sure our community AND the members of Imperium have a good shot at getting some good deals (notice GOOD, not “TOO GOOD”). If a person on the Marketplace has a title of “Members”, that means they are nothing more than a SCB member. Before purchasing, check their post history, joining history, feedback, when the feedback was created, etc… and make a decision from there.

 

10. IF YOU SERIOUSLY DO NOT FEEL YOU SHOULD GET IT, DO NOT GET IT!!!! 

Above all, if there are any aspects of your life, the sale, your finances, the seller, etc… that give you a gut feeling that you shouldn’t buy, LISTEN TO THEM and DO NOT BUY (OR SELL)!!! Don’t put yourself, your finances, your accounts, or your family through the possible stress and credit-history pain that a fraud investigation can bring.

 

FINALLY, REMEMBER THAT ALL ONLINE MARKETPLACES-INCLUDING THIS ONE-ARE NOT LIABLE FOR YOUR PROBLEMS.

  If that were the case, Reddit, Craigslist, Ebay, etc…would have been shut down YEARS ago. If you wish to debate the "liability issue" check our "Rules" post: The SCB Marketplace is a place for people to connect to people. Unlike Ebay, we take no monetary gain from any connections made between buyers and sellers on this site. We are not liable if there is a fraudulent transaction engaged upon. HOWEVER, that having been said, we have admins that police the forum and watch for fraud as best as possible in order to make this place a “cut above” other marketplaces.

 

That having been said, we are not there all the time, we are not able to police all the time. We are all volunteers. All people who are just trying to create a great community. SO IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SUSPICIOUS, CLICK THE “REPORT” BUTTON AND SAY WHY. WE WILL CHECK AND DETERMINE IF IT IS WORTHY OF NEEDING CHECKED.

Thanks all, and happy sells/buys!

Edited August 18, 2015 by Rellim
cleaned up paragraphs due to new forum software

[Chimaera]

The following is a non-negotiable policy from SCB forum admins.

Due to the change in CIG policy in relation to worldwide sales and VAT applications on purchases of Star Citizen pledge Ships, Packages, and physical goods, and in order to maintain compliance with international tax regulations, posts offering 'purchasing services' or something similar that offer to purchase ships for EU users in order to help them avoid the European Union VAT implemented on 01 February 2015 are not allowed and any posts advertising or implying these services will be removed.

We ask that any marketplace sellers, whether they be Reddit stores or single sellers refrain from attempting to circumvent these rules by offering VAT-free ship purchasing services via PM to members in the EU as these actions would be considered tax evasion in the European Union. Violators of these rules run the risk of being banned and having their information provided to authorities if site administrators are compelled by enforcement bodies to do so.

Thank you all for your understanding.

 

Additional policy statement: Due to the large number of sale threads that have recently popped offering ships AT or BELOW cost DURING the concept sales, we wish to clarify that ANY posts offering such services or sales DURING a concept sale will be covered under this policy as they act as a de-facto method of providing a VAT evasion service.  Any threads offering to purchase or sell ships AT or BELOW cost DURING a concept sale will be hidden until the end of the sale, at which point the author is welcome to re-list for sales of stocks available in-hangar, or they can request the original post be unhidden.