Hi all,

Quick intro: I'm in grade 12, going into Mac engineering next year, staying in Rez.

I quickly glanced over the legal terms of my residence agreement and it states that you cannot run any businesses or anything of the sort out of your room. And so I have a little bit of a question about this.

I don't plan on running a business out of my room, by any means. But I, like many of you I'm sure Collected pokemon cards when I was really young and, in rummaging throuhg old stuff recently, I found a vast quantity of them, untouched, and rare. So I had a genius idea: Myself, and my roomate (if he is willing) could sell the lot on ebay! Mind you, this would take months to get rid of the whole thing, and it may be a gamble: Only make $300-$600 maybe... It would take a bit of effort, but it would also be fun (I think anyways) to throw a bunch of skill at selling these cards.

So my question is: Would this case be considered against rez policy? I have no idea how these rules are enforced, etc etc... I'm just curious to know if this idea of mine could work out, or if it would get me in a bit of trouble.

At most, the only part that is like a business is regular envelopes leaving the room, maybe a couple a week. Money would be dealt with over PayPal, so it really wouldn't look like a business either.

Thanks guys! Sorry if this is a dumb question too

Mike

Hey first year eng student right here

I think you will be safe selling you Pokemon cards on eBay. You might want to start selling them in the summer when people are bored and are looking for things to do, and will probably more willing to buy them. I personally would sell them as a bundle so it does not take up to much of your time.

ERTW!

Thanks for the confirmation.... As dumb as it sounds (pokemon cards in university), personally, I'll take any source of income I can manage! haha, but on a side note, I've been reading that the best way to make money off cards is to sort of run it like a business in the sense of managing an inventory. Because apparently, those little numbers in the bottom corner mean a LOT to some people, and so do a few other symbols... If you have a tonne of cards, you don't want to risk mixing up 10-20 rare ones that could fetch $10/each ... That's $200 right there

And then of course, this is an idea that I might have to talk my roomate into in order to give reason to do it.

I'm sure it should be fine selling them since they won't know. There's also a Canada Post office on campus which is convenient. I'll admit, i bought a few pokemon cards over to summer to complete the first set which came out.

Sort all the holos and rare cards out. Check the prices of the cards online to see if they fetch a high price (Advanced Search -> Completed Listings) If so, sell the card on it's own. If not bundle it with say 10 other cards (like the uncommon, common, item or energy cards)

I'm also a first year engineering student!

thanks for the tips guys!

I'll be giving it a try... See if I can't make a small (very... small) fortune from these old collectables. Thank god for dusty old cupboard corners! YAY!

Actually I'm going to disagree with all of the above posters. Using your residence mailbox to sell things on eBay would be considered using it for commercial purposes I'm pretty sure.

My advise is to speak with your C.A/R.M about it when you move in and see how they interpret the code. It's only a minor offense but you could still get in considerable trouble.

sounds good. If there's disagreement about the rules, I'll double check to make sure.

Thanks

Hi Mike,

Not only was I a CA, but the first person I wrote up for breaking the rules was someone who was "using their... for commercial purposes." So I guess I'm the closest thing to an "expert" you'll find.

Here's the reason why I busted the guy I did. When you come to Mac, you'll notice small post card like fliers for various clubs located around Hamilton. On those fliers will be websites and phone numbers to call to get tickets. While I was on coverage, we found that someone has put these fliers on everyone's door (which is a bit of a no-no in of itself). When I was looking over the flier, I noted that the "Call for Tickets" number was the McMaster number and a Residence Extension! Because the res phone numbers are easy to track to a room, I figured that the person lived in my building. Long story short, we wrote him up for using his res/phone/mailbox for commercial purposes and told him to never put the McMaster phone number on a club flier again and to never put them in res like that again. We also told him that as long as he used his cell number, and didn't plaster them all over res, it would be ok.

So how does this impact your eBay business ventures? Here's what you have to do to stay within the rules:

1) Don't use the McMaster number on eBay, use your Cell phone.
2) Don't use your McMaster e-mail address on eBay, use gmail or something.
3) Don't use your McMaster address on eBay. Just use your parents address as the return address.

You can do the following:

1) Run the eBay business from your Res internet connection.
2) Keep the cards in your room, package them in your room, etc (as long as your roommate is cool with it - I doubt cards will take up much space).
3) Use the Canada Post in Titles (the book store) to ship them.

I hope that answers this question. If you have any others just give me an e-mail at [email protected]

Good luck!

In this case however, he is not a buyer. He is a seller and would have no need for his mailbox since all you only need to send the stuff after the auction and he'll never have anything sent to his mailbox. I'm assuming he will be using paypal. If he need to buy anything however, it should be sent to your parent's address.

thanks alex! that pretty much confirms it then. Saves me from ahving to find someone on campus to tell me the same thing ! Very much appreciated, and it makes sense! I like it.

And heck, as for my roomate, I'll happily involve him if he wants to split it and help me inventory the stuff so that we can make a bit more

I don't think it's a coincidence that all this pokemon talk is from mostly all ENG students, or future ENG. hehe.

No hate though. I am starting First year Eng in Sept.