Ebay From Thailand

[JimmyTheMook]

Would this be considered an immigration violation if not using a work permit?

Is it a grey area ?

Will someone report you if you set up a eBay shop from Thailand without a work permit ?

Edited February 22, 2007 by JimmyTheMook

[SeanBangkok]

go teach english u mook.

[JimmyTheMook]

go teach english u mook.

Rather not. In fact teaching English would be one of the last things I would consider doing in Thailand.

[Simmo]

Don't ask , don't tell.

[tuky]

go teach english u mook.

You are not that interested in staying here for long are you mate (notice it isn't a question).

I have no idea Jimmy, although the Thai authorities do keep a tight reign on things I think you would better getting your information from someone like sunbelt asia. They are the major tv forum sponsor so you will find their link.

[Heng]

You could probably do it for quite awhile unnoticed. Get some peons to go to the post office for you and use a Thai name for your return address so that you don't stick out as much.

Ah yes, and don't sell anything illegal (let's see... the favorites are fake soccer jersies, fake or low grade gems, and illegal for export Thai artifacts) because whenever the police make their token busts for the tv cameras, falangs are always high up on the list to be made an example of.

[tuky]

Best advice is check with a lawyer, Sunbelt...and then proceed in a legal capacity.

You do not want to spend any time in a Thai prison.

[DeathbyDurian]

You guys are being a little heavy handed arn't you? If he is selling a few things from say, Chatuchak, to get by (nothing illegal) then I highly doubt he would get noticed by the authorities....

OP, what were you thinking of selling?

[alexth]

You guys are being a little heavy handed arn't you? If he is selling a few things from say, Chatuchak, to get by (nothing illegal) then I highly doubt he would get noticed by the authorities....

OP, what were you thinking of selling?

Don't tell, Durian might steal your ideea

[tuky]

You guys are being a little heavy handed arn't you? If he is selling a few things from say, Chatuchak, to get by (nothing illegal) then I highly doubt he would get noticed by the authorities....

OP, what were you thinking of selling?

But it is not legal. It is ILLEGAL. Unless ofcourse he is a Thai citizen.

How is that heavy handed?

[samtam]

Why does selling something on eBay constitute a business? You can sell ad hoc things on eBay, just as you might using any other mechanism. If you set up a business account and have an underlying business in Thailand then that is a different matter, (if anyone should be remotely interested).

Edited February 22, 2007 by samtam

[DeathbyDurian]

You guys are being a little heavy handed arn't you? If he is selling a few things from say, Chatuchak, to get by (nothing illegal) then I highly doubt he would get noticed by the authorities....

OP, what were you thinking of selling?

But it is not legal. It is ILLEGAL. Unless ofcourse he is a Thai citizen.

How is that heavy handed?

Heavy handed in the sense that it doesn't seem logical to have to consult a lawfirm to sell a few things on ebay from Thailand.

Yes, it is illegal to do so, but is there really a taskforce out there that is monitoring the amount of packages people send out? If he sent out 100 small packages a month does a red flag actually appear on someone's desk? Yes, someone might start wondering what was up if he was sending out 1000's of items a month but...

The post office hasn't struck me as the most high-tech place here. It would be easy to both send and sign for packages with dubious signatures and return addresses....so how exactly would he get caught?

[Heng]

The post office hasn't struck me as the most high-tech place here. It would be easy to both send and sign for packages with dubious signatures and return addresses....so how exactly would he get caught?

If authorities are after him, it typically doesn't take high tech to catch folks at the post office. Just ask those rocket scientist Brits who got busted for mailing kilos of grass from the Pattaya post office. I'd imagine it works something like this...

RTP officer to postal worker :"we need to know who mails parcels that look like this" (holds up example seized by customs parcel).

Helpful postal worker :"Oh, that fat sunburnt fellow* over there at counter 3 sends parcels like this several times a week."

RTP Officer :"ok thanks..... woh 1 to woh 3..... we've got him!"

*if you use an oompa lumpa, I'd imagine that would buy you about 1-2 hours of freedom before your oompa lumpa brings the BIB over to your place.

Stay legal. Life's a lot more enjoyable when you don't have to constantly look over your shoulder.

[dantilley]

Would this be considered an immigration violation if not using a work permit?

I have no idea Jimmy

But it is not legal. It is ILLEGAL.

Just pointing out some inconsistencies there. Do you know for sure if it's legal or not? I thought the point of this thread was to ascertain whether it's legal or not. If it's illegal then why is the thread still open?

Personally, I think you'll be OK as long as you're not using Ebay to make an actual living over here. If you pick up a few souvenir type items, then decide you don't want them any more, then I think you'll be fine to sell these on Ebay.

By way of example, recently I bought some new RAM for my PC. I then sold the The old memory that was taken out to a shop next door for a few hundred Baht. Nothing illegal about that surely, just trading in some un-needed computer equipment for a bit of extra pocket money. But if I had waited until I got home and listed the RAM on Ebay instead, would that have been breaking the law? I don't see how it's any different really. If foreigners selling things privately between individuals is illegal in Thailand then we'd better also shut down the Classified Ads section of this site too...

[guardian]

I've listed many products on pramool.com, the only successful / popular Thai auction site I've seen so far and have been able to sell quite a few of them too. Don't know the legal aspect, but never had a problem so far.