Non-profit reselling

At 12:04 PM 1/25/2002 -0500, Ian Koller wrote: Who's representing themselves as non-profit? Not me. I have web-only "museums". If you want to visit, you probably have to promise to buy lunch and I'll walk you into the basement for the guided tour. Watch out for spiders and centipedes. Nowhere do I state that I or these museums are non-profit. Are you aware that some museums are for-profit corporations? In fact, even a "non-profit corporation" under US IRS law, and under Wisconsin law that I've researched, can perform a fair amount of fundraising, buying and resale (that is, public sales dedicated to making money). You are limited to the number of days per year you do it, and to total annual amounts, and that the profits go to the group and not an individual. This explains, for example, how an otherwise non-profit organization can hold a rummage sale twice a year. All of my for-pay consulting, sales, writing, junk buying and reselling is under the umbrella of Syndesis Corporation, a for-profit S-corp since 1987. So yes, I encourage for-profit reselling of old computer equipment, whether it's by me or a computer club. http://www.threedee.com/jcm/rescue/index.html is much more explanatory than the links you mentioned, and http://www.threedee.com/news/history.html is much more entertaining. I once researched this because at the UW-Madison / State of Wisconsin surplus sales, non-profits can shop a day before the public. This would allow me to pick up the good stuff ahead of the usual suspects. I seem to remember that the threshold was about $15,000 a year, but resale was limited to a few days a year. My antique computer buying and reselling could stay below that limit. (Technical bonus question: does an eBay auction count as 1 day or N days?) Also, I'd have to pay about $500 to set up a true non-profit corporation, and I'd need to recruit a legit Board to administer it. I've never gone to the trouble. - John