perfidy

Ohio is a terrible place to live, and it's even worse if you own a business. The state taxes business at a high rate, to the point of taxing unsold inventory (!). Hence, if you own, say, a comic book shop or a regional distribution hub, you are perpetually smacked with giant tax bills. Several such hubs have recently moved from Ohio to Kansas and Indiana for this very reason. The state's lawmakers, a notoriously inept bunch, seem to think this wretched business climate is a pretty great state of affairs, and now want to make sure that everyone can share the bliss.

Check this out. Says Ohio State Senator Larry Mumper - "If someone buys and sells on eBay on a regular basis as a type of business, then there is a need for regulation."

So now there's a law. I would recommend not believing Mumper and his cronies when they swear up and down that they'll pass exemptions before the May start date so that every ebayer in the state doesn't have to, and I quote,

get a state auction license.

Besides costing $200 and posting a $50,000 bond, the license requires a one-year apprenticeship to a licensed auctioneer, acting as a bid-caller in 12 auctions, attending an approved auction school, passing a written and oral exam. Failure to get a license could result in the seller being fined up to $1,000 and jailed for a maximum of 90 days[,]

but right now no such exemption exists. In a scenario much like that of like the PATRIOT Act being used to bust terrorist menaces like head shops and filesharers, the club now exists with which to beat Ohioan Ebayers all about the head and neck. Some enthusiastic DA merely needs to pick it up.

Clearly, Ohioans are pretty dumb.