Conclusion: Rare Candy is a fraudulent platform with terrible customer service so I would STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM IT !
I recently had a really bad experience with Rare Candy, and I wanted to share it with the community to warn others. I’ve used their platform before without any tax charged on the entire order, but this time things are different.
I won an auction and went to pay, expecting the usual total. But when I got the bill, I was shocked to see that I was charged over $700 in tax! Previously, when using their vault system, I never had to pay tax like this. It was completely unexpected and honestly feels like a bait-and-switch.
I reached out to their support, but the response was really disappointing, to say the least. They didn’t give a clear explanation, and it felt like they were just brushing me off. I trusted this platform with my purchases, but this experience has completely changed my view.
If you’re thinking of using Rare Candy, be very careful. Their practices seem sketchy, and you might end up with surprise charges like I did. I’m done with them – this site is a complete letdown.
I was not aware that Rare Candy offered a vault service. Where is their vault located? If it’s not in a tax-exempt state, you should be paying sales tax on your purchases.
In the future, you could use the PWCC “Fanatics” Vault (Oregon) or the PSA Vault (Delaware) for their tax-exempt status.
You may also want to read from this thread regarding sales tax and Rare Candy.
The way i interpret the sales tax laws is once a seller goes over a certain amount of sales to another state they have to start charging sales tax for buyers in that state. That may be what happened here and like others have said, that’s just the law. Be glad you didn’t have to pay tax on the first auction.
Your state probably hadn’t hit the Nexus threshold yet so they weren’t charging state tax.
Most states don’t require a business to register a state tax permit until they hit $100k in sales or 200 transactions in that state. People were able to get a a free “discount” in states with not high purchasing traffic (even though in reality you should still be paying a self reported use tax).
the frustration does not come from the company abiding by the tax law, instead it is frustrating b/c they don’t charge in tax on first order while suddenly charge on the second order, it would not be an issue if they charge both order consistently. The first order with no charge absolutely affect bidders behavior since if had they known tax would be charged, they would bid a smaller amount considering the tax thing.
i am not glad that they did not charge tax on the first order, b/c if they charged in the fisrt place i would not place my bid for the second order at all, so i won’t be losing 700+ usd. It is the law and i don’t have problems abiding it, however their inconsistency in abiding it from their end caused confusion and loss to buyers which is what i am unhappy about
No both cards are shipped to OP’s address, and they used to have vault choice i guess but now they just don’t let you chooce if you want to ship to vault or own address
Previously, when using their vault system, I never had to pay tax like this. It was completely unexpected and honestly feels like a bait-and-switch.
