A reseller who's registered, collecting, and remitting sales tax correctly on eBay can still walk into a record show, set up a table, sell $600 in cash over a weekend, and be out of compliance on every part of that transaction — not because they're careless, but because the rules that cover an online sale and the rules that cover an in-person one aren't the same rules, and nothing about having one in order tells you anything about the other.
Why "I already have a seller's permit" doesn't settle it
Marketplace facilitator laws are the reason most online resellers don't think about sales tax collection at all anymore: in essentially every state, eBay and Shopify (through Shopify Payments or a registered facilitator arrangement) calculate the tax, collect it from the buyer, and remit it to the state directly. You hold the permit that makes you a registered business, but the marketplace is doing the actual collection and remittance on your behalf for sales made through it.
A record show table has no marketplace in that chain. There's no platform calculating a rate at checkout, no facilitator remitting on your behalf — just you, a cash box, and a buyer. The responsibility that eBay has been quietly carrying for every online sale lands back on you the moment the sale happens off-platform, even though you're the same registered business selling the same inventory.
California: a permit, and then a sub-permit for the day
California's CDTFA is explicit on this in Publication 111: people selling at swap meets, flea markets, or special events — including used merchandise bought to resell, not just new or handcrafted goods — are generally required to hold a seller's permit. That's true even if the selling is occasional rather than your full-time business.
The part that catches sellers who already have a permit: it doesn't automatically cover a temporary location. CDTFA's Temporary Sellers guidance requires registering for a sub-permit tied to the specific event address, using form CDTFA-410-D, even if you already hold a permanent seller's permit for your regular business. The sub-permit lists the show's address as the business location and your home or regular address as the mailing address — it's free and handled through the same CDTFA account, but it's a separate registration step, not something your existing permit extends to automatically.
Event operators are on the hook too: CDTFA bars them from renting you table space until you've given them your permit information in writing (the same CDTFA-410-D form covers this), and operators are required to keep that verification on file for at least four years. A promoter asking for your permit number before they'll confirm your table isn't being difficult — they're required to ask.
New York puts the paperwork on the promoter, but you still need your own
New York runs this through the show operator rather than each individual seller. A promoter running four or more shows a year in the state needs a show permit, and under that permit only vendors who already hold a valid Certificate of Authority — New York's version of a seller's permit — are allowed to sell. The promoter has to verify every vendor's Certificate of Authority, keep records of who sold what, and report the show to the state by the 20th of the following month.
That structure doesn't let a vendor off the hook for having their own Certificate of Authority; it just means the state is checking compliance through the promoter's door instead of chasing down every table individually. A legitimate show should be asking for your Certificate of Authority before you set up, the same way a California promoter asks for your CDTFA number.
Some states put the collection job on the organizer, not you
Arkansas works differently again: vendors still collect sales tax from buyers at the table, but they pay it to the event organizer daily, and the organizer is the one responsible for remitting the total to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration within 30 days of the event. The collection obligation is still yours — you still have to charge it — but the remittance step moves to whoever's running the show.
Three states, three different answers for who registers, who collects, and who sends the check to the state. That's the actual lesson here: there isn't one national rule for "selling at a show," and assuming your online sales-tax setup covers it is the mistake, not any one state's specific form.
The cash itself is taxable whether or not a form says so
Separately from sales tax, there's the income-tax side: $600 in cash at a table generates no 1099-K, because no payment processor touched it. It's easy to read that as the sale falling outside the system that's been tracking every eBay 1099-K threshold change for the last few years. It doesn't. The IRS requires reporting all income from a trade or business, in cash or otherwise, regardless of whether any information return was issued for it — the $400 self-employment-tax filing threshold that's separate from this is about whether you owe SE tax on your net profit, not about whether the gross receipts belong on Schedule C in the first place. A show that never generates a form is a bookkeeping risk for exactly that reason: nothing nudges you to remember it the way a 1099-K in your inbox does.
A worked example on the part that actually costs money
Say you take 60 records to a two-day show and sell 40 of them for cash, $900 total, in a state with an 8.5% sales tax rate and no sub-permit registered for the event.
- If you built tax into your price tags (common at shows, where buyers
- expect a flat cash number): you already collected it, you just owe the
- $76.50 on your next return — assuming you're registered to remit it at
- all.
- If you priced items at your target take and didn't add tax on top
- (also common, because there's no checkout prompting you to): you never
- collected that $76.50 from anyone, and you still owe it. It comes out of
- your margin on the 40 records, not the buyers' pockets, because the
- obligation doesn't disappear just because nobody paid it to you
- separately.
Either way, the $900 is gross receipts on Schedule C, same as a $900 eBay sale would be — it just arrived without a platform doing any of the tax math for you first.
The part specific to sellers who also list the same stock online
If the records on your table are drawn from the same inventory you've got listed on Discogs or eBay, selling one at the show doesn't pull it from those listings — there's no platform in the loop to notice the sale and end anything, the way a cross-listed item would need to be delisted everywhere it's live. A record that sells out of your hand at 2pm and is still listed live online at 6pm is one bad afternoon away from selling twice.
What to actually do
- **Register for the sub-permit or show permit before the show, not
- after.** In California it's free through your existing CDTFA account;
- check your own state's revenue department, since the form and cost vary.
- Ask the promoter which model their show runs on — whether vendors
- remit directly (California), need a credential the promoter verifies
- (New York), or collect and hand off to the organizer (Arkansas). A
- legitimate show should know its own answer.
- **Decide before you print price tags whether tax is included or added
- at the table**, and build that choice into every tag — not just the
- first few you write.
- Log the cash total the same day, the same way you'd log an eBay
- payout — date, gross amount, show name. Nothing about this income
- arrives with a form attached to remind you later.
- **Pull a sold item out of your active count the moment it leaves your
- hand**, not when you get home. If it's also live on Discogs or eBay,
- that listing still needs to come down separately — marking it sold in
- your own records doesn't reach out and end it there.
PalmFlow doesn't register you for a state's seller's permit and doesn't collect sales tax at a table — that's a state registration and a card reader's job, not an inventory tool's. What it does do: when a record that's sitting in your PalmFlow inventory sells at a show instead of through eBay, Shopify, or Discogs, you can mark that exact item sold at the price you actually got the moment you hand it over, so your active count and your margin numbers are right immediately — you still have to go end the live listing on whichever platform it's also sitting on, same as with any other off-platform sale. Free plan, 50 items, no card required.
Disclaimer: this is general information, not tax or legal advice. Seller's permit and show-registration rules are set state by state, promoter requirements vary by show, and both change — confirm the current rules for your state and the specific event with its organizer or your state's department of revenue before you set up a table.