Marketplace terms

A.1 Operator and scope

The marketplace on ink-power.de is operated by Ink & Power, owner Kenny Wagenknecht, Groß Thun 16a, 21680 Stade, Germany, email shop@ink-power.de (“Ink & Power” or “we”).

These terms govern how you use the marketplace: offering and buying items, writing messages, leaving reviews and reporting content. Purchases from Ink & Power itself are not covered by these terms but by our terms and conditions.

A.2 Role of Ink & Power

On the marketplace, private individuals and dealers (sellers) sell to buyers. Ink & Power provides the platform and is not the seller of these sellers’ items; the purchase contract is concluded only between buyer and seller. Ink & Power also offers its own items under the name “ink-power”, marked “Sold by ink-power”. For these, Ink & Power is the seller and your contracting party, and the shop’s terms and conditions apply.

We review listings before they are published (B.4), process payment through the payment service provider Stripe (B.8, C.2), help with disputes (C.4) and handle reports (A.7). This does not create contractual claims against Ink & Power under the purchase contract. Our own obligations under these terms remain unaffected.

A.3 Customer account

To sell, and for messages, reviews and disputes, you need a customer account with Ink & Power. Only adults may sell. Your account is yours alone: do not share your login details and do not let anyone else use your account.

A.4 Prohibited items and content

Not allowed: counterfeits and reprints offered as originals; forged signatures, gradings or certificates; items and content that infringe copyright, trademarks or other rights, for example pirated copies or other people’s photos without permission; items whose sale is prohibited by law, and any other illegal content; misleading information about the item, its condition or photos.

Also not allowed: insults, harassment and threats, and attempts to complete a purchase or payment outside the marketplace.

A.5 Messages

Buyers and sellers write to each other through the marketplace messaging. Contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers, links and user names on other services are removed from messages automatically so that purchase and payment stay on the marketplace.

A.6 Moderation: how we review content

A person reviews every listing of a seller before it is published. Ink & Power’s own items (“Sold by ink-power”) are listed by our team itself and do not go through this review. We do not check changes to the price, shipping or description of a published listing in advance. We also review content when it is reported to us (A.7) or when we become aware of a possible violation ourselves.

Only two things happen automatically: contact details are removed from messages (A.5), and listings are paused according to fixed rules (B.10). Whether a listing is rejected or removed, a review is deleted or an account is restricted is always decided by a person.

If content violates the law or these terms, we may reject a submitted listing; remove a published listing so that it is no longer shown and can no longer be bought, in serious cases (for example a counterfeit) permanently so that it cannot be resubmitted; delete a review; restrict or suspend a seller account (A.8). We do not remove items that have been sold or reserved; such cases are settled through a dispute or a cancellation.

If we reject or remove a listing or restrict an account, we tell the seller by email and give reasons: what we are doing and for how long, the facts we rely on, whether a report or our own review was the trigger, and the legal provision or section of these terms we rely on. You can ask us to review the decision again by replying to shop@ink-power.de. You may also go to court.

A.7 Reporting content

Anyone can report listings, seller profiles and messages they consider illegal or in breach of these terms, even without a customer account: via “Report” on the listing or the seller profile, or via our report form. You report reviews via the seller profile on which they appear.

A report needs the address (URL) of the content, the reason, an explanation of at least 20 characters, your name, your email address and your confirmation that your information is accurate and complete to the best of your knowledge. To prevent abuse, the number of reports per internet connection and per email address per hour is limited. If the form does not work, write to shop@ink-power.de.

We confirm receipt by email, review the report and tell you our decision with reasons, together with your options to have it reviewed. We do not tell the reported seller your name or email address.

A.8 Restricting and suspending accounts

If the law or these terms are violated, we may restrict a seller account temporarily or suspend it permanently. Reasons include serious or repeated violations, illegal content, fraud or attempted fraud, false information at registration, payments outside the marketplace and selling commercially as a private seller (B.2). If we have indications that a private seller is acting commercially, we may restrict the account while we clarify this.

While an account is restricted or suspended, its listings are paused: they are not shown and cannot be bought. Items already sold must still be shipped; payouts for them continue under B.8.

We give reasons for the restriction or suspension by email (A.6). Ending the relationship altogether is covered by B.15.

A.9 Liability

The seller is responsible for items, descriptions, shipping and performing the purchase contract. Ink & Power is liable for its own obligations under these terms.

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health and under the Product Liability Act. For slight negligence we are liable only for breach of essential obligations, i.e. obligations whose fulfilment makes using the marketplace possible in the first place and on which you may rely, and only up to the foreseeable, typical damage.

A.10 Changes to these terms

If we change these terms, we announce it by email at least 15 days before the change takes effect and state what changes. Until then the previous terms apply. Changes never apply retroactively.

If you do not agree with a change, you can stop using the marketplace before it takes effect (B.15). As a seller you agree to a new version in the seller area (B.3). A shorter period applies only if a law or an authority obliges us, or if we have to avert an unforeseen danger such as fraud or malware.

A.11 Point of contact

Our single point of contact for users and for authorities of the Member States, the EU Commission and the European Board for Digital Services (Art. 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act) is shop@ink-power.de. You can write to us in German or English.

A.12 Applicable law and dispute resolution

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer, this applies only insofar as it does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the country in which you habitually reside.

Ink & Power is neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

B.1 Registering as a seller

To sell, you register as a seller in your customer account. We ask for your full name, address, date of birth and IBAN, and as a commercial seller also your tax number, VAT ID, imprint and withdrawal policy. Your information must be correct; if it changes, update it in your seller profile.

For payouts you also need an account with our payment service provider Stripe (B.8).

B.2 Private or commercial

When you register, you state whether you sell privately or commercially. Anyone who sells regularly with the intention of making a profit, or as part of a business, is a trader and must register as a commercial seller. Stating this correctly is your duty.

You can switch from private to commercial at any time in your seller profile; switching back is not possible. Buyers see on every offer whether you sell privately or commercially. As a commercial seller you fulfil the obligations towards consumers yourself, in particular regarding the right of withdrawal, provider identification and warranty. We show buyers your imprint and your withdrawal policy.

B.3 Agreeing to these terms

By registering as a seller you agree to the current version of these terms. When a new version applies, you can only create, submit or revise listings once you have agreed to it in the seller area.

Anyone who is already registered as a seller when a new version applies has a transition period. For the current version it ends at the end of 26 November 2026 (German time). If you have not agreed by then, we pause your active listings (B.10) and only approve submitted listings once you have agreed. As soon as you agree, the pause ends, unless there is another reason for a pause.

Shipping, messages, disputes and payouts continue even without your agreement. We never hold back money because an agreement is missing.

B.4 Listings and review

Describe every item truthfully and completely: title, issue and cover variant, the condition on our condition scale, grading (company and grade) and signatures only if they are genuine, and photos that show the offered item itself.

We review every listing you submit before it is published. We approve it or reject it with reasons. You can revise and resubmit a rejected listing unless we have removed it permanently (A.6). Our review does not change the fact that you are responsible for your information.

You can change the price, shipping costs and description of a published listing at any time; the change applies at once. Price and shipping costs are locked while the item is ordered or sits in a cart used in the last 24 hours, so that nobody pays a different price from the one they saw. Other changes, for example to photos, condition, grading or signatures, go through “Revise for review”: the listing goes back to review and cannot be bought until it is approved. This too is not possible while the item is ordered or sits in such a cart.

You can withdraw a listing at any time as long as the item has not been sold.

B.5 Photos, texts and distribution channels

You grant Ink & Power the simple, free right to show the photos and texts of your listings on ink-power.de and in the Ink & Power apps and to use them to advertise your offer, for example in the newsletter or on social media. The right applies while the listing is online and beyond that insofar as we have to document sold items in orders and reviews. You confirm that you hold the necessary rights to the photos and texts.

Marketplace offers appear on the ink-power.de marketplace. We do not use other distribution channels for them, such as other marketplaces or price comparison sites.

B.6 Shipping

You ship sold items within 5 working days of the order, packed securely, and confirm shipment with carrier and tracking number in your seller area. Working days are Monday to Friday; public holidays are not deducted.

If a paid order has still not been shipped after 10 working days, we automatically pause your other listings (B.10). We do not cancel the order itself. The pause ends automatically as soon as no overdue order is open any more. Orders with an open dispute or with a dispute decided in the buyer’s favour do not count as overdue.

For the shipping label you see the buyer’s name and delivery address, but neither email address nor phone number, until 30 days after shipment. You may use this data only to ship this order.

B.7 Prices, commission and fees

You set the price and shipping costs yourself. For every sale Ink & Power retains a commission of 10 % of the item price; no commission is charged on shipping costs. This applies equally to fixed-price offers and auctions.

Listing items is free; there is no base fee.

Buyers additionally pay Ink & Power a service fee of €1.00 per item (C.2). It is not part of your sale price, no commission is charged on it, and it is not paid out to you.

B.8 Payment and payout

Buyers pay through the payment service provider Stripe. Your share is the item price minus commission plus shipping costs. Ink & Power transfers it via Stripe Connect to your Stripe account; from there Stripe pays it out to your bank account according to its own payout schedule.

We transfer your share once all of these conditions are met: you have confirmed shipment, 14 days have passed since the shipment (holding period; until then the buyer can open a dispute), no dispute is open for the order, the order is not cancelled, and the buyer’s payment has been received in full. An open dispute stops the payout until it is decided.

For your Stripe account you complete Stripe’s verification. The Stripe Connected Account Agreement, including the Stripe Services Agreement, also applies; Stripe shows it to you during setup.

If a buyer gets money back after a payout because the order was cancelled or a dispute was decided in their favour, we may reclaim the amount paid out to you or set it off against future payouts.

B.9 Payout as store credit

Instead of to your bank account, you can choose in your seller profile to receive your share as Ink & Power store credit. The same conditions and timing apply as in B.8; you still need a Stripe account. For every payout as store credit of at least €20 we additionally credit you 50 Society points, up to the limit of your points account. Society points can only be used as a member of the Ink & Power Society. These bonus points do not count towards automatic admission to the Ink & Power Society; only points from purchases and activities do. They do count towards the limit of your points account, and you can redeem them like any other points.

You can redeem store credit for purchases from Ink & Power. It is not paid out in cash and not transferred to your bank account. You can switch back to your bank account for future payouts at any time.

B.10 Paused listings

In certain cases we pause your listings automatically according to fixed rules: if you have not agreed to a new version of these terms by the end of the period (B.3), if an order is overdue (B.6), if you have been inactive for a long time (B.11), and while your account is restricted (A.8).

We pause your active listings that are not currently sold or reserved. A paused listing is not shown and cannot be bought, but it is kept. Ongoing orders, shipping, messages and payouts are not affected.

We tell you by email why we pause and what ends the pause. It ends automatically as soon as no reason remains. If you think a pause is wrong, reply to the email or write to shop@ink-power.de; a person will then review the case.

B.11 Inactivity

Any action in the seller area counts as activity: opening it, changing your profile, creating, editing, submitting or withdrawing listings, writing messages, confirming shipment or using the seller API.

If you have not been active for 60 days, we remind you by email. If you are still not active 14 days after this reminder, we pause your listings (B.10). Your next activity ends the pause immediately, unless there is another reason for a pause.

B.12 Reporting to the tax authority (PStTG)

Under the German Platform Tax Transparency Act (PStTG) we have to report sellers to the Federal Central Tax Office every year. Exempt are sellers who, in a calendar year, have fewer than 30 sales and at the same time less than €2,000 in consideration. Consideration is what we have paid out or credited to you (item price minus commission plus shipping costs). Cancelled sales and disputes decided in the buyer’s favour do not count.

We report in particular your name, address, date of birth and tax identification number, for commercial sellers also the VAT ID, the last four characters of your IBAN and the consideration, fees and number of sales per quarter. If we are missing information, we ask you for it; you are obliged to provide it. We keep this data for 10 years.

The report says nothing about whether you have to pay tax. That is your own responsibility.

B.13 Order of offers and equal treatment

On the marketplace overview the buyer chooses the order: newest first (by the date the listing was created; default), price ascending or price descending. Search and filters, for example by condition, grading, signature or price range, narrow the selection but do not change the order.

Further offers for the same comic and collections containing it are shown by price, cheapest first. Further offers from the same seller and similar offers from a title search are shown newest first. When creating a listing, sellers see comparable offers from other sellers as a price guide: first the same cover variant, then the same comic, then the same community issue; within that, active offers before those sold in the last 180 days, then by price ascending; at most 12.

Nobody can pay for a better position. Seller type, reviews and commission do not affect the order. Ink & Power also offers its own items as “ink-power”, marked “Sold by ink-power”; they are not reviewed in advance and carry no service fee. They are not favoured in the order: they follow the same rules as all offers, and sorting uses the listing price without the service fee, so the missing fee does not move them up. On a listing page we point to the same comic as new stock in our shop in a separate, labelled area (“New in the shop”); this does not change the order of marketplace offers.

B.14 Access to data

In your seller area you see your listings, your orders with items, prices, commission and payouts, the buyers’ data for the shipping label (B.6), your messages and the reviews about you.

Ink & Power has access to all data generated by operating the marketplace, including listings, orders, payment status, messages, disputes, reports and reviews. We use it to operate the marketplace, process payments, prevent abuse and comply with legal obligations. We do not pass your data on to other sellers and we do not sell it. Buyers see your display name, whether you sell privately or commercially, your reviews and, as a commercial seller, your imprint and withdrawal policy. More in our privacy policy.

B.15 Termination

You can stop selling at any time: withdraw your listings and write to shop@ink-power.de if we should close your seller profile. You still ship items already sold; outstanding payouts are made under B.8.

We can end the relationship with 30 days’ notice and tell you the reason by email. We end it without notice only if a law or an authority obliges us to, or for serious or repeated violations of these terms (A.8); in that case too we tell you the reason.

C.1 Contracting party and information about the seller

Your contracting party is the seller, not Ink & Power. On every offer, in the cart and at checkout you see who is selling and whether the seller sells privately or commercially. Where it says “Sold by ink-power”, Ink & Power itself is your contracting party: the shop’s terms and conditions, the statutory right of withdrawal and the warranty apply, as for a purchase in the shop.

If you buy from a private seller, the special rules for consumer contracts do not apply; in particular you have no right of withdrawal. You have rights in respect of defects only against the seller. If you buy from a commercial seller, you have the statutory consumer rights, including the right of withdrawal under the seller’s withdrawal policy.

The fact that payment runs through Ink & Power and Stripe does not create contractual claims under the purchase contract against Ink & Power.

C.2 Prices, service fee and payment

For every item you buy on the marketplace you pay Ink & Power a service fee of €1.00. It is already included in every price shown. Items marked “Sold by ink-power” carry no service fee. The seller’s shipping costs are added; you see them before you buy. What the service fee pays for is explained under How the marketplace works.

You pay through the payment service provider Stripe. Ink & Power passes the seller’s share on to them under B.8.

If your order is cancelled with the seller, for example because they do not ship, or a dispute is decided in your favour, you get the service fee back together with the purchase price.

C.3 If something is wrong

If an item does not arrive or something is wrong, first write to the seller through the messaging. Many questions can be settled quickly that way.

C.4 Disputes

If that does not work, you can open a dispute in your customer account within 14 days of the shipment if the item has not arrived, does not match the description or is damaged. If the seller has not shipped at all, you can open a dispute at any time because the item has not arrived.

The seller has 30 days to respond. If they do not respond, the dispute is automatically decided in your favour. If they respond, Ink & Power reviews the case and decides. While the dispute is open, we pay the seller nothing for this order.

If the dispute is decided in your favour, we arrange the refund of the purchase price including shipping costs and service fee. Your statutory rights against the seller remain unaffected, and both sides may go to court.

C.5 Reviews

After shipment you can review the seller: condition, packaging and communication with 1 to 5 stars each, optionally with a comment. Only buyers of a shipped marketplace order from this seller can leave a review, once per order. Content is not checked in advance; we review reported reviews.

Reviews must be honest and factual. We delete reviews that violate the law or these terms. Sellers can in turn review buyers. Only reviews of sellers by buyers are shown publicly, without the buyer’s name.