Terms of Service

Velvet Rack, operated by Poor Dude Holdings LLC Last updated: 2026-09-27

These terms have not been reviewed by a lawyer. They describe how the product built in this repository actually behaves, which is a necessary starting point and not a substitute for legal review before taking real money from real people.

1. What Velvet Rack is

Velvet Rack is a marketplace for second-hand women's fashion. Sellers list clothing they own; buyers buy it. We are not the seller. We provide the marketplace, take payment, take a fee, and pass the rest to the seller.

Because we are not the seller, the sales contract for any item is between the buyer and the seller. Our obligations are set out below and are limited to running the marketplace.

2. Your account

You need an account to buy or sell. You must be 18 or older, give accurate information, and keep your sign-in secure. One person, one account.

You may close your account at any time from Account & data in the app, or by following https://velvet-rack.vercel.app/account/delete. Closing an account does not cancel obligations already incurred — see section 8.

3. Selling

Before you can publish a listing you must complete Stripe Connect onboarding, including identity verification. This is Stripe's requirement as much as ours; it is also why every seller here is a verified, payable identity.

When you list an item you confirm that you own it, that you may lawfully sell it, and that your description and photos are accurate — including brand, condition and size.

You may not list anything covered by the prohibited categories in our Content Moderation Policy. Counterfeits and attempts to move payment off the platform are the two we act on most often, and both may result in removal of the listing and loss of selling access.

Category, size, brand and condition cannot be edited once a listing is published. They are the identity of the garment, and changing them after a buyer has seen the listing would misrepresent it. Re-list instead.

4. Buying

Prices are set by sellers. The price shown at checkout is what you pay.

Stock is reserved for you when you begin checkout, not when you add an item to your bag. A reservation that is not paid for is released, so an item in your bag is not held for you.

Items are second-hand and sold as described by the seller. Condition labels are the seller's assessment.

5. Fees and payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not see or store your card details.

Velvet Rack charges sellers a platform fee of 14% of the item subtotal, deducted automatically. Stripe's own processing fees are separate and are also deducted from the seller's proceeds. Buyers pay no platform fee.

Direct charges — you are the merchant of record. Each sale is charged directly on your connected Stripe account, not on Velvet Rack's account. That means Stripe's processing fees and any chargeback on your sale — the disputed amount plus Stripe's dispute fee — are debited from your connected account. Velvet Rack's 14% fee is taken as an application fee on the same charge and is not reduced by processing fees or chargebacks. Velvet Rack is not liable for chargebacks on your sales; see §8.

Sales tax. Listed prices do not include sales tax. Where Velvet Rack is registered as a marketplace facilitator, we calculate the tax on the sale based on the buyer's delivery address, add it to the amount the buyer pays, and collect and remit it ourselves — you are not responsible for sales tax on facilitated sales, and you do not need to file or remit it. The tax is withheld from the sale alongside our 14% fee, so the application fee shown on a taxed sale is the 14% fee plus the tax collected for remittance; the tax portion is not our revenue. Where we are not registered as a facilitator, no tax is collected on the sale. We register as a marketplace facilitator in a state once the sales we facilitate into that state approach or reach that state's registration threshold (for example, $100,000 in Kansas and Missouri), and we collect tax on sales delivered into that state from the date collection is required.

Payouts are made by Stripe to the seller's connected account on Stripe's payout schedule. Payout timing is Stripe's, not ours.

6. Shipping, returns and refunds

Shipping is included in your listed price. You purchase postage and packaging from your proceeds after the platform's 14% commission and any other disclosed deductions. The buyer pays no separate shipping charge at checkout. Sellers are responsible for shipping items they sell, promptly and packaged so they arrive in the condition described.

Dispatch deadline. Sellers must hand the package to the carrier within 3 business days after successful payment and provide valid tracking. Business days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and U.S. federal holidays, and the exact ship-by date is shown on each order. Creating a label alone does NOT count as dispatch: only a carrier acceptance scan or a verifiable drop-off receipt counts. The parcel must go to the address recorded on the order.

If neither a carrier acceptance scan nor a verifiable drop-off receipt is provided by the deadline, we restrict the seller from further selling pending review, and we initiate cancellation of the order with a full refund to the buyer after checking for shipment evidence. Seller-paid postage does not eliminate our exposure to non-delivery disputes: a parcel that never arrives is still our problem to resolve with the buyer.

This dispatch policy is a recommended platform policy, not a legal safe harbor. It is stricter than Poshmark's published seven-day shipping window: we require dispatch within 3 business days, not seven.

Refunds are issued through Stripe, against the seller's connected account — a refund is taken from the account the sale was charged on, not from Velvet Rack. A refund returns money; it does not by itself return the item, and it does not automatically put the item back on sale. Where a return is agreed, the buyer and seller arrange it between them.

If an item never arrives, or arrives materially different from its description, contact us and we will help resolve it. We may refund a buyer from the seller's connected account where the seller is at fault.

7. Content you upload

You keep ownership of your photos, video and text. By uploading them you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display and distribute them for the purpose of running and promoting the marketplace — including on the public web pages and social surfaces that link back to your listing. This licence ends when the content is removed, except for copies retained in backups or required for legal records.

Do not upload anything you do not have the right to upload.

Anyone signed in can report content. Reports are handled as described in the Content Moderation Policy.

8. Suspension and termination

We may remove content or suspend access for breach of these terms, for fraud, or where required by law.

Chargebacks. A seller is responsible for chargebacks on their own sales. Because each sale is a direct charge on the seller's connected account, Stripe debits the disputed amount and its dispute fee from that account; Velvet Rack is not liable for chargebacks and does not pay them.

Suspension of new sales. If a seller has 2 or more lost or accepted chargebacks within a rolling 90 days, we automatically suspend their new sales pending review. Suspension means the seller cannot list new items or accept new orders while the review is open; existing orders are unaffected. A suspension is never an automatic permanent ban — after review we either release the seller (selling resumes) or confirm the suspension, and a confirmed suspension can still be lifted later on appeal.

We review a seller at their first opened dispute: the first time a buyer disputes one of their charges, we open a review of the seller. That review alone does not suspend selling. We may also suspend a seller immediately for suspected fraud, counterfeits, or non-shipment. We monitor dispute rates and dollar exposure, not only the two-dispute count.

This suspension policy is an internal risk policy, not a liability safe harbor: it does not change who bears a chargeback (the seller does), and it does not promise any particular outcome for any individual dispute.

Repeated unethical behaviour. A seller who repeatedly behaves unethically — for example by repeatedly shipping items that are materially different from their description, or by repeatedly failing to ship at all — may be suspended or have their account closed, at our discretion.

Closing your account does not release you from orders already in progress. If you are a seller with an unfulfilled order, you must ship or refund it before the account can be closed; the app will tell you what is outstanding.

9. Liability

We provide the marketplace as-is. We do not warrant that listings are accurate, that sellers will perform, or that the service will be uninterrupted.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) the fees we earned on the transaction the claim relates to, or (b) 100 USD. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

10. Indemnification

If your use of Velvet Rack — your listings, photos, video or text, your sales, or anything else you do with the service — gets us into a dispute with someone else, you agree to cover us for it. You will indemnify and hold harmless Velvet Rack and Poor Dude Holdings LLC, and our officers and agents, against any claim, loss, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your listings or content, your sales, your breach of these terms, or your violation of any law or anyone else's rights.

This does not cover claims that arise solely from our own conduct.

11. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

If you believe something on Velvet Rack infringes your copyright, send a takedown notice to malcolmgoodmen@gmail.com with:

• identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed;
• identification of the material you say is infringing, and where it appears on Velvet Rack (a link to the listing or episode is enough);
• your name, address, phone number and email address, so we can reach you;
• a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
• your signature (a typed name is enough for an emailed notice).

On receiving a notice that contains all of the above, we will remove or disable access to the material and tell the person who uploaded it. A notice that leaves something out may be returned for the missing detail instead of acted on.

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same address with identification of the material and where it appeared, your name, address, phone number and email address, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in your district (or, if you are outside the United States, any federal court where we may be found) and will accept service of process from the person who sent the takedown notice, and your signature. If we receive a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the person who sent the takedown notice and restore the material within 10 to 14 business days unless that person tells us they have filed a court action to restrain the material.

We may close the account of anyone who repeatedly infringes copyright.

12. Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use Velvet Rack after that means you accept the updated terms.

13. Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Questions: malcolmgoodmen@gmail.com Privacy: privacy@poordudeholdings.com Security vulnerabilities: see SECURITY.md in the public repository.