Terms of Service
1. Who we are
Madera is a curated marketplace for skateboarding and action sports culture. The marketplace is operated by Madera, Inc. ("Madera," "we," "us"), in Long Beach, California.
Premium boards, from $500 to $8,000, are approved by our appraiser from the listing photos and ship from the seller to the buyer, with a signature on delivery. Artifacts, $8,000 and up, are paid by wire and checked at our Long Beach warehouse before they ship. Open boards under $500 are also available to buy.
We publish the city, Long Beach, California, and do not state a street address. Legal notices go to support@madera.co.
2. The agreement
These terms are a contract between you and Madera, Inc. They cover the marketplace, accounts, listings, offers, auctions, checkout, seller payouts, and the Forums.
By creating an account, listing a board, buying a board, making an offer, placing a bid, or posting in the Forums, you agree to these terms and to the Privacy Policy. If you use Madera for an organization, you confirm that you can bind it.
You may browse the marketplace without an account. You need an account to buy, sell, make an offer, bid, or post.
You must be at least 18 to hold an account, and able to enter a binding contract.
This draft does not state a calendar date.
3. Accounts
You register with your name, an email address, and a password. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping the password confidential. Tell us if you believe someone else is using it.
The information you give us must be accurate, including your name and any shipping address you use to buy. You will keep it current.
We may refuse, suspend, or close an account that breaks these terms, that we reasonably believe is being used for fraud, or that is banned from the Forums. Except for fraud or a ban, we email you before a suspension.
One person, one account.
4. Buying
A listing at a stated price is an invitation to buy that board at that price. You pay the listed price, plus a 6% Buyer's Premium on Premium and an 8% Buyer's Premium on Artifacts on that price, plus $14.95 flat shipping in the contiguous United States, plus sales tax.
The Buyer's Premium is charged on the price of the board only, not on shipping or tax. It is labeled Buyer's Premium on the listing, at checkout, and on the receipt. The listing shows it before you pay, and a full refund includes it. Sales tax is the amount on the order, taken from the shipping address. We do not add a flat tax rate.
We ship to US street addresses. No PO boxes. The $14.95 rate is the contiguous United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and addresses outside the United States are not available at launch.
Payments are processed by Stripe. You pay with a card, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay when the browser offers them. Madera does not store your full card number.
A contract to buy a Premium board is formed when your payment succeeds or when a seller accepts your offer and you pay. An Artifact is formed when your wire clears. If an Artifact fails the warehouse check, it does not ship and we refund the price, the Buyer's Premium, shipping, and tax.
5. Offers
On a listing that accepts offers, you may offer less than the asking price. The seller may accept, counter, or decline. Madera does not answer or counter. An offer is not a purchase until the seller accepts it and payment succeeds.
An accepted offer is an agreement to buy at the offered price, on these terms: the same Buyer's Premium, charged on the offered price, the same shipping charge, the same sales tax, and the same Buyer Protection as a purchase at the listed price.
An offer stays open for 24 hours. You may withdraw it before the seller accepts. A counter stays open for the same 24 hours. Once the seller accepts, you have 24 hours to pay. If you don't, the offer closes and the board goes back on sale. When a listing sets no floor, the lowest offer is 70% of the asking price.
6. Auctions
Auctions are not offered at launch. If a lot is offered later, you need an account and a shipping address to bid. Placing a bid is an offer to buy at that amount, up to the maximum you enter, and that maximum is used as a proxy bid. A lot may have a reserve. You may withdraw a bid until the lot closes.
If you win, the winning bid is the price of the board. The Buyer's Premium on the winning bid, shipping of $14.95 in the contiguous United States, and sales tax are added, as with any other purchase. The winning bid is charged when the lot closes.
A lot may show additional terms before you bid. These terms control if they conflict, except a lot may add a stricter shipping or payment rule that is shown before you bid.
7. Inspection and shipping
Every Premium listing is approved by our appraiser from the photos before it goes live. The seller then ships the sold board straight to the buyer within 3 business days, insured and tracked, with a signature on delivery. Any label cost is in the seller agreement. The buyer's shipping charge in the contiguous United States is the $14.95 flat rate in section 4. Arrival is about 5–7 days after the seller ships. We don't name a single carrier.
Artifacts are checked at the Long Beach, California warehouse, usually within 1–2 business days, and then packed and shipped insured, with a signature on delivery. A board that does not pass does not ship to the buyer. The seller sends an Artifact to that warehouse; Madera pays the inbound shipment.
If an Artifact fails inspection before it ships, the buyer's remedy is a refund of the price, the Buyer's Premium, shipping, and tax.
Approval and inspection are not a certificate of authenticity. We don't issue one. If we can't tell something from the photos, or from the warehouse check on an Artifact, we say so.
8. Selling and payouts
Selling is by invite at launch. To sell, you create a seller profile and a payout account. Stripe collects the identity information and bank details on its own pages. Madera does not see those identity documents. Seller pages call that service the payout provider. You can receive a payout once payouts are enabled. Our appraiser still approves every Premium listing before it goes live.
You will list only a board you have the right to sell. The brand, the graphic, the year, whether it is an original or a reissue, and the condition you state will be accurate to the best of your knowledge. You will not describe a counterfeit as authentic, or a reissue as an original. At launch we list originals only.
Listing is free. The buyer pays a Buyer's Premium at checkout. Premium commission is agreed when a seller is invited and shown in the seller agreement before the first listing. Artifacts carry a 2% commission plus a $150 listing fee.
Seller payouts go out by ACH in the next business-day batch, with no payout fee, once the buyer has the board, the buyer's payment clears, and the 3-day claim window has closed.
A new seller's first few sales are held until delivery is confirmed by the buyer. After that, you're paid once the buyer has the board.
Some boards are sold by Madera itself and marked "Sold by Madera." That badge is only for inventory Madera owns. If the listing has no ownership field, the badge is hidden. A house sale uses these same buyer terms, and Madera is the seller. On every other sale the contract is between the buyer and the seller. Madera runs the marketplace, takes payment through Stripe, and pays the seller by ACH after deducting any Commission.
9. Final sale and Buyer Protection
Sales are final.
If the item is not as described, Buyer Protection lasts 3 days from delivery and closes at 11:59 PM Hawaii time on that day. Buyer Protection is not a right to return a board because you changed your mind, and it is not a right to return a board that matches its listing.
"Not as described" means a material difference from the listing, including a different board, an undisclosed reissue, repair, or re-screen, or condition below the condition the listing stated. The remedy is a refund, a partial refund, or a return, decided with you.
Open a claim from the order page. If we ask you to send a Premium board back, you ship it to the seller with a prepaid label, and return shipping is on us. We refund you at the first carrier scan.
10. Forums
The Forums are a community for collectors. They are not a second marketplace. A deck for sale is listed only through the listing form. Its For-Sale Post comes from that listing. Do not offer a board for sale in a Forum Post or a Comment. Madera does not accept a for-sale post written in the Forum editor. Private groups are not part of the site.
You will not post anything that:
- breaks the law;
- infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other right;
- harasses, threatens, or publishes another person's private information;
- is spam, a scam, or an impersonation of another person or of Madera;
- is a sale of a board outside the listing form.
The Rulebook at /forums/rules states the selling rule above. Further community rules published there are part of this section.
We may remove a post or comment, and we may suspend or ban an account, that breaks this section. You can appeal a ban by writing to support@madera.co.
You keep ownership of what you post. You grant Madera a non-exclusive license to host, display, and moderate it on the service, and to make the copies that hosting requires. After you delete a post, the license ends except for backups, moderation logs, and records we keep for a legal claim. We keep moderation logs for 24 months.
11. Intellectual property and takedown
The Madera name, the site, and our editorial material, including The Archive where we wrote it, belong to Madera, Inc. or its licensors. You may not copy them to run a competing service, and you may not use the Madera name in a way that suggests we endorse you.
Listings, photos, and Forum posts must be material you have the right to use. You are responsible for the content you submit.
If you believe material on Madera infringes a copyright you own or control, send a notice that includes all of the following:
- your physical or electronic signature;
- the work you claim is infringed;
- the location of the material on Madera, enough for us to find it;
- your name, address, telephone number, and email address;
- a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law;
- a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act for the owner.
Send the notice to Madera, Inc. at support@madera.co. We do not publish a street address. Trademark notices go to the same address.
If we remove material in response to a notice, we may tell the person who posted it and accept a counter-notice that meets the statutory requirements, sent to the same address. An account with more than one valid takedown is a repeat infringer, and we may close it.
12. Disclaimers and limits of liability
The marketplace, the Forums, and The Archive are provided as available. To the extent California law allows, we disclaim the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
Inspection is the check described in section 7. It is not a promise that every later examiner will agree, and it is not a certificate of authenticity.
To the extent California law allows, Madera and its directors, employees, and agents are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost goodwill, or lost data, whether or not we were advised of the possibility.
For a given sale, our total liability to the buyer and the seller together is limited to the amount the buyer paid Madera for that sale. Where California law does not allow a limit, including liability for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by gross negligence or willful misconduct, the limit does not apply.
We are not liable for a seller's description except through the inspection in section 7 and Buyer Protection in section 9, and we are not liable for the contents of a Forum post written by a user.
13. California law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. They do not require arbitration.
Before filing, write to support@madera.co and give us 30 days to try to resolve it. If we can't, the state and federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California hear the dispute.
You may have rights under California consumer law that these terms cannot waive, including rights described in the Privacy Policy.
14. Changes and other terms
We may update these terms by posting the new text on this page. For a material change we also email account holders at least 7 days before it takes effect. This draft does not state a last updated date.
If you keep using Madera after the update is posted, the new terms apply to use after that point. A completed sale keeps the terms in effect when the contract for that sale was formed.
If a court holds a provision unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision once is not a waiver.
We may assign these terms with a transfer of the marketplace. You may not assign your account.
These terms, the Privacy Policy, and any additional terms shown at checkout or on a lot are the whole agreement about the marketplace. They replace earlier understandings about the same subject. These terms control if checkout terms, lot terms, and these terms disagree, except a stricter rule shown on that lot before you bid or pay.
Questions about these terms: support@madera.co.