Donating to a charity

anjcollection

I hope this is appropriate for this board- I haven't been posting messages in a while due to the house purchase, but most of the people I've come in contact with (and trust) are on the set registry board.

I've seen people post in the past about tax implications/benefits of giving cards away to a charity. I was wondering how this process all works.

Which ones handle them the best? Ronald McDonald house? Salvation Army?
Do they give you a receipt with the value? Or do you fill it in or tell them?

I'm not so much worried about the value of the cards, but the process in which I should go about donating them. Do I just show up with my cards? How should I box them? Etc.

Thanks!

Vargha

The way that charitable contributions work is that you get a receipt from the organization and then you assign the value to them. Be prepared to back up your claims in the event of an audit. Unless you are filing Schedule A (itemized deductions), it is irrelevant for tax purposes.

(Edited for clarity)

Davemri

So could someone give a box of 5000 commons at a nickel each and get 250.00 tax credit. And could it be backed up with the common price in beckett??? Just curious as I have probably 100,000 commons from the late 80's/early 90's

dave

mikeschmidt

Just like anything else in life -- I think if you take a little leeway, no one will question you. However, if you try and pass off 1,000,000 commons at beckett value of $.05 each, I guarantee you that either a) your auditor will not sign off on it unless you have adquate documentation (e.g. Beckett is not enough), or b) the IRS wil raise a red flag at such a huge income tax credit, that your likelihood of an audit are significantly increased.

jvineyard

A few years ago I cleaned out my garage and decided to donate about 300,000 commons, semi stars, stars and inserts - from 1980s and early 1990s.

First, it was almost impossible to find anyone willing to take them. Most organizations, hospitals, etc will only take them if they are sorted and if they are fairly recent (a 10 year old kid in a cancer ward might not be too impressed with a stack of 1990 topps commons). I was finally able to unload them on my Rotary club, which then donated them to a local Boy Scout troop to use for their Eagle service projects.

The Rotary club gave me a receipt generally describing the cards, and I kept some photos and a partial/sample list of the cards and sets. Since I had more than just commons, I was fairly comfortable that I could estimate the value at 3 cents a card based on Beckett (and I kept a copy of the beckett from that month).

My CPA thought I had covered myself appropriately, so I ended up with a $9,000 charitable deduction. In the greater scheme of things related to my taxes a 9K deduction hopefully won't raise a red flag to the IRS, and (knock wood) it's been two years audit free so far. Even if I am audited, I should be able to avoid any "fraud" penalties based on the documentation I put together.

Davemri

Wow
$9000 is pretty significant. I will definatly have to look into that. Thanks for the info.

dave

dbj77

No joke, Even for .1 cent a common you could make some money if you are sitting on as many boxes of commons as I am.

JeffVN

I've done it every couple of years. For awhile I was colecting modern cards. that ended up not giving me what I wnated out of the hobby, so I dumped them ALL (over 40,000 cards, including stars, semi-stars, and commons) kept the appropriate beckett on their value (I only claimed $0.02 for any common, $0.05 for seim-and minor stars, and 50% of value for the low book on stars) took some pictures of the open boxes to show what I was giving by volume, and took the Nice deduction.