Quote:
Originally Posted by jethrod3
So several years ago, when I had started doing one or two local small shows, I was under the impression (for whatever reason, right or wrong) that setting up at an occasional card show was pretty much the equivalent of setting up a garage sale: I was selling essentially second-hand stuff, not with the idea of making a huge profit (or often any profit), and I believe I'd read some tax rules about there being some number of times you could set up for a garage sale and NOT have to declare the financials unless you exceeded that number.
Even if I were to do a show again tomorrow, my intention would be to not sell off my few high-dollar collectibles for a profit now; it would be to reduce clutter from my collection and attempt to break even on stuff I either no longer want (much like one does at a garage sale) or that was thrown in with other items in auction lots that I actually wanted.
This of course begs the question: If someone, for the sake of discussion, is not a collector now, but has 5 sets of 1988 Topps baseball that they sell at a garage sale for $15 each because at time of purchase they thought it could be a great investment (but now is hardly worth the paper the cards are printed on), are those sets deemed collectibles and thus subject to reporting to the IRS? From what I've read, if the seller makes any profit, I think the answer unfortunately would be yes! But unless there are stricter rules for garage sales, unless I'm missing something, the tax law would be quite unenforceable.
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I'm not entirely sure why there's such a fascination with small potatoes.
I would suspect that the cost to buy those sets is probably greater than the $75 you sold them for, so no gain.
Even if all $75 was income, you're talking about a tax of at most maybe $30, give or take. If we're fussing over $30, then we're probably doing something wrong. Both because paying $30 shouldn't kill anyone financially, and failing to pay $30 is unlikely to result in a death sentence under federal tax law.
Now, if you were talking about $30,000 or $300,000, then the stakes are a lot higher. But you're probably not ringing up those sorts of sales at a garage sale.