OT But probably affects most on this board

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BleedinBlue

...and how it affects my situation.

This year I decided to liquidate a fair number of cards for various reasons including space, change in collecting focus and finances. I've still got a ways to go on this clean-up which will roll into 2011. In my case I am selling cards which I have purchased over the last 30+ years and held in my personal collection. I don't have records on what I paid for each card except for those purchased in the last 4 years. How so I report "profits" when I don't know purchase price? Given that some of these cards have greatly appreciated but some have also drastically depreciated, where does that leave me from a reporting standpoint? At this point I plan on selling less. I'm not in business, I'm just trying to thin my collection. And I did expect to sell more than $20k in 2011. Certainly I planned on selling more than 200 items.

Unfortunately, I believe the rule is that if you can't prove a cost basis, to support your net profit/loss, then the cost basis is 0. I have done that with some cards when I didn't have the necessary back up.