Question

I bought 10 boxes of baseball cards for $35 each. The cost basis for each card is $.34 and there are 990 cards total. If I sell 1 card for $350, do I have tax of $0?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
November 4, 2023
2 replies
0 views

What about if I sell one card for $350 and sell the others for $1 total, or just throw them away?

Can I offset my $350 sale, or any other sales, by getting rid of other cards that had a cost basis higher than I got rid of them for?

TurboTax Live Premier Online

DoninGA

Employee

Your cost basis is $0.34 per card. If you sell one card for $350 then you have a capital gain of $349.66.

If you sell any other cards for $1.00 each then you have a capital gain of $.66 per card.

If you throw all the other cards away other than the card you sold for $350 you still have a capital gain of $349.66.

R

rynstrssAuthor

Thanks for the reply. What if I sell the other 989 cards for $10 total? In total I would have $360 in sales for a $10 profit by selling them all.

M

Mike9241

the sale could come under the rules for sale of collectibles, but if it's an activity not engaged in for a profit, it's likely a hobby and the hobby rules say income is taxable, but expenses are not deductible.

R

rynstrssAuthor

I purchase cards, and will sell some more rare ones at a profit, but it's hard to sell the common ones. So if I can sell 1000 of them at $10 total, will that offset some of the profit on the 1 expensive card?