Question about charitable donations and taxes

[GalvestonDuck]

When my stepdad died last summer, he had a ton of books and stuff in storage up in KY (where he and my mom had lived til she died in '97). He moved to FL in '01, but left the books and stuff in storage so he wouldn't have to pay the movers since they charge by weight. He was a pack-rat, to say the least. I picked them up and brought them down here last Christmas, so now, I have over 80 boxes of books and 5 boxes of LP's. There is no way I would have time to list all those books on Ebay. I've gone through everything (good thing, because I found one of his pistols) and taken out what I want to keep. I need to get rid of the rest of it. I know there's Salvation Army, Goodwill, and a couple of other church thrift stores around Galveston County to which I could donate them.

My question is this -- how do I decide how much they're worth?

I called one place and they told me they could pick them up and give me a receipt for them. They told me that I could write down the value and then use that as a deduction on my taxes. A large majority of the books are mystery, espionage, sci-fi, and western paperbacks. Most of them don't even look like they've been read. Some are hardbacks. As for the LP's -- I guess the value depends upon who you ask. A few are still sealed. There are several that could be collectables to someone but I've searched Ebay and nothing is selling well there lately. I'd prefer to donate most everything and get it out of my bedroom. Right now, my bed is disassembled and up against the wall and the boxes are stacked to the ceiling. I'm sleeping on the couch. I want my bedroom back. Originally, there were over 100 boxes, but I've thrown some stuff out that was junk to begin with and unpacked the stuff I want to keep.

Deducting for actual monetary donations is easy because you already have a value. For this it's different. How do I know if I'm valuing too high or too low? Anyone out there a CPA or have experience with this?

Thanks!
Shawn

BTW, if anyone is looking for an LP or a certain book, ask me. I might have it here.

[David]

Search E-Bay.. see if the same book is selling and for how much, then price it for how much it was or less, and sell it in a garage sale, or whatever you wisa.

[GalvestonDuck]

Thanks, David. However, like I said, there are over 80 boxes of books. Each box has around 50-100 books, depending upon size and type. I just need to know if I should say 10 cents per book or 50 cents per book or just estimate a total value for the whole lot of them. I'm not up to hauling all those boxes downstairs and outside just to have a few people stop by and browse through them and maybe sell 10 or even 100. Need to get rid of them all.

[blizzard]

Being a Certified personal property appraiser, I can tell you that it is not easy to determine value on books. Appraised value is defined as what an individual is willing to pay for a given item on a particular time and place. So the value of your property will be different if you live in Maine vs. living in California. An appraisers job is alot of guess work and learned values that can only be accumulated through experience. Searching eBay is not a bad idea to get an idea what items are selling for, but obviously that is not practical for the amount that you have. Albums are not that valuable anymore. The only ones that are retaining any significant value (depending where you are again) are some of the classic artists (Beatles, Elvis, etc.) and the albums should be unopened, still sealed in the plastic. Of course there are exceptions, but that would have to be researched.

Another method you could use to determine the value is to look at what people are charging at yard sales in your area, or thrift shops. If Goodwill is charging an average of $1.00 per book, you can use that valueation for your taxes, it just must be stated the method you used to determine value.

If you have any more questions or if I can be of any more assistance feel free to PM me and I will give you my e-mail address or other method to contact me.

[CajunMama]

Salvation Army used to have a sheet that gave you an approximation value of the items that you could use for your taxes.

Also...what about donating your books to those programs that help people get started again....like The Faith House here in Lafayette is for abused women & children or St. Joseph's Shelter for men trying to get back on their feet.

[David]

I would look through the books just in case. All it takes is one.. as they say. Good luck.

[Lake Effect1]

Most books at goodwill , thrift stores, sell for around 50c--$1.00. I would for sure go thru them to see the copyright dates,make sure there are no 1st editions, secondly, look for books dated before the 1930's. If you really don't care, I guess salv. army ,because they will give you a sheet.Just make a fair guesstimate. Most hardcovers sell for $20-25, paper back $5-8. Just make sure you get a receipt .