The IRS is pretty fair on this topic. If you read up about depreciation and cost of goods, you can claim what you need to without worrying. It is best if you have a receipt but for most vintage stuff you've probably lost it. I sold some film cameras at $10 each. My mom gave them to me to get rid of. Problem is they were so old it was hard to determine the original purchase price (which I'm sure was $100 each at the time 30 years ago), and since my parents were the ones who bought it ages ago, I don't think I'd be allowed to claim the cost of goods since I received it for free as a gift (technically speaking). At $10 each, I didn't feel it was worth problems with the IRS to show so many sales with no profit, I'm not that cunning with my eBay sales. Now if I was like that guy ResaleRabbit on YouTube who does almost $600,000/yr in sales (not profit) on eBay (he shared his sales number in a recent video, not the profit numbers of course) then I'd start caring about COG and depreciation so as to maximize my profit for my business. Depreciation is big for him, I'm sure, as he buys so much shit that is old and not manufactured anymore. Old TV remotes, old VCRs, old t-shirts (in new condition), etc.
For the purposes of my taxes, I claim my eBay sales as a business and I get a little Trump QBI deduction. At $300 year I could technically claim it's a hobby and keep it all, but in my state the $600 limit was already in place for tax year 2021 and I had $1500 of transactions in PayPal that was submitted to the government as a 1099-K in 2021 (only $600 or so of the $1500 was taxable... lots of manufacturer rebates among other things). So considering I explained those eBay sales as a business in 2021, I figured it was in my best interest to continue reporting it even though it was well below $600 for tax year 2022 (I did less than $300 in profit last year). eBay has since changed payments to be self managed, but at the time in 2020 for TY2021 it was all going to PayPal.
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