On Selling Magic
So a few weeks ago, I started pondering the possibility of selling some of my Magic cards. Unfortunately, offloading the bulk of them is... impractical unless I were to look for a local buyer, and the market here just isn't that big. So I consulted one of the major MtG dealer web site/shops, Star City Games. The irony of having bought cards from them before does not escape me. And here's an overview of how it went...
July 7th: Sorting and grading cards by the guidelines on their web site. I'm sure I missed several things in my collection that were on their buy list because my own cards are not all well sorted, but I picked out I think a bit over a hundred cards. Their buylist page is... large. And between the quantity of text plus the various links and ads, it's rather slow to navigate even on my better computers (and nearly crippling on an older one I viewed it with). After some some consideration, I decided to submit a list of around a hundred cards that did not include the half dozen or so of the greatest individual value (Lotus, Mox, etc.). Even so, between the listed buy prices and my grade estimates, they averaged about $14 per card.
July 9th: Reply to email comes back saying all looks okay and they're interested in it all. Cards packed.
July 10th: Cards shipped - tracking is highly recommended and I went ahead with some insurance too.
July 13th: Cards arrived. Email received saying everything looks good and the information is being passed to their accounting department.
July 18th: Check is printed and sent UPS (presumably for tracking, considering it really didn't need a padded envelop that size.
July 25th: Check received to be deposited the next day.
So... no major delays or questions along the way. I was anticipating the possibility of some issues about the grading, but I must have either been overly critical or spot-on by their standards as everything was accepted as I sent it. Three weeks feels a little long, but with shipping things across the country, there's not a lot of getting around that.
Of course, now it occurs to me that such transactions are probably taxable as "sales of collectibles," even though there's no way I could give more than a wild estimate on the effective purchase price of cards I've picked up over the last (nearly) two decades. That makes it hard to say exactly what the profit is, though I can't deny that I did come out ahead money-wise and I'm going to have to keep that in mind next year come tax time.
And this provides food for thought as far as other cards. It might be worth making another pass through my boxes at some point, though I would expect a lower average value of the results. And the few "big value" cards I have... hmm... I'm hanging onto them so far, but it's something to think about.
July 7th: Sorting and grading cards by the guidelines on their web site. I'm sure I missed several things in my collection that were on their buy list because my own cards are not all well sorted, but I picked out I think a bit over a hundred cards. Their buylist page is... large. And between the quantity of text plus the various links and ads, it's rather slow to navigate even on my better computers (and nearly crippling on an older one I viewed it with). After some some consideration, I decided to submit a list of around a hundred cards that did not include the half dozen or so of the greatest individual value (Lotus, Mox, etc.). Even so, between the listed buy prices and my grade estimates, they averaged about $14 per card.
July 9th: Reply to email comes back saying all looks okay and they're interested in it all. Cards packed.
July 10th: Cards shipped - tracking is highly recommended and I went ahead with some insurance too.
July 13th: Cards arrived. Email received saying everything looks good and the information is being passed to their accounting department.
July 18th: Check is printed and sent UPS (presumably for tracking, considering it really didn't need a padded envelop that size.
July 25th: Check received to be deposited the next day.
So... no major delays or questions along the way. I was anticipating the possibility of some issues about the grading, but I must have either been overly critical or spot-on by their standards as everything was accepted as I sent it. Three weeks feels a little long, but with shipping things across the country, there's not a lot of getting around that.
Of course, now it occurs to me that such transactions are probably taxable as "sales of collectibles," even though there's no way I could give more than a wild estimate on the effective purchase price of cards I've picked up over the last (nearly) two decades. That makes it hard to say exactly what the profit is, though I can't deny that I did come out ahead money-wise and I'm going to have to keep that in mind next year come tax time.
And this provides food for thought as far as other cards. It might be worth making another pass through my boxes at some point, though I would expect a lower average value of the results. And the few "big value" cards I have... hmm... I'm hanging onto them so far, but it's something to think about.
about the taxable bit - do me a favor, and call Dad and ask him. Or if you want, I'll call him and ask him. On the down side, I think you have to list all the income as income (not just the profit). On the up side, there may be other ways to write off the income. Almost everyone I know doesn't report miscellaneous income (garage sales, beater car sales, etc) to the IRS, but we're supposed to (ah, the things I learned in that tax class...). For the most part, those miscellaneous items don't bump people into a new tax bracket, and what I saw in playing with various scenarios showed that type of income making very little difference in the overall tax picture for a person. But - call Dad and give him specifics, and he can give you confidential advice specific to your tax situation. If I were actively doing the tax thing right now, I'd offer - but after 3 months of trying to forget it, I'm afraid I'd give you incorrect advice, and I know he's still actively working with it, so the rules will be fresh in his head. Keep a record of your income. If you can find information on the cost of the cards back when you bought them, it might help (or it might not) - you've got until tax season to find it, but ask Dad if you'll even need it. I've got his work number around if you don't - and their office is still open, even though it's not tax season. (hey, he gave Nina business advice, this is an easy question compared to that!) :) I still have my Magic cards somewhere. I know I didn't have a lot of great cards, but I should see if any of them are worth anything - I'm not using them anymore... thanks for the reminder! :)
ReplyDeleteThe real trick with original purchase cost is the random element. Probably 99% of my cards were acquired in packs. So... try to figure out how many packs/boxes/decks I bought of a particular expansion, then finding the price per and dividing that by how many cards there were? Yeaaah. For a few of the later sets, I might be able to estimate by saying "well, I probably only really bought one box of booster packs," but for the earlier sets when I was buying individual packs - no earthly idea. Then one could ask if the rarer cards, which are naturally more valuable, deserve a greater share of value per pack compared to the common ones. Aieeee! Whatever the case, the original per card value has to be pretty low. Feels a little odd to consider calling up your dad after not seeing him in so long for tax advice. But I might just do that.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mom always loves hearing from my friends, so if nothing else, she'd enjoy it. Dad - it's what he does. Like I said, if you want me to ask him, I can do that. The real trick, I'd guess, would be to figure out what the per-pack cost was, back in the day (I remember thinking they were expensive, but I was essentially broke compared to now....). I'm not even sure you'll need to know how much you paid for them. If these were stocks, you would need to know what you bought them for, when, and what you sold them for, when (the "cost basis" if I remember right)... but I don't think collectibles are the same deal. Honestly, I think with these you would need to report the income, but my fuzzy memory says that the amount you paid is irrelevant. I think it's just "miscellaneous income" that gets reported on the same line as your pay - but I also think you should check with someone who's actively dealing with these issues (whether it's Dad or someone else).
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