Collectibles

Just as it says, it's stamps and coins and whatever else the Secretary has declared to be a collectible. So far as I know, baseballs are not collectibles.

-- ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

"Pats Fan" wrote

It most often falls to a facts and circumstances case. Many books are not collectibles, but you can look at it and tell it's not and never will be one. What's the chance that my

1996 Federal Tax Handbook would be a collectible? The nature of the item is what makes it a collectible.

-- Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens, Georgia

"Pats Fan" wrote

I hope you were not expecting a definitive answer from the 1-800 number.

How many books are you selling? How large of a gain are you expecting? What is it about these books that might make them collectibles?

Dick

About a month or so ago, I witnessed several tax accountant/CPAs debating just that point - whether a Bonds home run baseball was a collectible (not being a big stick & ball fan, I really didn't pay that close attention to the debate) ___________________________________

-----> real address on hobokeni or hobokenx

and are worth $5 or so.

. . .

In the case of books, it's almost purely a matter of price: a book with a high value is a collectible. However: does the time it became a collectible matter? A new book, easily purchased for cover price, isn't a collectible. It stays in print for, say, a year. Three years later, it costs 5x its initial price (and up). When did it become collectible? Seth

Sure. Any bookstore that sells new books sells them at a gain (or goes out of business fast). Seth

If you got a free copy of the "Warren Report" when it was published, it's just a book you've had for 40 some years, not a collectible.

I know people who have a hundred or more books on the same subject that they purchased at retail or at dollar book sales. It's their library and I doubt it would be a collecctible.

Dick

Just as well, 'cause it ain't settled yet. Or as Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over, till it's over."

ChEAr$, Harlan

Then how about my 1956 copy of Prentice Hall's Federal Tax Course? ChEAr$, Harlan

Being a bibliophile, I think I can offer a theory. In my library are many first editions relating to history and biography that I purchased around fifty years ago. Just because a book is a first edition, though, does not in itself make it a collectible. After checking prices on the net for like copies, and comparing with what I paid for them (recorded inside cover of each book with date purchased and location), to replace them in case of first would take more than twice the amounts usually. Now then, how much am I bid for a first edition of Gone with the Wind? There's even a small photo of Clark Gable that I guess mother stuck between the pages in 1939. ChEAr$, Harlan

What condition? Is it a true first? Dustjacket?

It seems to sell for up to $10,000.

Seth

Nah, but the 1954 edition is a classic.

Stu

In that case it will just pass on to my daughter eventually with stepped up basis, some time in the distant (I hope) future. ChEAr$, Harlan

p.s. sadly, no jacket.