Hello,
I am in a similar situation as the OP for this thread. I sold collectible trading cards (in over 1200 transactions) that I have owned for years via TCGplayer (now an eBay subsidiary) and received a 1099-K although my gross amount of payment card/3pn transactions was under $20,000. I do not personally consider this a business as I don't rely on it for income, engage in it very sporadically (all of my sales in 2022 took place in the first half of the year), and am also still purchasing new collectible cards so to me it behaves much more like a hobby or sale of personal items (in a garage-sale type of fashion). I don't believe I've ever received a 1099-K for this sales activity before, although I did sell through TCGplayer in 2021 and 2020. Additionally complicating things is the fact that since these are all old cards, most of which are not more valuable than a couple of dollars, I have no purchase records for any of them, since most of them I bought over a decade ago.
Since I have no purchase records or means of establishing a cost basis for anything, it seems wrong to treat this as investment income. I don't know for sure whether all of the items were sold at a loss or only some of them. It's also weird to call it hobby income since it's not actually related to hobby activity-- I'm not producing any new things to sell, just getting rid of old things. It just involves assets that are a part of my hobby. But I also don't treat it as a business: I have no formal records, never intended to turn a profit from purchasing new collectibles, and only make sales rarely at this point as my inventory is depleted.
Could you please advise on the most appropriate way to report this income?
Thanks
