Suppose I have a collection of rare baseball cards that I want to donate to a qualified charity and claim a FMV of $12,000 on my return. My understanding is that, because this exceeds $5000, I need a professional appraisal. However, does that $5000 cutoff apply to the combined FMV of all like items I donate to the same charity over the course of the year, or only to a discrete donation of items on a particular date? If I break the cards into three groups with FMV of $4000 each and donate a group in June, August, and November and itemize these separately on my return, can I forego a professional appraisal, or will the IRS regard this as no different from donating them all at once with a $12k FMV?
