Garage sale items

[Thankis81]

What if the items I am selling are old garage sale type items?  I am losing money on them, but don’t have receipts because the items are old and used. Gross receipts of maybe $1,000 for the entire year. 

[tagteam · Accepted solution]

You generally need to be able to show your basis in the items or the IRS can simply assign a zero ($0) basis.

Any form of documentation is useful, even pictures of the items.

Note that you cannot deduct a loss on items held for personal use.