what valuation method do you use for items purchased for charity auction?

[layla-mclean]

i bought items for a gala basket - what valuation method do i use?

[xmasbaby0]

If you mean that you purchased items to be raffled for the auction -- if the auction is for a recognized charity you can enter the amount  that YOU paid when you purchased the items.   You did not quite ask---but were you hoping to enter the amount that the charity actually received from the "winner" of the basket?   You enter what YOU paid.

NON-PROFIT

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/what-is-a-qualified-charitable-organiz...

Federal>Deductions and Credits>Charitable Donations>Donations to Charity

[MonikaK1]

Since you just recently purchased the items, and they are not used, you can use your purchase price as the value of the items donated, as @xmasbaby0 advised.

Note that in the heading of Section A, Form 8283 states that you can list "an item (or a group of similar items) for which you claimed a deduction of $5,000 or less". It is not necessary to list each individual item on the form if they are similar items. You are expected to have maintained records to support the totals reported on Form 8283. See the IRS Instructions for Form 8283 for more information.

If you donated, for example, several bags of clothing on a particular date, you can list "clothing" on Form 8283 and one total for all of the items. If you donated an assortment of household items, you can list "household items" with one total.

See also this TurboTax help article for information about the new fair market valuation (FMV) tool that helps you price your charitable donations if you’re itemizing your deductions.

 @layla-mclean