Assuming that (a) you are only acting as an agent i.e. you facilitate the exchange of money for the items and have no personal interest or gain from the transaction(s); (b) the exchange/ transaction will occur in the USA; (c) you are doing this as a hobby ; (d) the articles have been brought into the country legally -----> generally IRS will view this as US sourced income acquired by a Non-Resident Alien. Thus the owner will have to file a form 1040-NR ( not supported by TurboTax ). It may be simpler for the person to give these to you as gift ( along with the basis of the donor -- if it is worth more $100,000 , you may have to file form 3520 - declaration of gift from a foreign person ) , and then you sell the items , report the capital gains on form 1040 ( supported by TurboTax), the foreign person then compensates you for the taxes you paid. Note that in the first scenario -- your acting only as a go-in-between, there is a flat 30% tax on net income whereas in the second scenario ( gift to you for subsequent disposition ) the gain is treated as capital gain at your rate. There are quite a few complications when you act as an agent for a foreign person --- you need to withhold the taxes and also file form 1042 . Suggest you see a professional before take this step.
