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Posted By: Eric Brehm

Dave -- I would guess that most baseball card sales by private collectors, including on eBay, are not reported to the IRS. And if you were to be audited by the IRS, and they discovered un-reported sales somehow, they would probably just want you to pay what you owe, and not try to prosecute you for wholesale tax evasion. I don't know how they draw the line there.

I started buying and selling cards in 2006 (mostly buying) and reported all my sales for that year. I plan to do the same for 2007 and in future years. But that's just me; I feel the best policy is to be as accurate on my taxes as I can be, and not fail to report income that I know I owe taxes on (or for that matter, losses that will save me on taxes) because the IRS probably won't ever find out about it. Perhaps someone else with more experience in this area can comment, because I'm sure many collectors face this dilemma.