Donating Valuable Stuff (That's Hard to Sell) vs Struggling to Sell It - A Tax Question

I've got some old bike parts that while valuable, are difficult to sell. Valuable is a loose term here. We're talking between $5-$15 at a swap meet...if you can sell it all. 

I've also got a local bicycle non-profit that essentially says you can use their prices as a write-off amount on the form they provide. 

If I collected all of my unused bike parts and donated them, I might be able to claim a $100 in-kind donation. 

If I tried selling it all, it might take years, if it all. 

From a tax perspective, at what point does it make sense just to donate stuff? I was under the impression that in most tax situations for middle-class earners (we're above the 22% tax bracket with mortgage and dependent) , you very rarely get any money back from small dollar donations. 

Does it always make sense to just sell stuff? 

with the increased standard deduction for MFJ this year, even with a E36 M3-ton of medical out-of-pocket plus mortgage interest plus property taxes, we were still below the threshold for SD vs Itemized.  so from a tax perspective, you may not see any benefit from donating. 

as far as the benefit vs hassle of selling, you might just donate to local "bikes for the poor" and feel good about it.

You will not see the tax benefits. Pretty much guaranteed that you never will.

List them on eBay once, auction starting at $0.99, ending on Sunday night around 6PM. If they sell, great, if not, oh well, then donate them. Otherwise I wouldn't even try and would just donate. 

Regardless of if you can claim it, I'm in the camp that says a smaller donation like that ($100 worth of hard to sell stuff) will easily be worth it in the "feels good" department if it goes to a non-profit who can actually use it.  

If you really want some cash for it, put it on Craigslist for a week, and if anything sells, just donate the rest that doesn't.  

I'm no CPA, but I've read similar that with the doubling of the standard deduction, you likely won't see any benefit from the donation from a tax perspective any more (unless you are still itemizing above the standard deduction amount).  

let's also be clear about what a tax 'write off' is. assume you were itemizing your deductions already so this $100 gift to charity was fully in the write off box. The write off still only reduces your taxable income by $100, meaning that if your highest tax bracket is 22%, then your actual tax liability is reduced by $22. 

So even in the best case the $100 worth of donation is worth $22 to your taxes. 

Cool thanks for the help folks.

I'll do the work to list them in various spots and if they don't sell I'll happily donate the items to a charity and expect nothing in return!

What is it?  I love bikes and parts and honestly used decent bike parts are tough to come by.

90s mountain bikes and current road and CX bikes trip my trigger and I love BMX stuff too.

Maybe $100? I'd donate them and move on. 

I have a mortgage (very small one), I'm single, I work for a non-profit which means I can write off way more than most people, and I don't itemize.  The standard deduction for me is way gooder than itemizing.  Last year (2017) I went through the painstaking task of  recording my work mileage every time I stopped at Home Depot for a box of screws, donation receipts for charities, mortgage interest, the works.  Consulted with two tax-y people on what I could and couldn't deduct.  I labored over it for about 2 months.

Standard deduction was still better.

Curtis said:

I have a mortgage (very small one), I'm single, I work for a non-profit which means I can write off way more than most people, and I don't itemize.  The standard deduction for me is way gooder than itemizing.  Last year (2017) I went through the painstaking task of  recording my work mileage every time I stopped at Home Depot for a box of screws, donation receipts for charities, mortgage interest, the works.  Consulted with two tax-y people on what I could and couldn't deduct.  I labored over it for about 2 months.

Standard deduction was still better.

Working for a non-profit allows you to write off more?

We've previously itemized every year, as we're dual income, had a mortgage (interest is deductible), lots of kids (child care is expensive, yo.), school loans (gotta itemize that $100 in interest!), charitable donations (including donating to goodwill), etc.  Although I've always tried to hit that magical 0 mark (owe nothing, get nothing), I always ended up getting a few grand back if I itemized.

This year, thanks to the standard deduction more than doubling from $12,700 in 2017 to $24,000 in 2018, it wasn't worth itemizing for us.    So for 2017, we deducted about ~22,000, so we were about a grand or two short of the standard nowadays.

Long story short, I agree, donate them to your local good karma bike place and be happy!

mtn said:

You will not see the tax benefits. Pretty much guaranteed that you never will.

 

List them on eBay once, auction starting at $0.99, ending on Sunday night around 6PM. If they sell, great, if not, oh well, then donate them. Otherwise I wouldn't even try and would just donate. 

I was able to claim those deductions again this year, in spite of the new tax rules.  

Everybody's taxes are different.   Taxes change too much from year to year to just assume. 

Last year we were able to deduct  for her home office. This year not. Everything was the same including who she worked for.  

In reply to pheller :

Maybe post them here in the Motorcycles and Bicycles category?

I think I will!

My bigger issue right now is a surplus of tires. Most of my fleet has moved to tubeless and I've got oodles of 29" tires of various (mostly narrow) widths that are just hanging around due to being wire bead or small sidewalls tears that don't impact running a tube but would be a challenge to set tubeless. I've got some older tires that are practically unused, but because of their age and width they aren't worth much. Maybe like $5 a pop. 

I've got a whole pile of cantilever brakes that just don't stop me. I broke down and bought a nice set of Avid V-Brakes to cure that.

Seatposts out the wazoo. I don't know how I ended up with 7 rigid seatposts of various sizes and 1 bike to run them on. 

Old sets of disc brakes (circa early 2000s) that are probably best going to a recycler/scrap yard. How much is a few ounces of magnesium worth? 

That's just the start of it...

Any of those cantilevers decent aftermarket?

Agree, used tires are not worth much unless they are something that cost megabucks new like fat bike tires.  

Do you have a Dream Bikes or similar?  They would gladly take all that stuff?

Do you have enough parts to piece together a bike? If you lived closer and had a 26 inch rear wheel, I'll buy one for you.

As far as complete bike, I do not. That's been part of my challenge of which I've been mildly successful in accomplishing over the last couple of years - getting rid of large items and keeping around common use parts that are wear items. 

I've got a spare set of short fixie cranks, lots of seat posts, bit a pieces of v-brakes - but no linear levers (although I recent bought some Avid levers), but my biggest surplus is just tons of narrow 29" tires. 

For example I've got no 26" tires aside from those on my townie bike. I've got one front derailleur, for the same townie bike. All of my spare wheels are 29" DT Swiss, aside from a set of 275+ wheels that I may sell, but they'll be easy. 

The only "wild" aftermarket cantilevers I've got are a set of Scott Pederson Self-Energizing (SE) brakes in lime green that I'd gladly sell. They need torn apart and re-greased, and the cable nuts retention is buggered (but working fine). I'd sell them as a set with Scott levers and a bunch of Shimano cantis. Maybe like $20 shipped.