A new app for Apple’s iPhone relies on data from eBay to estimate the fair market value of goods donated to charity for charitable deductions.
The newly launched DonationApp from CharityDeductions.com lets taxpayers adjust for the condition of the items donated, keeps a tally of all donations, and prints out a detailed list of donated items. Users can attach a photo of their donations using the camera built into the iPhone, keep a running total of their estimated tax savings, and email reports in PDF format to their accountants or use with their tax software. The company plans to release an Android version of the app in the near future.
CharityDeductions.com licenses and uses eBay market data to determine the fair market values of charitable donations in its DonationApp. The company contends that eBay comparisons have proven to be a much better guide of what people were paying for used items than the modified versions of Salvation Army and Goodwill guides used in some competing products, and unlike the Salvation Army and Goodwill guides, which contain a limited number of items—mainly clothing and some household goods—the CharityDeductions.com database has a value for virtually anything sold on eBay, so users can more readily find a comparable item.
CharityDeductions.com breaks valuations into five “condition” categories that are percentiles of the entire spread of auction results, providing more ranges of value. The app can also track money donations and any mileage accrued while doing charity work and log and value that mileage.
CharityDeductions.com allows for free use of the service for up to $500 in item donations using eBay values, but otherwise costs $24.95 per year. For more information, visit http://www.CharityDeductions.com.
1 Comment
As far as buying/saving on eBay goes:
Check the feedback of the buyer. Maybe send him a question about the item to see their responsiveness, if they don't reply back, maybe not the best seller to deal with.
If you send the seller a question about an item, find another of their listings, and send the question from that item page, rather than from the one that you actually want. This will add a little bit of work for the seller, if they want to add the question/answer to the item description page that you are actually interested in. Maybe they won't bother, and maybe any potential bidders/buyers would not bother to send the seller the question themselves, rather just looking for another one.
If you see an item that you want listed in auction format, send the seller a message asking if they will accept $x to end the auction early and sell the item to you. May be telling them that they would not have to wait as long to get their money (they would probably know that, but it still might help). If that does not work, use a sniping service such as Bidball.com to bid for you. It'll bid in the last few seconds, helping you to save money and avoid shill bidding.
If there is a particular item that you are looking for, and especially if it is relatively rare on eBay, use a site like Ebuyersedge.com to set up saved searches. You'd get an e-mail whenever a match is listed. Great for "Buy It Now"s priced right. You can use the price, category, exclude Word, etc. filters to narrow down the list of results that you receive in the e-mails.
Probably a long shot, but if the item that you are looking for is difficult to spell, try a misspelling search site like Typojoe.com to hopefully find some deals with items that have main keywords misspelled in the title. Other interested buyers might never see them. Then, if the item is listed an auction format, after a few days of no bids (hopefully anyway) send the seller and offer to end the auction early and sell the item to you. They may worry that no one is interested, and take whatever they can get.
Posted by: George513 | February 7, 2012 4:33 PM
Report this Comment
Add Your Comments...
Already Registered?
If you have already registered to Accounting Today, please use the form below to login. When completed you will immeditely be directed to post a comment.
Not Registered?
You must be registered to post a comment.