Extra Innings – When 9 Isn’t Enough!

Ebay Will Soon Be A Tax Concern!

March 15, 2010 by threeofakindcards

This weekend I started to read blogs about what my tax accountant would soon be an inevidible -> The IRS is coming after income made on ebay (see proposed form below).

Starting with 2011, Paypal and other third party merchants will be required to report to the IRS details on any seller that pulls in more than $20,000 in sales/year and has more than 200 transactions in the same year. If you don’t meet one of theses pre-requisutes then nothing is required. In baseball card terms, this means if you sold your Mantle rookie card for $30k and that was the only sale on ebay you had all year…lucky you, no reporting to the IRS! The big guys who rip and flip all year will obviously have to report their paypal transactions thanks to this rule.
Articles here:
Article on Auction Bytes
Taxgirl

This will most definitely seem daunting to may hobby enthusiasts as they are now possibly faced with the fact of “Do I really have to report to the IRS my baseball card sales”?
The rules around a hobby and income are in the tax code and they most likely will require a tax accountant to decipher and translate the specifics. However each hobby enthusiast must look at their own habits and ask themselves if they will fall into the category of reportable transactions to the IRS. If so, now might be a good time to actually start keeping track of your spending amounts as well as sales on ebay. While it might be annoying and time consuming it will definitely save you alot of time if the IRS does come looking for your numbers in 2011. There is no worse person to bump heads with than with uncle Sam the tax man!
Some folks are thinking about only taking checks and money orders from now on and not dealing with paypal any longer because of this. Another dilemma is giving paypal your tax ID# which will now be a requirement as per this rule. Not doing so will make your sales subject to a withholding tax…as if their fees weren’t enough!
What are your thoughts on this topic? What do you plan to do if you feel you will be forced to report your income to the IRS? Give me your thoughts in the comment section and enjoy your last year outside of the IRS radar!
Play Ball America!
Cesar

Tags: 2011, baseball cards, Credit Card Merchants, Hobby, IRS, Taxes
Posted in Baseball Card Related | Leave a Comment »

2010 Heritage Case Breaks!

March 1, 2010 by threeofakindcards

Well I finally found my way out of the basement of my house! Pretty much spent most of my day thursday, friday and sunday down there getting through multiple cases of 2010 Topps Heritage and 2010 Opening Day! Its always a blast and I am lucky to have some help in the form of my wife and my oldest daughter. I have pondered hiring help to sort cards out and I may just do that for the 2010 Bowman releases and Topps Series 2 releases (more to come on that in another post). Apologies for not updating our blog as well – the juggling of ripping cases, orders, a FT job and family sometimes puts this blog on the backburner!

But let’s get to the good stuff. Heritage was yet again a very nice product! Cases were hit and miss but overall are a thrill to open..I was lucky enough to break four! The one thing that I did not like about the Heritage release and it was probably the only thing I didn’t like was the Stamp inserts. These are short printed but I don’t see them holding any value. The look doesn’t appeal to me and it looks like Topps inserted them as pulls.
The Real One autos were back and again these were hit and miss. I was lucky enough to pull an Al Rosen Real One Blue Auto which is one of the better names as well as a Bob Gibson Flashback auto.

Then there is the ever growing trend in my personal breaks regarding Cardinals karma. It is truly amazing how many big Cardinal pulls I have had in the last couple of months (seperate blog post to follow on that). 2010 Heritage yielded a Matt Holliday / Red Schoendienst dual GU bat and auto #d to 10 and a Red Schoendienst GU auto and jersey #d to 25!

In addition to the above I pulled a Mickey Mantle seat relic although I have never figured how these seat relics are relevant?? But hey people like them!

It was nice of Topps to include another insert set – Babe Ruth’s chase in 61. I personally enjoy insert sets of Mantle, Ruth or any legendary players. All in all this makes the typical master set 560 cards strong!
The orioginal vintage buybacks have returned and in the 3 years I have ripped this product I have yet tp pull out a big name vintage card….do they exist???
The SPS this year had a lighter color back than the regular cards. A definite plus when sorting cards…thanks to Topps for this! This year’s SPs were 426-500. There are variations out there like #60 Babe Ruth and #61 Roger Maris. I’ve heard that there is a variation Albert Pujols out there with a light colored SP back…any one heard of any others?
The chrome inserts are back…as always I am a big fan of the black chrome cards. The design jumps out at you! News flashbacks, baseball flashbacks and then & now round out the insert sets. Clubhouse collection game used cards are back…not much excitement on these. There are cards however out there part of this set that I believe have triple game used pants of Ruth Mantle and Gehrig! Finally topps included variations of a handful of base cardas that had a dice game on the back. I guess this was popular back in 1961. Anyone know how the game is played?

All in all…another fun break! We will be giving away some Heritage stuff this week when we are back with WOW Wednesday! Below are scans of most of my hits…you will see some of the cards above repeated again..enjoy!
Play Ball America!
Cesar
SOME CHROME REFRACTORS

CLUBHOUSE COLLECTION RELICS

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x310/legacyny99/ExtraInnings/0225100004.jpg

Tags: 2010 Topps heritage, bob gibson, Case Break, Clubhouse Collections, Heritage SPS, Matt Holliday, Red Autos
Posted in Baseball Card Related, Case Breaks | Leave a Comment »

CASE BREAKS! – 2010 Topps Heritage & Opening Day!

February 24, 2010 by threeofakindcards

Hey everyone, I know its been a while since I have posted an entry! I’ve been making an all out effort in not having to give up the hobby that I love for the sake of family life, which means I have been juggling the two and the price that was paid was blogging a little less! With that being said, I’ve cleared my calendar for the next few days as I will be several cases of Topps Heritage and Opening Day. Check back over the course of today and the next couple of days to view the hits!
Play Ball America!
Cesar

Tags: 2010 Topps heritage, 2010 Topps Opening Day, Case Break, MLB Opening Day, Set Builders
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

CLOSED – WOW Wednesday Contest Time – Snow Day Edition!

February 10, 2010 by threeofakindcards

CONGRATS to JAred D who correctly guessed Alfonso Soriano! Thanks to everyone who participated on this snowy day!

Its Wednesday, and as some of you might have come to expect that means its a WOW Wednesday (Win On Wednesdays) here at Extra Innings! I decided to start today’s contest a little later in the day to give the west coast readers a shot. I’ve been told that they are just waking up by the time some folks guess the answers!!

Today’s prize will be:
2009 Topps Triple Threads Bob Gibson Triple Game Used Jersey #d to #6!

How to win? I will start by giving clues periodically. First person to figure out the active player I am describing wins the card. Later today and tomorrow if need be, I will add additional clues if no one has guessed the player. To guess, just post your guess in the comments section. If no one has correctly guessed the player by Friday (doubt that will happen!) then I will randomly select someone who has placed their guesses in the comments section as the winner.

IMPORTANT RULES FOR PARTICIPATION AND CONSIDERATION:
Please limit 3 total guesses to each person. If you post a guess you must make sure to leave your name and you email address so that I can contact you if you guess the correct player! If you happen to guess the answer but don’t leave your name or email I cannot declare you the winner and if someone guesses the right answer after you then I will declare them the winner.

Also in the interest of fairness the following readers are ineligible for this week’s contest as they have won a contest in the last 30 days..sorry guys!

1/13/2010-Brian J.
1/20/2010-Aaron S.
1/27/2010- Chris –(ordner5@comcast.net)
2/3/2010 – Alan R

Good luck and Play Ball America!
Cesar

Clues To Our Mystery Player:
-I’ve been fortunate to have a great career! With trips to the all star game and world series, who can ask for more!
-Its been a while but I started my career in the far east! Konichiwa!
-I also have seen both sides of the coin, have been on a first place team and a last place team!
-My current manager and I are both alumni of a particular MLB team!

Tags: 2009 Triple threads, bob gibson, Contest, Giveaway, Wow Wednesday
Posted in Baseball Card Related, Contest | 7 Comments »