Collecting guides
Collection Records for Taxes and Insurance: What to Log
What LEGO, Pokemon and Magic collectors should log for insurance and tax season: dated itemized lists, photos, purchase cost versus current estimate, and the questions to ask your insurer and tax preparer.
A useful collection record answers four different questions: what you own, how you acquired it, what you paid and what happened when you sold it or suffered a loss. Keep the supporting receipts and photographs alongside those answers. A current price estimate is useful, but it cannot substitute for the purchase or sale record.
This guide is a practical filing system for LEGO, Pokémon, Magic and other collections. The tax discussion below concerns US rules. For policy coverage and the treatment of your own sales, take the records to your insurer or tax preparer.
Start with a record you can trace back to the item
- Give each physical item or clearly defined group an identifier in your own records.
- Record its exact catalogue identity, quantity and physical condition or completeness.
- Keep the acquisition date, method and purchase documents together.
- Date any value estimate and record its source and assumptions.
- When something leaves the collection, retain the sale, gift, return or loss details rather than erasing its history.
For a set sold complete with its minifigures, avoid recording those figures as additional separately owned inventory unless you actually have extra copies. A parts-built set also needs a note identifying which purchased parts went into it so they do not remain counted separately.
What should each inventory entry include?
| Record | What to save |
|---|---|
| Identity | LEGO set or minifigure reference; card name, set, language, finish and collector number where present. Note uncertain matches. |
| Quantity and condition | Physical count, visible damage, missing pieces, repairs and packaging. For graded cards, record service, label and certification details. |
| Acquisition | Purchase, gift, inheritance or trade; date or clearly marked approximate date; seller or source information that you hold legitimately. |
| Purchase documents | Receipt, order confirmation, payment record and separately identified shipping or other acquisition charges. |
| Photographs | Your own dated views showing the item and relevant identifying details or damage. Keep these outside the app if needed. |
| Value reference | Estimate or appraisal date, source, currency and the condition or sale assumptions behind it. |
| Disposal or loss | Date, items involved, actual sale receipts or claim references, and associated fees, refunds and shipping documents. |
Keep unknown facts marked as unknown. If you know only that you owned a set before 2015, write that instead of inventing a purchase day. A photo can help document possession and condition, but it does not establish every fact about ownership, cost or coverage on its own.
Keep purchase cost, estimates and sale proceeds separate
These numbers have different jobs. Purchase documents describe what you spent. An estimate describes a reference value at a particular time. A sale record shows the transaction that actually happened. None should overwrite another.
For US capital-gain calculations, the IRS compares amount realized with adjusted basis. Basis generally starts with cost for purchased property, while gifts and inherited property have different rules. Personal-use losses are not deductible. A payment reporting form records gross payments, which is a different figure from taxable gain.
Keep the detail behind the totals. Ask your preparer which costs adjust basis, which affect proceeds and how your acquisition method and selling activity should be treated. An app estimate or a drop in that estimate does not establish a tax loss.
A concrete sale-document example
Suppose you buy one set for $120, pay $15 to have it shipped to you and later sell it for $400. Assume the actual sale then incurs $45 in platform fees and $15 in outbound postage. These are invented USD figures for illustration, not expected returns.
| Document or amount | How to retain it |
|---|---|
| $120 purchase | Original item receipt or order confirmation. |
| $15 inbound shipping | Acquisition shipping invoice, kept separately from the item price. |
| $400 sale | The actual transaction record, including adjustments or refunds if any. |
| $45 platform fees | Fee statement matched to that sale. |
| $15 outbound postage | Shipping receipt matched to that sale. |
| $340 after those selling costs | $400 − $45 − $15. This is a cash-flow subtotal, not a tax conclusion. |
The $340 subtotal is before the earlier $135 outlay, your time and any taxes. Save the components so your preparer can apply the correct treatment rather than relying on a single number labelled profit. If an order contains several items, preserve the order and item details rather than assigning the full receipt to every item.
How to document gifts, inherited collections and parts-built sets
For gifts or inherited items, retain the date and method of transfer, the item list and any existing appraisals or estate records you are entitled to keep. A current estimate is not automatically the relevant basis. Ask the preparer what additional information is needed.
For a LEGO set assembled from several lots, record which purchases supplied its parts and which pieces remain in other inventory. Keep any allocation method explicit and discuss it with your preparer when relevant. Do not assign the full cost of a mixed lot to each finished build.
Preserve the relationship between items and documents. For example, one receipt might support a lot of six figures; a later record can show which two were sold and which four remain. You do not need to pretend there were six separate original purchases.
What insurance records should you prepare?
Keep a home inventory, photographs of your own items, receipts and any appraisals requested by your insurer. The NAIC recommends inventory and documentation for valuable possessions and discussing limits and additional coverage with an insurance professional.
Your policy determines coverage, limits, deductibles and the basis of settlement. An inventory helps document the collection; it does not guarantee that a particular loss is covered or that payment equals an app estimate. Ask about the causes of loss that concern you, distinguishing flood from other types of water damage.
| Ask your insurer | Record the answer and relevant policy wording |
|---|---|
| Which items are covered? | Ask about the types of sets, cards, loose parts and other collectibles you actually own. |
| What limits apply? | Check overall and item/category limits, deductibles and any available additional coverage. |
| Which causes of loss are covered or excluded? | Discuss your storage and transport circumstances rather than assuming every loss is covered. |
| How is settlement calculated? | Ask how replacement cost, actual cash value or any agreed-value provision applies under the specific policy. |
| Which documents are needed? | Confirm required photographs, appraisals, receipts and how to update them. |
Store a backup of your records separately from the physical collection and protect sensitive receipts and account details. A device in the same room as the collection should not be your only copy.
Where Brickify fits in the recordkeeping system
Brickify brings together catalogue entries, owned quantities, purchase details, estimated values and value history across LEGO, Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Funko, Disney Lorcana and One Piece. Camera identification is available for LEGO, Pokémon and Magic. Review the proposed match and exact variant before saving.
For Pokémon, Brickify includes raw condition choices and separate Raw and PSA 10 estimates. Use the option that matches the record you are maintaining; a raw condition label is not a professional grade. Do not assume every category uses the same condition fields.
Bulk minifigure photos and supported Pokémon or Magic multi-card workflows can help create catalogue records. Lay out visible items, review each result and reconcile quantities with the physical inventory. Keep your own evidence photographs, completeness notes, storage locations and tax or insurance documents in a separate folder or record where needed.
Collections are available across supported devices under the same account. Treat the app as one part of your records: estimated values are reference points, not appraisals, guaranteed proceeds or a promise of insurance coverage.
A maintenance routine you can keep
- Start with one shelf, tote or binder. Finish the identity and quantity checks before moving to the next group.
- Link your records to the purchase documents and your own photographs.
- Add acquisitions when they happen and retain records when items leave.
- Date each value review and note uncertain or unmatched items instead of filling in guesses.
- Set a periodic review that fits your collection, plus any update schedule required by your insurer.
- Before a tax or insurance appointment, collect the actual transaction or policy documents alongside the inventory.
A spreadsheet, a collection app and a document folder can work together. Choose the structure you can maintain and make each figure traceable to its source. That gives your insurer or preparer something concrete to assess without asking a current estimate to do the job of a receipt.
The app for your collection
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Explore the Pokémon scannerEstimates are a reference, not guaranteed sale prices. Brickify is independent of the owners of the collectible brands mentioned here.