With my appraiser hat on.....wow, I am amazed at the confusion of 
information about appraisals.
1.  When a person donates photographs, self generated archives or anything 
they made themselves they are restricted to cost of materials (photo paper, 
processing, canvas, paint etc.)
2.  If the donor wants to claim up to $5K they do not need a "qualified" 
appraiser to conduct "qualified appraisal." Apparently the donor is on their 
own and then later the IRS can get them for underpayment of taxes because 
they aren't an appraiser and came up with the wrong value.  This has never 
made sense to me.   I tell donors how appraisals are conducted so they can 
do their own market research and have some ammo if the IRS causes them 
trouble.
3.  A "verbal appraisal" is not an appraisal.  An appraisal is a researched 
and written document.  You can take an appraiser to court for anything that 
comes out of their mouth.  If an appraiser gives you an "unconsidered 
opinion of value" and you rely on it for a financial decision -- you can sue 
them.   That's why I do not do "roadshow" format appraisal fairs.
4.  I am confused where the person got the "You are allowed to go up to 
=245000.00 with out getting an appraisal." What is this about?  The only IRS 
value ceiling of any big amount of money comes into play when you are 
valuing an estate for tax purposes.  I think the limit is a couple of 
million -- it has changed every year now for a while and I don't keep track 
of the number since lawyers find me to do estate valuations and they get the 
big bucks for knowing this info.

5.  With my Registrar hat on........................you never tell a donor a 
value for anything.

Sara Conklin, ISA CAPP
International Society of Appraisers, Certified Appraiser, Personal Property 
PH: 800-464-4208 

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