WILL YOU GIVE ME A TAX FORM FOR MY DONATION?

We are not an “official” non-profit organization which simply means we have not (and don’t plan) to file the paperwork with the IRS to receive “tax exempt” statues. We can NOT provide you with any type of tax form for your donation. We have looked into it and it’s not worth the time, effort and money for us to invest. You can only receive a tax break if you itemize and most people don’t itemize. To itemize, you have to have over $11,000 in deductions, so most people just take the standard deduction so a tax form for your donated cards really wouldn’t help most people.

I personally put my own money into the program and we do NOT accept cash donations. We do not receive any tax forms from the charities that we donate too and we do NOT claim any of the cards donate on our taxes. Our motto is very simple – we simply give cards to kids…and that is where it stops.

More on our view of charity here!

HOW MUCH WILL YOU GIVE ME FOR MY CARDS/HOW MUCH ARE MY CARDS WORTH?

Most of the time people simply donate their cards but we understand that sometimes you want to get some cash for all those years of collecting and we understand that; however, Commons 4 Kids is basically ran by two people, my wife and I.

We no longer purchase cards.

We are not an official charity and we do not accept cash donations; all of the time and gas comes directly out of my pocket so I just can’t afford to pay for cards. We tried to pay for cards at first but we quickly realized that most people just want to give us the cards because they are happy to get them out of the house. Most of the cards we donate are from the 1980′s and 1990′s and most collectors realize that they aren’t really worth anything as far as “value” but they do contain unlimited happiness for kids.

If you must get some type of money for your donation, you can Google charities in your area that may be willing to give you a tax deduction.

I DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT CARDS, WHAT IF I DONATE SOMETHING WORTH A LOT!

We aren’t trying to rip anyone off; we are simply trying to get the cards that people don’t want in the hands of kids who DO want them.

Every donation is sorted, counted and bagged.

If we find a card worth a book value of $25.00 or less; those cards will still be donated. If we find a card with a book value of $25.00 or more, we will contact the person who donated it and explain what you donated and you will have the option of getting the card back with NO hard feelings what so ever. If you decide to still donate the card, it will be sold on ebay/craigslist with 100% of the final sell going to purchase more cards (or it will be traded for commons).

** Not every single card is looked up to determine value. I have been collecting since my childhood and I’m still active in the hobby, so I have a general knowledge of value, however, some cards will be looked up to confirm book value. We are not responsible for any cards valued over $25.00 that still gets donated, but we will do our best.

I DON’T LIVE IN KENTUCKY, CAN I STILL DONATE?

We accept donations from anywhere and we’ve received donations from as far away as Canada!

If you are in Central KY, we can usually meet you for a personal pick up; if you are in a surrounding state with a large amount of cards, we can sometimes make special arrangements to come to you or at least meet halfway; all others must be shipped. The best way to ship cards is through the USPS flat rate boxes; usually around 3,000-4,000 cards for about $15; it’s really not as bad as it seems.

YOU ARE A COLLECTOR, HOW DO I KNOW THIS ISN’T A SCAM TO INCREASE YOUR COLLECTION?

I started this out with over 80,000 cards from my own collection and I put my heart, energy, money and time into this program because I truly believe in it.

If you click on DONATION SPOTS; you will find locations, along with contact names, emails or phone numbers so that ANYONE can call to confirm donations. We try to post every few days to let everyone know what we are doing and we welcome anyone (including newspapers, TV stations, etc.) to go with us to drop off cards as proof.

WHAT ABOUT CARDS FOR YOUR PERSONAL COLLECTION?

If you donate 5,000 cards; we donate 5,000 cards.

I will continue to be a collector until the day I die because I have a true love for cards of all kinds; they bring back childhood memories and they are more than just cardboard; however, I do keep Commons 4 Kids and my collection separate.

I still buy packs of cards and about 90% of those cards go directly into Commons 4 Kids. In fact, I created this program JUST for that reason alone. I continue to buy cards and my commons continue to grow and just set in boxes, so this way our “inventory” of cards to donate will never fully run dry.

There have been several cards that have been donated that I would have loved to have for my personal collection including some Pete Rose and Johnny Bench cards, yet they have still been donated.

Feel free to contact us with ANY additional questions you may have or if you know a spot that would like to receive donations – jerry@commons4kids.org!