I know our university prohibits me from making any evaluation of a "gift in
kind". I was under the impression that this was an IRS rule. Goggle turned
up this which I think is accurate:
"A gift of books to the MSUL will in most instances qualify as a charitable
deduction for income tax purposes. Librarians and staff of the MSUL cannot
make a monetary appraisal of donated materials, because such an appraisal
constitutes a conflict of interest. Federal law places the responsibility
for establishing the fair market value of a work donated to a not-for-profit
organization with the donor. The MSUL can assist donors by providing sources
of information for evaluation and appraisal purposes."
I usually suggest what an earlier post suggested - monitor eBay for
valuations. Once or twice I have emailed a donor of something really nice
(e.g. our two Altair's) an eBay result.
Gil
A. G. (Gil) Carrick, Director
The Museum at CSE
University of Texas at Arlington
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Box 19015, 471 S Cooper Street
Arlington, TX 76019
817-272-3620
http://www.cse.uta.edu/TheMuseum at CSE/
...
If the valuation is modest, simply get a receipt from
the
organization that
calls out the amounts as they see them. Quite honestly,
old computer
gear is one of those things that it's impossible to place an
objective value on. The best thing is for the recipient of
your largesse to value it at what they figure it would cost
to otherwise acquire.
...