You sold a few cards on Whatnot last year. Maybe you flipped a hot rookie before the print run hit retail. Then a 1099-K showed up in January. Now what? The IRS has a specific framework for this question. The framework is older than the hobby is, and it determines whether your card sales are a hobby (taxable income, no deductions) or a business (taxable income, full deductions). The line between the two changes how much tax you owe by thousands of dollars.
When the IRS treats your card sales as a hobby
A hobby is an activity you do because you enjoy it. The IRS calls this "an activity not engaged in for profit" under IRC §183. If you sell a few cards a year because you want to upgrade your personal collection, you're a hobbyist. The income is taxable. You report it on Schedule 1, line 8j (Activity not engaged in for profit).
Here is the part that catches people off guard. Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and now extended under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), hobbyists cannot deduct operational expenses against hobby income. You cannot deduct shipping. You cannot deduct grading fees. You cannot deduct platform commissions. The full sale price hits your tax return as gross income; only the cost basis of the card itself comes off as a basis reduction.
Here's where the math depends on facts. If you sold a $400 card you paid $300 for as part of an ongoing hobby activity (regular sales, not a one-time cleanup), you can still subtract your cost basis to arrive at $100 of taxable gain. What you cannot deduct as a hobbyist is everything else: shipping, grading fees, supplies, eBay fees, platform commissions, mileage to a card show, software subscriptions. All of those costs disappear from your tax return. The cost of the card itself reduces your basis. Everything else you paid to make the sale happen does not.
For a true one-off casual sale of a personal collection item, you report the gain (sale price minus cost basis) and that's the end. The harsh "gross income, no deductions" treatment hits when you have an ongoing hobby with operational expenses you can't write off.
When the IRS treats your card sales as a business
A business is an activity carried on with the intent to make a profit. If you bought sealed product, opened it, sold the hits, and tracked your costs against your sales, you're operating a business. The income is taxable, but you also get to deduct your expenses. You report on Schedule C.
Schedule C is where dealers, resellers, and breakers live. The cost of the cards you sold (cost of goods sold), shipping, grading fees, supplies, software, mileage to card shows, platform fees, and other ordinary and necessary costs all reduce your taxable income.
In the same example as before, that $400 card you paid $300 for results in $100 of taxable profit, not $400 of taxable income.
The 9-factor test that decides
The IRS does not let you choose. You don't get to declare yourself a business because the deductions are nicer. The Treasury regulations under Treas. Reg. §1.183-2(b) lay out 9 factors the IRS uses to decide if your activity is a hobby or a business:
- The way you carry on the activity (do you have a separate bank account, inventory records, a system for tracking sales?)
- The expertise you have or have developed (do you know what you're selling?)
- The time and effort you put in
- The expectation that the assets used may appreciate in value
- Your success in similar or dissimilar activities
- Your history of income or losses from the activity
- The amount of occasional profits
- Your financial status (is this hobby income meaningful or pocket change?)
- Personal pleasure or recreation derived from the activity
No single factor is decisive. The IRS looks at the full picture. A reseller with a separate bank account, inventory tracking, and consistent quarterly profits looks very different from a casual seller flipping personal collection upgrades.
There is also a presumption built into IRC §183(d). If your activity shows a profit in 3 of the last 5 years, the IRS presumes you are operating for profit. The burden flips. The IRS has to argue you aren't a business, instead of you having to prove you are.
What this means for your taxes
If you're operating like a business, file Schedule C. You report gross receipts, deduct cost of goods sold, deduct ordinary and necessary expenses, and pay tax on the net. You also pay self-employment tax (15.3%) on net earnings over $400 per IRC §1401.
This is the default tax treatment for sole proprietors and single-member LLCs taxed as disregarded entities. Resellers earning more than roughly $50K net profit often consider an S-corp election to reduce self-employment tax, but the administrative cost only pencils out at scale. We cover the mechanics in "Scaling Your Business: 0 to 10K, 10K to 50K."
If you're a true hobbyist, file Schedule 1 line 8j with the gross income only. No expenses. The math is simple but punishing.
The 1099-K trap: getting a 1099-K does not make you a business. It also does not give you a free pass to ignore it. The IRS receives the same form. They match it against your return. A 1099-K reporting $25,000 in payments with nothing on your return triggers a notice. Either report as a business with full deductions (Schedule C), or report as a hobbyist with zero deductions on operational expenses (Schedule 1 line 8j). Either path requires a deliberate decision.
Even if your sales were at a loss because you sold cards below cost basis, you still have to report the 1099-K amount and reconcile it against your cost basis on your return. The form goes to the IRS whether you made money or not. The trigger that gets resellers in trouble is silence on the 1099-K, not the underlying tax outcome.
The 1099-K threshold under OBBBA is $20,000 in payments AND 200 transactions per third-party payment network. States set their own thresholds, and several are well below the federal floor. The lowest in 2026: Rhode Island ($100), Massachusetts ($600), Vermont ($600), New Jersey ($1,000). If you sell in those states or your buyer base is concentrated there, you can hit a state 1099-K with $700 of activity even though the federal threshold protects you. If you sell on multiple platforms, each platform's threshold applies separately, but your tax treatment for the year as a whole is one decision.
Practical signals you've crossed into business territory
The IRS does not have a single dollar threshold for "this is a business now." Certain patterns push you firmly into business territory:
- You track inventory with cost basis per card
- You sell consistently throughout the year, not just personal collection cleanup
- You have a separate bank account or payment processor for card sales
- You have a sales tax permit in your state
- You buy sealed product specifically to break for resale
- You ship from a dedicated supply station, not a kitchen drawer
- You file quarterly estimated tax payments
- You document profit motive (a written plan, a budget, performance reviews of your inventory)
If three or more of these describe you, you're operating a business. Filing as a hobbyist puts you on weak ground in an audit and costs you thousands in deductions you legally earned.
Bottom line
The hobby vs business question has a real answer in tax law, and the answer matters. If you receive a 1099-K and you're tracking inventory, you almost certainly belong on Schedule C. The deductions you earn there are not aggressive tax planning. They are the income tax code applied correctly to a business activity.
If you're tracking inventory and selling regularly, KKATC Cards treats you as a business by default. Schedule C output ready.
This is general tax information, not tax advice. Talk to a CPA or enrolled agent about your specific situation.