Can I find a guide to certain property value on-line somewhere?

Q: Years ago I had seen a guide that valued certain property, such as used clothing etc, that you could use as documentation for items donated to a charity when itemizing deductions. Can I find such a guide/list on-line somewhere? Thanks. —Richard, Woodsville, NH

The following answer was provided by Mark Misselbeck, CPA, Levine Katz Nannis & Solomon PC, Needham.

A: There have, on occasion, been guides circulated from various sources, but none of them have been accepted as a "bible" by the IRS. The ceiling that they seem willing to accept for clothing, etc, that is used is no more than 1/3 of original cost (and, often, something less than that). Such donations are supposed to be valued at what the recipient could realize from selling the property that they receive. Often that is even less than 1/3 of the original cost. The last known guide was a listing of suggested prices for various articles of clothing that purported to be used by the Salvation Army as a guideline for pricing items in their Thrift Shops (what area of the country the particular shop was located in, which would cause the pricing to vary, as well, was not specified).