The Rose City Astronomers is a
501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization and all donations to the RCA Telescope Library
are fully tax deductible. However our storage for telescopes is very limited and
we do not keep every telescope that is donated, nor do we accept every
telescope. If you're trying to sell your
telescope, please see below
If you have a telescope to donate to the RCA, we
will make every effort to incorporate it into our library. However, we reserve
the right to re-donate to deserving individuals or other organizations.
We adjust our library according to the needs of our group and the limited
storage space that is available to us.
We are not accepting small
telescopes with weak and wobbly mounts or telescopes that need major repairs and
we maintain the right to refuse any donations at our discretion. (On a side
note: we have a monthly
Telescope Workshop that would be happy to help you with any problems
or questions about your telescope, see the
calendar for dates).
Some telescope donations will be re-donated to
schools, youth organizations, and other non-profits who are looking to teach
astronomy. We are also establishing a program to donate telescopes and equipment
to deserving individuals (especially youth). All re-donations are at our
discretion. Some telescope donations will be auctioned off
which gives us the ability to fund the repair and maintenance of the library
telescopes. We have been able to provide all of the library telescopes with a
good set of eyepieces, finder scopes, carrying cases, and have even purchased Coronado PST solar scopes with the proceeds of the auctions.
Sometimes we are able to pick up
donations, but it is best to first get approval and confirmation that we will
accept the donation and then deliver it at any of our General Meetings which are
held on the 3rd Monday of every month. contact the
RCA Telescope Librarian for more
information.
If we accept your donation it is
fully tax deductible and we will happily provide you with a receipt that is
acceptable to the IRS. According to IRS rules we will provide a receipt that
describes the donation and the fact that it is not in exchange for any
consideration (a new IRS wording), however we will not provide a dollar amount
for the value of the donation (per IRS rules) but values can usually be found on
such places as eBay, Cloudy Nights forum, Craigslist, and Astromart.
We also accept cash donations to fund repair,
maintenance and purchase of new equipment and telescopes. Any cash donation is
fully deductible and cheerfully receipted.
If you have any questions about donations to the RCA
Telescope Library, contact the
RCA Telescope Librarian - or - the
RCA Treasurer.
The RCA was qualified by the IRS on May 31,
2000, as a public benefit association entitled to exemption from federal
income tax under the provision of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue
Code. As such, donors may deduct contributions to the RCA from federal income
taxes as provided in section 170 of the Code. RCA will happily furnish a receipt
for donations.
Selling Telescopes
May
we suggest before trying to sell a telescope that you do a bit of
research on the web for pricing on new and used scopes of the type you
are selling, then try the sites below to sell your scope.
Cloudy Nights -
www.cloudynights.com/classifieds
- free, but you must sign up first to sell, (you will get no spam or email
messages from them)
Sky & Telescope
Marketplace -
http://www.marketplace.skyandtelescope.com -
$5 to place an ad.
Astromart -
www.astromart.com
- not free ($15) and you must sign up first to sell,
(you will get no spam or email messages from them)
Craigslist
- portland.craigslist.org - free and local
Astroclassifieds
- www.astroclassifieds.net/us/
- fairly new and no many listings,
but does list by state.
Rose City Astronomers
Forum - We do have a "For Sale" section of the members only forum where we will
post your ad for 90 days, but most of our members already have telescopes
and generally telescopes for sale on our forum do not sell, but you can try.
Send us (webmaster@rosecityastronomers.org) the
information including:
...Name
...Email
...Phone
...General Location (i.e. Portland, Longview, Salem, etc.)
...Description including age of scope, eyepieces and other equipment,
tripod
...If possible include a link to a photo on a website showing the telescope or
your own photo, or send us a photo
.........(we reserve the right to modify the photo to fit our forum ).
...Price you are looking for or "make offer".
...any additional information you wish to include.
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