Small business owner struggles to calculate cost basis for initial inventory for tax purposes due to lack of itemized purchase records from a marketplace.

Existing solution (manual spreadsheet or basic inventory tracking) does not automatically map bulk purchase history to individual items with accurate cost basis for tax compliance.

Severity

2Mild

Willingness to Pay

implied

Added

May 30, 2026

Workarounds Described

exports purchases from Whatnot and assigns weighted cost to each item manually

Implied Software Gaps

Automated mapping of marketplace purchase history to individual inventory items with correct cost basis

App Concept

CostBasis Pro

An inventory and cost basis app for online resellers that automatically syncs purchase data from marketplaces like Whatnot, eBay, and PayPal, then assigns weighted average or specific identification cost to each item. It simplifies tax preparation by generating IRS-compliant cost basis reports for Schedule C or inventory accounting.

Key Features

Auto-import purchases from marketplaces (Whatnot, eBay, PayPal)
Weighted average cost and specific identification methods
Per-item cost basis tracking with date and proof of purchase
Exportable tax reports for Schedule C / inventory valuation

Target Users: Sole proprietors and small e-commerce resellers (sports cards, collectibles) managing $10k-$100k inventory across multiple marketplaces

Revenue Model: Freemium with $9.99/mo basic (up to 500 items) and $19.99/mo pro (unlimited items + multi-marketplace sync)

Existing Solutions Mentioned

Whatnot purchases exportweighted cost assignment

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