If you are liquidating a business, even if it’s years later, you have basis.
When I sold a pallet of face masks to a govt entity, even though the business had been gone for years, I had basis.

People can whine about tax law compliance all they want, but at the same time there comes a point in time when a line has to be drawn, and the law imposed on the other side of it.

No matter the scale, if your effort was to extract value from the item, if you are selling it for more than your basis, above a certain figure it is taxable.

But like many things in life, it’s always the other guy who is the bad guy.

Out there doing it best I can.