Claiming used items??

[5 Little Monkeys]

Do you buy items from yard sales, fb swap and shop pages, online classifieds, from friends/family etc? Do you get a receipt for each individual purchase? What if it's a yard sale buy?

I buy a lot of my items used as I like the prices better and I like to recycle things like toys and such. In the past I have gotten receipts for big purchases but didn't claim the little things....even though they would have added up to a lot! Last year I kept a detailed list of the little buys ($5-$20ish) I bought and how much I paid but didn't get receipts. I was just going to use that for tax purposes but am not sure that will be sufficient? I don't have the paper handy for the exact amount but it's around $500 worth so I'd like to claim it. What would or what do you do?