Marigold Company lost most of its inventory in a fire in December just before the year-end physical inventory was taken. The corporations books disclosed the following.

Beginning inventory		$177,000		Sales revenue		$646,500
Purchases for the year		358,900		Sales returns		25,200
Purchase returns		29,300		Rate of gross profit on net sales		30	%

Merchandise with a selling price of $21,700 remained undamaged after the fire. Damaged merchandise with an original selling price of $14,500 had a net realizable value of $5,400. Compute the amount of the loss as a result of the fire, assuming that the corporation had no insurance coverage.

Amount of the loss

$