Perchoutofwater Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 New Government Policy Imposes Strict Standards on Garage Sales Nationwide By Diane Macedo Published September 18, 2009 Americans who slap $1 pricetags on their used possessions at garage sales or bazaar events risk being slapped with fines of up to $15 million, thanks to a new government campaign. The "Resale Round-up," launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, enforces new limits on lead in children's products and makes it illegal to sell any items that don't meet those limits or have been recalled for any other reason. The strict standards were set in the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act after a series of high-profile recalls of Chinese-made toys. The standards were originally interpreted to apply only to new products, but now the CPSC says they apply to used items as well. "Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. "Resale stores should make safety their business and check for recalled products and hazards to children." In order to comply, stores, flea markets, charities and individuals selling used goods — in person or online — are expected to consult the commission's 24-page Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers (pdf) and its Web site for a breakdown of what they can't sell. Violators caught selling anything on the enormous list face fines of up to $100,000 per infraction and up to $15 million for a related series of infractions. CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson says the fines are intended for large companies with serious infractions. "CPSC is an agency that has used its penalty powers over its 30-year history against companies," Wolfson told FOXNews.com. "CPSC is not seeking to pursue penalties against individuals hosting a garage sale or yard sale, we are encouraging them to take the right steps to not resell recalled products." But FOX News Legal Analyst Bob Massi says the law makes no distinction for families and small resellers. "Most people having garage sales at this point don't have much anyway, so to have a fine levied against them is tantamount to harassment," Massi told FOXNews.com. "And if you or I asked 100 people about this, they would never even know the law exists." Don Mays, senior director of product safety planning at the publisher of Consumer Reports, says the hefty penalties are necessary to have an impact. "The former civil penalty limit of $1.87 million was too small to be an effective deterrent to large companies who flagrantly violated the law," Mays told FOXNews.com. "Mattel and its subsidiary Fisher-Price, for example, recently paid a $2.3 million penalty for importing about 2 million toys that violated the CPSC 30-year-old lead paint ban — that amounts to just over one dollar per toy." When FOXNews.com came to his garage sale, vendor Ilan Broochian said the same was not the case for his household. "You fine me in today's economy $1000 dollars and that would hurt me," Broochian said. "So, just make the fine bigger to them; don't take their responsibility and put it on me." VIDEO: FOXNews.com Visits the Broochians' Garage Sale "It is scary to think that there could be such hefty fines imposed on unsuspecting households," another garage sale organizer, Patti Lombardi, told FOXNews.com. "I think I speak for many people when I say that the government spends too much time interfering in the individual citizen's personal life and this is almost bordering on the ridiculous ... what if it opens up a Pandora's box of litigation brought by the purchasers of items at garage sales?" Wolfson says the law may be tough, but it's necessary to keep consumers — and especially children — safe. "Many children have choked and died on small parts that have broken off or been incorporated into toys," Wolfson told FOXNews.com. He noted that dozens of children have swallowed powerful magnets that fell out of magnetic toys and have needed open-chest surgery as result. "We don’t make haphazard decisions about risks here at CPSC," he said. "So much of what we do here and what this new law aims to achieve is looking at issues where children have been hurt previously." But critics say the Resale Round-up is just another example of the government overstepping its boundaries. "It's absurd when nanny-state bureaucrats want to regulate things we buy at mom-and-pop shops or second-hand stores," Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian National Committee, told FOXNews.com. "Consumer product safety is best left to a free market where suppliers can compete based on reputation and track records. American grown-ups aren't stupid, and they know they need to be careful about what they buy for their children from complete strangers at no-name stores." Toy industry expert and TimetoPlayMag.com content director Chris Byrne says the law is well-intended, but it may be taking things too far. "The overall law I think is awfully broad and doesn't take all of the science into effect," he told FOXNews.com. "You can't consume lead by touching something and putting your finger in your mouth. That's not how it happens. The lead has to be injested and has to be injested in particles small enough to enter the bloodstream or on a material in the stomach where it will be digested in the stomach acids and go into the bloodstream — and that's never happened from toys." In cases where toys have injured children, Byrne said the injuries often resulted from misusing the product. "In virtually all the cases of magnet swallowing these were things that were swallowed by kids that were below the age grade, or in the case of the older kids they were pretending to have tongue piercings. By banning magnets, you're not going to stop that level of play," Byrne said. PHOTOS: Controversial Recalls "When you bring something into your home there should be an assumption of risk," he added. "And if you have a child under 3 and you bring in something age graded for 5 and up – who's responsibility is that? I think it's the parents'." And toys aren't the only issue. Byrne said the biggest challenge now is for all school products. "If I've got a wirebound notebook, the lead content in that wire binding is now under scrutiny, even though the chance of ingesting lead in any amount from something like that is virtually non-existent," he said. "It's a level of political grandstanding to say 'we're taking care of everything,' but the science clearly demonstrates that the transference is not really possible — I mean, a child who eats the wire binding from a notebook is going to have significantly worse health problems than lead." The Resale Round-up has led some resale stores and charities to stop accepting children's goods altogether, something President and CEO of Goodwill Industries Jim Gibbons said has some clients concerned. "I saw on blogs, consumers saying, 'Don't take away my ability to shop at Goodwill for children's clothing – this is how I clothe my kids and get them to school,'" Gibbons told FOXNews.com. The problem, he said, is every not-for-profit and 'mom and pop thrift shop' has different capabilities and resources and a broad-brush approach may leave them unable to provide services. Still, Gibson said, Goodwill generally has been able to continue serving its communities, and he believes CPSC is working hard to take a law "that was probably written in haste" and implement it in an effective manner. "They're really committed to common-sense approaches and working in good faith with at least the social services kind of thrift segment," he said. "And we've been working very proactively with them to make sure that folks at Goodwill are educated, have access to the CPSC guidelines and are making themselves available for as much training as CPSC can provide as they try to figure out how to work with this legislation." Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Cornelius Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Published September 18, 2009 | FOXNews.com if you sold your crap u are already in trouble i would guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrumjuice Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Thank you momma gov't for taking care of me from cradle to death panel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Published September 18, 2009 | FOXNews.com if you sold your crap u are already in trouble i would guess My wife is on the board of a local charity where they have a thrift sale every other year to raise funds for the charity. They do it in the spring, they call it the spring sweep. The organization is kind of a clearinghouse charity with a bunch of volunteer members. Each volunteer has to donate $100 worth of stuff or donate $100 every other year on top of their yearly dues. Anyway they did it in 2009 prior to this taking affect, and didn't do it last year because they only do it every other year. They were getting ready to do it this spring and this issue came up. Obviously she didn't know about it, and neither did I. I apologize if you already knew about it, or if you don't care about getting a $10,000 fine for selling just one item that is now outlawed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act I am in favor of this as it provides safety on things we purchase but it has caused nightmares for me on my biggest selling item. It is a crinoline netting has levels of formaldehyde . Under this act the level can only be 50 ppm. The normal level of this is 11,000 ppm. We had to find a new chemical to replace it and it has been a massive struggle. Ornament people in my industry have had nightmares from it as well. If their stuff included nickel it needed to be replaced. Easier said than done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I just choked and died on a antique lead figurine becuase the government hasn't done enough to protect me. Thanks Obama! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramhock Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 If you can wait for your $, you get a much larger bang for your buck by donating to Goodwill & the like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duchess Jack Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 does anybody have any proof regarding somebody getting slapped with a 15 million dollar fine for having a garage sale. I am just trying to figure out if this is a chicken little thing or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 If you can wait for your $, you get a much larger bang for your buck by donating to Goodwill & the like. We typically donate all our stuff anyway as it is much less of a hassle, and you can typically get much more through the deduction than you would through the sale based on the value you are allowed to deduct. We just give away $100 worth of stuff to this charity every other year and get the same deduction we would through Goodwill. I bet we haven't had an actual garage sell ourselves in 10 to 12 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 does anybody have any proof regarding somebody getting slapped with a 15 million dollar fine for having a garage sale. I am just trying to figure out if this is a chicken little thing or not. The way the law is written they can enforce it on garage sales. I think it is more likely that they will enforce it on charities like my wife works with or with places like Goodwill and commercial resale shops. Is it worth taking the chance that you actually have one of the regulators living in your neighborhood coming by looking at the golf clubs after having a bad day at work and sees something on the forbidden list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I just choked and died on a antique lead figurine becuase the government hasn't done enough to protect me. Thanks Obama! That wasn't an antique lead figurine, it was an antique pewter cock ring I was wearing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untateve Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Why do you want to sell me toys that have lead paint in them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Why do you want to sell me toys that have lead paint in them? Because when I was a kid, I had fun playing with them, and they didn't hurt me, and now I no longer need them and thought maybe you could have fun with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pope Flick Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Why do you want to sell me toys that have lead paint in them? Because it's not the greatest country in the world if he can't sell poison second hand. Duh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 That wasn't an antique lead figurine, it was an antique pewter cock ring I was wearing CSI will have to investigate whether the cause of death was toxic levels of lead, or suffocation on the tuna can. I just don't want my obit to mention that angry inch if at all possible. Thanks for your sensitivity in this matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Meh, this is the second time in a month that someone has gotten their panties in a twist about their god-given rights to sell crap in their yard. One of our neighbor was having freaking garage sales all the time and someone else got pissed because there were always people parking halfway on their lawn (we don't have curbs or sidewalks in my neighborhood). So, in short they tried to get them busted for basically running a retail business in their front yard. Which, in essence, they basically were because their "garage sales" were basically like those flea market tents selling sponges and gold bond powder and cight light that. At any rate, they came walking around trying to get people to sign a petition saying they didn't mind. I actually told them that I didn't mind enough to turn them in or make a stink but that I essentially agreed with the person who was lodging the complaint that they weren't just having garage sales and that I'm not so sure I wouldn't be more pissed if I, like their neighbor lived right next door. (We live far enough away that it's not right in our face). So I told them I wouldn't sign. Not sure how it's going to work itself out. On a related note, I freaking love it when we have a garage sale. It gives me a chance to dress up in my hot dog suit and practice my sign flipping technique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untateve Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Because when I was a kid, I had fun playing with them, and they didn't hurt me, and now I no longer need them and thought maybe you could have fun with them. When I was a kid, my parents didn't make me wear seat belts. I'm fine now. So I don't make my kids wear seat belts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untateve Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Because when I was a kid, I had fun playing with them, and they didn't hurt me, and now I no longer need them and thought maybe you could have fun with them. I agree. Why did everyone get so upset when China was importing 'poison toys?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yo mama Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Wake me up when someone holding a garage sale actually gets hit with a penalty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isleseeya Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Why do you want to sell me toys that have lead paint in them? because me Chinese and hate all round eye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Agent Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 does anybody have any proof regarding somebody getting slapped with a 15 million dollar fine for having a garage sale. I am just trying to figure out if this is a chicken little thing or not. Happened to me. Paid the fine and went on about my business. Definitely put a dent in my retirement though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 This is an old story. Didn't a lot of the penalties and fines already get repealed? There is this part also.... The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is a United States law signed on August 14, 2008 by President George W. Bush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 does anybody have any proof regarding somebody getting slapped with a 15 million dollar fine for having a garage sale. I am just trying to figure out if this is a chicken little thing or not. You can bet your ass it is. This is an old story. Didn't a lot of the penalties and fines already get repealed? There is this part also.... Oh my. If that's for real, that's just hilarious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 This is an old story. Didn't a lot of the penalties and fines already get repealed? There is this part also.... Unlike you I'm able to criticize the policies signed into law by leaders of the party I usually identify most with. Just because Bush signed it doesn't mean that I or any other conservative like it. There are several laws that Bush signed and a few he actually pushed for that I think are terrible. I'd love to see you be as honest about your leader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) Who here believes Perch knew this was singed into law by Bush? ETA: should have been signed not singed Edited January 5, 2011 by bushwacked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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