Federal Government cracking down on........ Garage Sales!

[thatJeffguy]

http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1395184.html

If you're planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you'd best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products.

The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that's been recalled by its manufacturer.

"Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk," said Inez Tenenbaum, the recently confirmed chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The crackdown affects sellers ranging from major thrift-store operators such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army to everyday Americans cleaning out their attics for yard sales, church bazaars or - increasingly - digital hawking on eBay, Craigslist and other Web sites.

Secondhand sellers now must keep abreast of recalls for thousands of products, some of them stretching back more than a decade, to stay within the bounds of the law.

Staffers for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct training seminars on the regulations at dozens of thrift shops.

"Even before this law, we had good mechanisms in place for pulling recalled products," said Jim Gibbons, the chief executive of Goodwill. "The law just kicks it up a notch, so Goodwills around the country will continue to improve our process."

Goodwill uses $2 billion in annual sales at its 2,300 thrift shops nationwide to pay for its job-training and employment-placement programs.

Gibbons said the nonprofit group was accustomed to inspectors from the Consumer Product Safety Commission making unannounced visits to its stores.

Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the agency, said it wouldn't be dispatching bureaucratic storm troopers into private homes to see whether people were selling recalled products from their garages, yards or churches.

"We're not looking to come across as being heavy-handed," he said. "We want to make sure that everybody knows what the rules of engagement are to help spur greater compliance, so that enforcement becomes less of an issue. But we're still going to enforce."

The agency is working with eBay, Wolfson said, to help the online sales giant install software filters that will flag auction items subject to manufacturers' recalls.

The commission's Internet surveillance unit is monitoring Craigslist and other "top auction and reselling sites" for recalled goods. If the agency discovers that a recalled product has been sold online, it will try to find and inform the buyer, Wolfson said.

To kick off its Resale Roundup, the federal agency released a list of the 11 most dangerous previously recalled children's products.

The oldest is the March 10, 1993, recall of 11,600 portable cribs sold as Playskool Travel-Lite Play Yards and made by Kolcraft, an Aberdeen, N.C., firm that's the nation's largest crib manufacturer.

Adele Meyer is the executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, which represents more than 1,100 store owners.

"Even before it was criminal to resell recalled goods, our members have always been diligent because children's safety is always foremost in their minds," she said. "But having consumers look out for recalled products that are sold at garage sales and flea markets, that is a problem, and hopefully this law will help."

Nancy Lothrop, a mother of two in Monroe, Wash., was surprised to learn that she might be violating the law by selling about $200 worth of Polly Pocket dolls and accessories on Craigslist that her 12-year-old daughter no longer wants.

I'm so glad that Kings Obongo and Mugabe managed to get on the phone and talk! Mugabe disclosed the source of the "magic cornucopia of money" that's able to fund every single federal project. This is COMPLETE idiocy! COMPLETE COMPLETE COMPLETE idiocy!!!!!!

9/12, come and protest absurd spending like this!!!!!

[thatJeffguy]

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws... We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

One of the comments.

[shefearsnothing]

In all honesty, if they're focusing on this and not trying to steal my guns....

[NikeBauer21]

In all honesty, if they're focusing on this and not trying to steal my guns....

But you have to realize, this is yet another step towards our guns. Another freedom is lost to the govt. It doesn't affect our guns yet, but it's only a matter of time until the issue arises in "dire need" once again. You have to look at each lost freedom as not only an attack on our constitutional rights, but an indirect attack on our 2a rights.

[shefearsnothing]

I hear you. I do. I really do. I don't think that what they are doing is in violation of any rights or is protected by the constitution though. I mean, it seems like a waste of time and resources but if they're going to waste their time on something at least it's not a focus on my guns.

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I guess they don't have enough crime to fight?

[Tootie]

But you have to realize, this is yet another step towards our guns. Another freedom is lost to the govt. It doesn't affect our guns yet, but it's only a matter of time until the issue arises in "dire need" once again. You have to look at each lost freedom as not only an attack on our constitutional rights, but an indirect attack on our 2a rights.

Yep

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

SFN...One by one they will take our liberties away. By going after the "what seems to be small" they can work their way up to the "small" ones that effect you and I. So don't push this one aside saying it doesn't effect me.

[shefearsnothing]

I didn't say it doesn't affect me. Perhaps I am naive but I don't view it the same as our constitutional rights being violated. There are vendor and consumer laws changed all the time. This is being done at a federal level. It's about safety recalls.

Yes, I know, antis make the argument that guns aren't safe. Well our right to keep and bear arms is iron clad in the constitution. Show me where it's at in there that yard sale vendors and or other vendors have a right guaranteed to them in the constitution to sell products that are known to be unsafe which have been recalled. I believe there is a difference.

Again, call me naive.... I don't believe in NO government. Too much, yes. Look at our society. We have people saying no, it's not right to just take a man's life because he murdered your whole family. He should get to go through the whole judicial process even though you sat bound and gagged in a chair and saw the whole thing. Hell, even then he will get to live. We do need some government. We live in a society of animals. I am probably not articulating this well because I am not feeling so great this morning and I'm tired. My apologies for that. It is not likely that I will change anyone's view on this either way. I respect the fact that some people just don't want the government doing anything. I happen to disagree. I mean, sure, this wouldn't have been my choice for their focus but I don't think it's the end of the world.

[camper]

This all plays into the Federal Governments attack on the small business. Don't let hobbyists get a taste of independance and decide to go bigger and open a shop on mainstreet, kill them early and fast.

camper
EDIT - fixed 'of' to 'on'

[velkly]

I look at it from this angle. First, show me where this falls into the 17 powers of the Federal gov't. Secondly, account for the millions, if not billions, of dollars being spent on:

Staffers for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct training seminars on the regulations at dozens of thrift shops.

The commission's Internet surveillance unit is monitoring Craigslist and other "top auction and reselling sites" for recalled goods.

Is this the best way to spend our tax dollars when we are in the middle of a recession?