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Your Yard Sale Is Illegal (seriously: feds now regulate those too)
Reason ^ | May 7, 2009, 4:41pm | Katherine Mangu-Ward

Posted on 05/07/2009 6:25:24 PM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

Thinking of having a yard sale this weekend? Before you do, be sure to consult CSPC Publication #254 [PDF].

This handy 28-pager from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reminds the American people that, thanks to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the government is totally in charge of your yard sale:

This handbook will help sellers of used products identify types of potentially hazardous products that could harm children or others. CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to anyone who sells or distributes consumer products. This includes thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, and individuals holding yard sales and flea markets.

Selling old kids books, anything with metal, paint, or plastic that a kid might use, old clothes or shoes with metal components that a kid might wear? You know, any of the stuff people routinely sell at yard sales? Technically, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of fines. Obviously, it's unlikely the CPSA goons are going to bust up your yard sale. But putting out a detailed booklet that reserves the right to do so is hardly encouraging about where the implementation of this legislation is heading.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: consumers; freedom; lead; liberty; lping; oppression; product; safety; selfsufficiency; tyranny; yardsales
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

SCREW THAT! Unless of course the feds want to buy all my old junk (perhaps a little “bailout money”)?


21 posted on 05/07/2009 6:43:56 PM PDT by JSDude1 (DHS, FBI, FEMA, etc have been bad little boys. They need to be spanked and sent to timeout!)
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To: stayathomemom

The problem in that is the damages.

Unless your child developed serious medical problems, and you’d have to prove that the item caused the problem, your damages would be the price you paid for the item.

No money in it for the ambulance chasers.


22 posted on 05/07/2009 6:46:39 PM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

If any of these government slugs happen to read this, I’d like to invite them to shove it up their @$$. They can never possibly enforce it. Such dimwitted over-reaching regulation does nothing but undermine respect for the law.


23 posted on 05/07/2009 6:47:08 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: TigersEye

I wish they would mind their own damn business & try to sort the messes they’ve already made instead of creating new ones. Shaking my head again & wondering just what these people are on.


24 posted on 05/07/2009 6:51:36 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (elected officials should be required to pass drug, alcohol & dementia testing)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
So is there a handbook on what to do when you go to the dump to unload your trash and there are people that snatch stuff before you can throw it into the bins that don't speak English so you can tell them what's wrong with the stuff you are throwing away?

Wow, extreme run on sentence. Where's the grammar nazis?

25 posted on 05/07/2009 6:52:29 PM PDT by MagnoliaB
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to ... thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, and individuals holding yard sales and flea markets.

Ain't life in a totalitarian country just grand? Just until you see what's coming down the road next.

America -- a great idea, didn't last. Way too many did way too little for way too long. That's how civilizations fall.

26 posted on 05/07/2009 6:53:59 PM PDT by Clint Williams (Read Roto-Reuters -- we're the spinmeisters | America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
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To: KoRn; Abathar; Abcdefg; Abram; Abundy; akatel; albertp; AlexandriaDuke; Alexander Rubin; ...
Selling old kids books, anything with metal, paint, or plastic that a kid might use, old clothes or shoes with metal components that a kid might wear? ... Technically, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of fines.



Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
27 posted on 05/07/2009 6:54:56 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: stayathomemom

My thinking also. There is always those types around. All it takes is a phone call.

Can listing make a difference?

— List everything “as is”.
— Consumer beware.
— Use in a safe manner, as I did.
— Not responsible for your stupidity.
— I have your name on your check and I know where you live...nah, forget that one.


28 posted on 05/07/2009 6:55:25 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (The plan... 0 in power for life. At least that's what they told him.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I think that micromanagement with vast hyper-regulation of a local yard sale MAY slightly overstep the Constitutional powers granted to the federal government.

Just a TINY little bit unconstitutional.


29 posted on 05/07/2009 6:55:37 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Chains you can believe in.)
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To: pandoraou812
Good point about their messes. They want to regulate every breath we the people make but the government creates more debt and damage than the rest of us 300 million put together.
30 posted on 05/07/2009 6:56:47 PM PDT by TigersEye (Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: The_Reader_David
A yard-sale isn't interstate commerce.

Of course it isn't, but the Wickard Commerce Clause is in effect and SCOTUS may say otherwise:

Where necessary to make a regulation of interstate commerce effective, Congress may regulate even those intrastate activities that do not themselves substantially affect interstate commerce.

J. Scalia concurring, Gonzales v Raich

_____________________________________

Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything, and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.

J. Thomas dissenting, Gonzales v Raich

31 posted on 05/07/2009 6:57:00 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

These guys are out of control. My family is at a flea market this weekend. I refuse to call them to tell them not to sell anything. Screw ‘em.


32 posted on 05/07/2009 6:57:24 PM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma (When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule the people mourn. Proverbs 29;2)
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To: TigersEye

Common sense is dead. I swear there is something in the water these kooks drink.


33 posted on 05/07/2009 7:02:22 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (elected officials should be required to pass drug, alcohol & dementia testing)
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To: SoldierDad
When I get around to holding my yard sale the last thing I’ll do is contact the Feds to ask what I can or cannot sell. They may KMWA.

Or toss it in the slammer. Hey, life won't be so bad in the re-education camps. Until Nobama cuts the funding.

34 posted on 05/07/2009 7:07:53 PM PDT by Clint Williams (Read Roto-Reuters -- we're the spinmeisters | America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
The only not-so-bleak aspect of these laws/regulations is that the law seems to require knowing violations (i.e., it only applies if you sell a product that you know is not safe.

Still seems like overstepping, still seems open to abuse, and still shouldn't be a Federal issue (though, under the currently-prevailing Commerce Clause jurisprudence, the Courts certainly wouldn't stop it from being one). But, I'm not sure this will practically be as much of a disaster as some think it might be.

35 posted on 05/07/2009 7:10:22 PM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Don’t know about those holding a yard sale, but I’d certainly consult the thing before giving a toy or other item to a kid.


36 posted on 05/07/2009 7:11:27 PM PDT by durasell
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

The hell you say...


37 posted on 05/07/2009 7:13:18 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (III)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

How long ‘till they’re taxed too?


38 posted on 05/07/2009 7:21:09 PM PDT by GlennBeck08
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To: Clint Williams

I’ll be dead before that, believe me.


39 posted on 05/07/2009 7:23:30 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier presently instructing at Ft. Benning.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

and forget those church bake sales.


40 posted on 05/07/2009 7:23:47 PM PDT by blackminorca
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