Feds target resale of unsafe products

WASHINGTON — If you're planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, 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 has 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 are required to keep abreast of recalls for thousands of products, some stretching back more than a decade, to stay within the bounds of the law.

Employees for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct 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, 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 stores.

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

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.

Nancy Lothrop, a mother of two in Monroe, Wash., was surprised to learn 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.

In two large recalls from November 2006 to August 2007, the El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel asked consumers to return 9.7 million units of several dozen different sets of Polly Pocket dolls.

The recalled dolls and accessories, made for Mattel in China, had tiny magnets that could become loose and be swallowed or inhaled by young children. The magnets caused three serious injuries — intestinal tears requiring surgery — that the Consumer Product Safety Commission knows of.

Nancy and Laura Lothrop must do a painstaking inventory of her collection, searching for tiny model numbers to see whether they match the recalled items. If they find matches, they'll pull the recalled dolls and accessories from the group that they're selling.

Nancy Lothrop, though, doesn't quite understand why the dolls are being singled out.

"Many toys have small pieces that could be dangerous," she said. "My son played with army men, Lego blocks, all kinds of things with little parts. A toddler can put anything in his mouth. Parents need to have common sense."

The Resale Roundup is being enforced under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which Congress passed and President Bush signed into law last year.

The law has a number of other beefed-up consumer protections, including much tougher standards for selling products that contain lead or lead-based paint.

The law also restored the full five seats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission for the first time in 25 years.