Flea Markets Targeted, Consumers Suffer
When I read the headline to this McClatchy News Service Article I just about blew my top. What is it about those meddling bunglers in Washington that makes them so eager to regulate every activity (including that of the sun)?
James Rosen writes: “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.”
I was raised with this universal maxim in mind: ‘Caveat Emptor’ (buyer beware). Apparently the Federal Government doesn’t want you to consider the quality of items you purchase, even when you are buying said items second hand!
“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.”
Under this law, those that buy second hand goods are disincentivized from doing the due diligence necessary to ensure that the smurf doll that was bought at a garage sale is safe. Big Brother has made it illegal for dangerous toys to be sold second hand. When your kid breaks the arm off of Papa Smurf, puts it into his or her gobb and chokes to death on it, it’s not YOUR fault for letting the kid eat the toy, it’s the fault of the person that sold you a thirty year old plastic communist indoctrination tool.
“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.”
Now we get into the economics of the situation. Thrift store operators spend time and resources (including money) to pull recalled products. These costs will undoubtedly increase as Federal Trade Commission increases penalties on the enterprising people running thrift stores. Thus the toys and other products in the store cost more for people seeking a better value than can even be had at a discount chain store, or even the local dollar store. This causes the overhead costs of the thrift store to be higher than they otherwise would be. Resale Roundup causes second hand retailers to charge more to their patrons on the products they can legally offer.
“Gibbons said the nonprofit group was accustomed to inspectors from the Consumer Product Safety Commission making unannounced visits to its store”
So Gibbons said that Goodwill was accustomed to his chairtable organization getting the high hard one from the man on a regular basis, and passing the costs on to the customers.
“Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the agency [the Federal Trade Commission], 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.”
Of course the thugs aren’t looking to come across as being heavy-handed. No one wants to look like a bully. They might not be sending thugs to your house, but if you have a table at a flea market, or have donated to your church thrift store, you can expect the goons to be dispatched to those locations immediately.
There was already a strong effort by many in the second hand retailing sector to pull recalled items from the shelf (or even keep them from ever reaching the shelves). This law isn’t even necessary! Many outlets that sell second hand goods voluntarily subscribe to a professional association that requires them to do what the new law DEMANDS!
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.”
The story goes on to detail how a mother and 12 year old daughter reacted when informed of their status as potential criminals because of their attempt to sell the girls unwanted doll collection. In order to be in compliance with the statute,
…Nancy and Laura Lothrop must do a painstaking inventory of her collection, searching for tiny model numbers to see whether they match any of the recalled items. If they find matches, they’ll pull the recalled dolls and accessories from the group that they’re selling.”
What a pain in the behind!
Nancy Lothrop really gets what is going on here, by recognizing the fact that this law is an arbitrary and unecessary intrusion into the financial activities of her family.
“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. Ultimately, the parent needs to really evaluate and be watchful of what the child is playing with. We as consumers have to be careful. It really comes back to us.”
It seems to me that Ms. Lothrop sees that thugs calling themselves “the government” are interfering in what was one of the last vestiges of the free market.
Kudos to James Rosen, and to his editors and publishers at McClatchy for running this excellent piece.
Photo credit: The Lorain County, Ohio Visitors Bureau Consider visiting Lorain County Ohio. It seems like a wonderful place. They have a big flea market there.
FURB is a pragmatic anarchist working in insurance in Salt Lake City. He is the founder and managing editor of 
From the way laws are actually enforced, on would think their whole purpose was to protect the margins of established businesses…but of course we know better. They are there to protect us from dangerous agorists
I have created an audio version of this text which you can listen to at http://libertyconspiracy.com .
Really dangerous agorists would openly operate a thrift shop in defiance of these laws and, being really dangerous, would expect the bureau-rats to show up. Herd them into a back room and -bam- “Maxwell’s silver hammer made sure…”.
But we aren’t dangerous agorists, we’re cooperative and peaceful agorists. We don’t actively break the law, we just peacefully ignore it.
Yes, these laws exist to make more money for the vested establishment interests. That’s why they are banning old style lightbulbs – no patent protection. General Electric has patents on the newfangled curly fluorescent bulbs with the dangerous chemicals in their base, and someone else has a patented method for recycling those chemicals if only the gov’t would make a law requiring you to “dispose of” them “properly” to the advantage of the new company. General Electric is also a big defense contractor making machines for the military to slaughter children in foreign countries and profiting from death.
See, it isn’t the agorists who are dangerous. We don’t invade countries, slaughter children, massacre civilians. We don’t drop thousand pound bombs on villages. We don’t capture prisoners and torture them to death without due process. We don’t have detention camps and excuses for indefinitely detaining people. We don’t steal from the mouth of labor nor from the mouth of capital. We don’t have thugs with tasers electrocuting old women and children for daring to have opinions. And we don’t arrest two million people a year for non-violent non-crimes.
We’re just simple people who buy and sell from each other. Armed in defense of life, liberty, and property. Peaceful, until someone attacks us, and then we defend what we choose to defend.
Those in government aren’t acting for the government, they are acting, badly in most cases, as they choose. You see, the government doesn’t learn, it doesn’t think, it doesn’t remember, because it doesn’t exist. It is just an illusion, a legal fiction, a hobgoblin being shaken in our faces to scare us into giving up our liberty and property.
So when a thug with a uniform and a badge entraps some unsuspecting people into a bad situation and then shoots them to death, that’s not “the government” acting, that’s a thug, an individual, and he is personally, permanently responsible for what he chose to do. “I was only following orders” is no defense – the concentration camp guards who tortured prisoners during WW2 were executed for their actions, the actions they chose to take – it is a “defense” that will get you killed.
Does all this talk of death and torture and execution make you nervous? Seem disproportionate to the topic of flea markets and thrift stores? Too bad. Toughen up.
It’s all the same gang, all the same tricks. They take and they take, and they invade our lives and our homes, and they lie, cheat, steal, torture, and murder. And what are you going to do about it?
My suggestion: prepare; resist; repeat.
Spot on, Jim. I’m starting to wonder if the ‘fair’ tax proponents made some headway. It seems that this would be the sort of response the gov would first think of if there were going to be taxes only on new items.
miche aka libertarian lady
a proponent of NO tax
Makes me wanna puke. Nice write up FURB. I also agree with J.Davison. Good work both of you.
seriously…
I think this is about lost tax revenue in places not regulated by the state.
Since the economic slowdown in Jan, I’ve seen a noticeable increase in “neighborhoodwide” yard sales. The area I live in has a disproportionate share of “recent arrivals” or they’re the next generation. These folks know how to “move fast” economically and they’re obviously liquidating by marketing (signage) to the commuters that use a major N/S surface street that runs between two E/W freeways.
If anyone could (and probably have) make the leap from wage slave to agorist – it would be this group. Their primary income sources come from building/making/repairing things and they’re not adverse to cash only/barter transactions (in order to avoid detection).
I don’t think it’s much of a reach to think the state would devise a way to shut down/cool down untaxed/unregulated economic activity by scaring customers with “poison stories” and locking in a market for past/future campaign contributors (toy companies etc).
It would be political suicide to shut garage sales down for “not paying taxes” (people would ignore the law). Especially in an area currently experiencing a 14% unemployment rate.
However, show up in the name of “I’m from the state, here to save you from toxicity” and any hack would have the support of “average folks” willing to swarm on these neighborhoods with signs to protest the “environmental dangers of unregulated economic activity.
Ohh… combine this with some copyright holders who want to make it such that you can’t resell the physical medium of something you’ve bought. I’m sure the bureaucrats would think it’s help the economy.
Seriously now? Garage sales? Donations to thrift stores?
Next thing it’ll just be every single individual sale to an individual person has to go through all the proper channels. I won’t be able to sell my friend a video game because the disc could break and become pointy.
Can’t wait to see what kind of ridiculous legislation they come up with when someone publicly chokes on something they bought at a church bake sale, or a girl scout cookie, and dies.
stop importing junk!!!!
Makes me think we’re in the endgame phase of the fiat Keynesian fairy tale & nanny is grasping at every strand of straw to tax as she tumbles into oblivion.
With all the taxation and regulation, the goobernmintal choads are going to give rise to a new generation of bootleggers. For God’s sake, the fools are talking about upping the extortion fee on pop, how can you not want to brew or manufacture a “sin” product and black market it, esp. the way the economy is going?
We’re all Marvin “Popcorn” Suttons now! Fire up your stills & home workshops and fuck the nanny-state revenuers!
It’s happening:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/diy-cigarettes.html
Fuck extortion & “protection fees”, roll and brew your own so nanny gets left out of the equation.
Mark my words, as more people get sick of paying nanny’s extortion and “protection fees”, the sycophants in the media will demonise the tax resistors.
RIP Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton