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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

You can no longer sell at a yard sale:

* Products that have been recalled by CPSC.

* Toys and other articles intended for use by children, and any furniture, with paint or other surface coatings containing lead over specified amounts.

* Products primarily intended for children age 12 or younger with lead content over a specific amount.

* Certain toys or child care articles that contain any one of six prohibited chemicals known as phthalates, which are primarily used as plasticizers.

* Other products that violate CPSC’s safety standards, bans, rules or regulations or otherwise present a substantial product hazard.

It's hard for me to get worked up about this. Even harder with the bait-y title.

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My understanding is that, while you are technically correct about some details, the larger point is that the law presumes your goods to be dangerous until you do testing to prove those goods to NOT have the characteristics described above. Hence, for a yard sale, it would be infeasible to sell old toys as the testing would cost more than any conceivable gains.

I'm assuming that the author of the linked stub was going to address this in the full article he mentioned.

Like all the members of Congress who voted on this though, I'll admit to not having actually read the full 63-page bill and the thousands of pages of existing law that it references, extends, and amends. So if I'm categorically wrong, and you've fully read and understood the consequences of the law, please set me straight.

I am clear on the fact that this law has been a serious concern for small manufacturers, though I presume they could fall under more onerous regulation than yard sales.

nope.

on the first substantive page, in big bold text, it says

"You are not required to test your products for safety."

What makes Reason's case even weaker is that their evidence is a very readable guidebook aimed at laypeople, not some subtle clause buried in a 200-page bill.

Not to change the terms of the debate, but you know, at the end of the day, it's a bit tyrannical that a person should be expected to consult anything from Washington DC to hold a yard sale.

So you'd be cool with people selling patent medicines and shark-fin cancer cures too, I take it? We'll have to agree to disagree.

Do you really think people need Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, or John Boehner to command them from on-high in Washington DC on how to morally conduct commerce?

Fraud is a crime. Cities have been dealing with it for a long time. People don't need bureaucrats in DC to tell them to not stick jellybeans up their nose.

Thanks for finding these details. I subscribed to Reason for a while, and ended my subscription because of their tendency to sensationalize things by leaving out details like these.

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