All we need now is a “Bazaar Czar”

Remember, they said, “Oh, they’d never do that.”  Well, that was then.

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

Yet.

“We’re not looking to come across as being heavy-handed,” he said.

Too late!

“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 commission’s Internet surveillance unit is monitoring Craigslist and other “top auction and reselling sites” for recalled goods...
...
The Resale Roundup is being enforced under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which Congress passed

...without reading...

and President George W. Bush signed into law last year.

Thanks again, George!

Quotes from McClatchy Newspapers, via: Hot Air  (HT to “ICBM” for the title!)

LATER, Elsewhere (090825 17:40):

Previous CPSIA madness here and here.  Tam says, “Keep your slimy, regulation-encrusted hands off my childhood, you bastards.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:58:32 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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