It's 3 AM and I am up with the flu. I check my email as I cannot sleep and suddenly I got a little sicker. I find I have a message from Ruby Lane. I have been notified I cannot sell a coffee pot because it has a "recall" on their site.

The reality is that I knew it was a recall item but had done my homework. I have lived with a newspaper reporter for 30 some years and read prolifically. I know how to research the cyber highway and checked it out well. I had quoted the recall, stated it could only be used for display, checked with the government site and been told months ago if I sold it for collecting only, and quoted the recall it could be sold because it was not related to use. The reality is that this information is no longer true and I was in error as many of us may now be in selling collectibles.

My item recall I am speaking of was from 1979 but the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 made it a federal offense to sell any recalled items. This includes a wide array of children's products from before 1985. Violators could face criminal or civil penalties, or both. Yes, selling an item at a garage sale, on ebay, on a website are included in this new law. The reality is it cannot be sold for collecting or for use.

How do we deal with this problem? According to an article written by Emily Rieman, St. Petersburg Florida Times Staff writer, and I quote. "Some online auction sites such as eBay have specific rules about the resale of recalled products. Its published policy prohibits listing items "that have been identified by the CPSC as hazardous to consumers and therefore subject to recall." Repercussions for violations include listing cancellation, limits on account privileges, account suspension and loss of PowerSeller status. Craigslist doesn't include recalled products in its items prohibited from sale, but does include a link to the CPSC's recall list for "researching whether a particular transaction is prohibited or regulated."

Being the type of person I am I headed straight to the CPSC site, www.recalls.gov and found it quite interesting. According to their onsite pamphlet, they state.

"You are not required to test your products for safety. However, resellers (including those who sell on auction Web sites) cannot knowingly sell products that do not meet the requirements of the law. You can protect yourself by screening for violative products. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. But more importantly, as a business person, you do not want to sell products that have the potential to cause harm to anyone, especially a child.

"A consumer product, for the purposes of this Handbook, is any product that is found in or around the home, a school, or in a recreational setting, including furniture, appliances, rugs, curtains, bed linens, wearing apparel, jewelry, toys, sports equipment and electronics.

"Under the new law, it is now illegal to sell ANY recalled product (for adults as well as children). If you are in the business of reselling products, you are expected to know the laws, rules and regulations that apply to your business, including whether or not a product you are selling has been recalled for a safety issue. Before taking a product into inventory or selling it, check the CPSC Web site for dangerous recalled products, including cribs, play yards, strollers, high chairs, toys with magnets, toys that are choking hazards, and other products. You can search by product type, company name, product description, hazard, country of manufacture and by the month and year in which the recall took place."

I started searching the CPSC site with key words and found hundreds of recalls. I found a Gemco Whistler teapot recall from 1984, a six sided lemonade jar with spigot containing lead, a Kellogg's musical "cool flute" found in Corn Pops and Fisher-Price "Snuggle Light" dolls, model numbers 1372 and 1373.

The biggest difficulty I found was the lack of pictures with many of the recalls. Our business is a visual one. We buy without boxes, tags at times or a company name that is visible. This makes it difficult to know if you have a particular item mentioned. The search engine definitely works well but can get bogged down and be somewhat slow.

We all started in the antique or collectible business to do something with our passion of loving old things. Each of us knows that research comes with selling each item. To research the age, use, and popularity is no longer enough, we now need to know if it is recalled. It means we all have to do our homework. Is it going to be easy? No. But hasn't that always been the fun of this business? Searching, finding and searching again.

So, I am off to search the CPSC site for my antique pickle fork. Oh, no! They are recalling 44,000 Veggie Tales' Dave and the Giant Pickle playsets! And the search begins.

Carol Henckel
Carmel Collectibles - http://carmelcollectibles.rubylane.com