Selling your baby’s crib online may be illegal
Aug 8, 2011, 11:39 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2012, 7:28 am
Looking for discounts on lightly used items on online services like Craiglist.org and eBay.com can get you a bargain, but if you’re not careful you could make an illegal purchase – for your brand new bundle of joy.
A month ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned cribs with drop down sides because it was determined that they presented a danger to children.
In the last year, 32 deaths have occurred because of malfunctions in drop down cribs. USA Today reports that most of those deaths were due to hardware that was broken or missing, or otherwise malfunctioned.
But the sale of such cribs on websites like Craigslist and eBay has continued with little interference.
Craigslist has updated its prohibition notices and information pages to include information from the CPSC, but because content is posted, managed, and flagged by other site users, it has not been closely monitoring listings for the illegal cribs.
The cribs are being unlawfully sold via Craigslist all over the Puget Sound, from Bellevue to Kingston.
EBay has agreed to shut down the sale of the cribs, according to USA Today, but not for a few weeks.
Some crib manufacturers are working on updates to retrofit cribs sold before June 28. Currently, cribs sold before that date are now illegal to sell for retailers or individual sellers.
