That's a print from a child's Sunday School Paper almost 150 years old. I believe it could legitimately qualify as vintage, although I would let my children read it.
These items could most not be sold as vintage:
We bought these books, and hundreds of others for a dollar a box at a library sale. the large room where we bought them was stacked and packed with boxes of books. Imagaine them all in a landfill, which is where such books are headed with the CPSIA.
Book publishers note that:
With the increasing interest in all things “green,” it’s interesting to note that books made of recycled materials are more likely to contain some lead or phthalates and therefore less likely to make it through the testing process.
Dollar General tossed thousands of dollars in product after NRDC sued to make the phthalates ban apply retroactively to inventory. Where do you imagine those products go? Not to charities, thrift stores, or any other recycling venue, especially with the rhetorical fallacies of 'toxic toys' hyped up by Public Citizen and PIRG.
Nearly everything in this picture was purchased secondhand- the furniture, the books, the toys, the games, the baskets, the toy hardhat, even the scratch paper is second hand, recycled. The large purple ball was purchased new- it's a therapy ball for The Cherub. The rest of it, recycled, re-used- and oportunities liked these are now banned for other families, thanks to the CPSIA. If we were to die tomorrow and our children wished to liquidate all this- they'd have to throw it out or keep it. They could not legally sell or donate to charity the vast majority of the things seen in this picture. (Yes, it's a horrible mess- this picture was taken to show two children just how messy this corner was)
Here's a long list of businesses adversely affected- millions and billions dollars in inventory rendered technically toxic, although not practically or actually so. Nevertheless, in this overlawyered age, legal fictions and technicalities matter more than reality. So read the list, and note that the 1.7 million Gymboree screenprinted clothing items are 1.7 million items added to the landfills overnight- nobody planned for that, and it's unlikely either the local landfill or Gymboree is prepared for that. And that's just one, tiny, easy to imagine example. Add to that billions in bikes and bike parts, stranded inventory in apparel businesses, used book sellers, thrift shops, toy companies, bib makers, and more.
Check out Plum Privy's site to see other business losses, and scroll down looking for the inventory listings. Imagine all those things in landfills. If they can't be donated, and the business doesn't have the storage space, that's where they're going- and they can't be donated.
But Congress, like Caesar, apparently believes it can do no wrong, and refuses to revisit the issue, no matter how many billions of safe, non-toxic items end up uselessly and needlessly in landfills.
A clever blogger has come up with a helpful plan to convince at least one staff member that the CPSIA is not the panacea Congress thinks it is (unless, that is, they hoped they were writing a law designed to tamper with literacy, contribute billions of product to landfills, and put millions of people out of business).
Go see her and see if you can help. It's too early to give up just yet! Keep fighting. Pin It
