Selling Used Upholstered Furniture or Bedding

[debodun]

Is it legal in the U.S. (New York State in particular) for someone to sell used upholstered furniture or bedding online or at a garage sale?

 

[Just Blue]

Is it legal in the U.S. (New York State in particular) for someone to sell used upholstered furniture or bedding online or at a garage sale?

Maybe...but yikes! Don't do it. Think "bodily fluids".

 

[debodun]

I was thinking more like bed bugs and fleas.

 

[Just Blue]

I was thinking more like bed bugs and fleas.

Yeah...there is that too. Are you thinking of selling or buying?

 

[debodun]

Selling. I have an antique living room set for sale and was wondering why no one was interested even after advertising on online selling sites. It was in my parents estate. Even if there were ectoparasites, which I doubt very much, they would have starved to death by now. Everyone is so germ conscious these days.

 

[Just Blue]

Selling. I have an antique living room set for sale and was wondering why no one was interested even after advertising on online selling sites. It was in my parents estate. Even if there were ectoparasites, which I doubt very much, they would have starved to death by now. Everyone is so germ conscious these days.

Yeah...there is a good reason to be germ conscious. Could you please define "antique" in regards to the LR set?

 

[debodun]

My parents bought the set from the people they bought the house from. Paid $300 for it in 1975. I assume from the style it's from the 1920 or 30s. The wood is oak, I believe, and consists of a sofa, three armchairs, a coffee table, a footstool, an octagonal shaped table and an end table. The sofa, chairs and footstool have upholstery, but that would need a little remediation.

 

[quincy]

Upholstered furniture is sold and bought online and at garage sales with some frequency, especially when the furniture is antique. Retail stores need to be licensed to sell new or used furniture but individuals (generally) do not need to be licensed unless they operate a resale business.

New York has Senate Bill S8214 introduced last year that currently sits in the New York Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee that addresses furniture sales and labeling, and the prohibiting of certain chemicals in the construction of furniture (e.g., lead). Whether it will receive enough support and be enacted is a question mark - but even if enacted, it would not be effective until 2022. Here’s a link: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s8214

Most laws target manufacturers and not consumers (or the resale of goods by consumers). That said, it is the smart consumer who knows whether what they want to sell has been recalled in the past for health or safety reasons. You do not want to sell an item that has been recalled and could be hazardous to the buyer (e.g., cribs with slats spaced too far apart or toys containing lead paint).

Here is a law from Massachusetts that shows the type of laws that you might run across in several states:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/Parti/Titlexv/Chapter94/Section272

Many (if not most) states prohibit the sale of used mattresses. It is best to dispose of these.

 

[HighwayMan]

Many (if not most) states prohibit the sale of used mattresses. It is best to dispose of these.

In addition many localities require that mattresses be bagged in order to dispose of them.

 

[quincy]

I have needed to dispose of mattresses that have been left behind by tenants in our rental houses, and I had to dispose of a relatively-new mattress after our newly-adopted Airedale ate a hole in the middle of it . Although I didn’t need to bag up the mattresses, I had to hire independent workers to pick up the mattresses and take them to a disposal site. Our regular trash collectors would not take them.

 

[HighwayMan]

I will hazard a guess that the bag rule is in place to protect the sanitation workers who pick these things up.

 

[quincy]

I will hazard a guess that the bag rule is in place to protect the sanitation workers who pick these things up.

No doubt. And it’s smart - difficult to do, maybe, but smart.

 

[HighwayMan]

No doubt. And it’s smart - difficult to do, maybe, but smart.

Maybe not so difficult these days. A quick search online shows many places, including Amazon, sell mattress bags. I'd assume that's due to the large number of localities that have these laws/rules in place.

 

[debodun]

Also, is it legal to sell an item to someone else after I promised it the first inquirer online? For instance, Person A is the first to express and interest in an item for sale online. You set a date for them to come and look, however they don't show up. I email them and they have some lame excuse why they didn't show. This happens twice more, but they assure me they will be there tomorrow at 10 am. Meanwhile I get a mesage from Person B who says they can come right away since they live 10 minutes away. Am I still obligated to hold it for Person A?

 

[Zigner]

No, not at all.