As garage sale season gets underway buy and sell safely

Yard sales are back in full swing after two years of staying at home. Many are ready to declutter while others might be looking for inexpensive buys in a time of rising costs.

It’s hard to know what one might find while looking through those tossed aside hidden treasures that have been tucked away in the crawl space. Some items are not even allowed to be in yard sales.

Lyle Karasiuk is the Director of Public Affairs at Parkland Ambulance Care he said, “That’s the old adage of garage sales. You know, it’s buyer beware.”

“Make sure the product is functional, it works. For example, if you’re buying a microwave oven, is the door fitting properly? Sort of the good common sense stuff.”

He added that there are certain things that people shouldn’t put out at garage sales, like a sport helmet that might be cracked or have loose or missing straps. Car seats, kids grow out of them all the time but it is important to check if the car seat is expired, the straps are intact, there are no broken parts.

Karasiuk suggested using Health Canada as a resource to find out what things work in yard sales and what don’t.

“Simply go to HealthCanad.ca, you do a quick search on there. Just use the word garage sales. They’ve also got some connections to the consumer protection side of their world, which give you a list of things like toys, pieces, puzzles and walkers and things that we often take for granted that, you know, we might say are someone else’s treasure that probably shouldn’t be for sale and probably aren’t safe for sale.”

Here is a list of items Health Canada says should not be sold or purchased at garage sales.

• Baby walkers
• Infant self-feeding devices
• Jequirity beans or anything that is made with jequirity beans
• Lawn darts with elongated tips
• Polycarbonate baby bottles containing BPA