A little known court case has made its way to the SCOTUS that may affect our ability to sell anything that was not made in the US. We have stuff, we need to sell stuff. But we may no longer be able to sell items that were not made in the US on ebay, craigslist, swap meets, garage sales etc.
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is a case set to be heard in the Supreme Court during this term that challenges the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that held you would need permission to sell anything made not made in the United States. The case stems from a student from Thailand who purchased text books published by John Wiley & Sons publishing that were sold much cheaper in Thailand than in the US. The books were purchased the cheaper price in Thailand by friends and relatives and then shipped to the student who, in turn, resold the books in the US netting a profit of over $1M. Good for him. Or not.
The publisher sued the student for violation of what is known as the “first sale doctrine”. If this decision is upheld by SCOTUS, anything from your old ipod to your grandma’s jewelry from Spain would not be resalable. Good luck with that.