When I bought my used $300 Maclaren Techno XT stroller at a garage sale for $20, the little voice in the back of my mind kept saying, “what if it’s been recalled?”  I went straight to my computer when I got home and found at that it had been!  Luckily, there was a quick and free fix available from Maclaren.

Little did I know, WeMakeItSafer has an easy to use mobile-friendly site.  There’s no app to download, just go to their site from your cell phone and you’ll land on this page, where you can use their recall search tool:

Type in a brand name or product type (stroller, high chair, etc.) and get a list of recalls complete with pictures:

If you find your garage sale steal has been recalled, don’t fret yet.  WeMakeItSafer lays out everything you need to know, including how to identify if the specific model, make, etc. of baby gear you’re looking at is part of the recall, the reason the item is being recalled, and what your options are for dealing with the problem:

A great bonus to WeMakeItSafer’s recall look-up tool is that you can take things a step further by clicking the “I own this item,” button or the “I own a similar item” button (if it turns out the one you have doesn’t fall under the recall) and add the item to your free WeMakeItSafer account, where they will continue to track it for future recalls (read more about the importance of registering your baby gear–and non-baby gear–for recalls).

If you find a recalled product while shopping for baby gear and you decide not to get it, let the garage sale host, Craigslist poster, or other person selling it know so they can follow the steps provided by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  If the recalled product is something you’ve found sitting out for free on the sidewalk, leave a note with a short message like, “This has been recalled.  Contact the manufacturer for free retrofit kit before use” (who knows, you might keep a kid out of the ER or save a life).