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I just opened up a box from one of my auction purchases in November. It has three older thermometers, smaller 4″ sized ones, with a small amount of mercury in them. I’m finding conflicting information on whether they can be sold and/or shipped.
Some older eBay community posts say eBay prohibits them, and they post a link to the hazardous materials policy. However, that policy no longer specifically states that thermometers with mercury are prohibited.
The USPS policy says that manufactured items are OK if they have less than 100 mg of mercury.
https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52apxc_028.htm
eBay does have a category of “Collectible Thermometers”, and I’m seeing mercury containing thermometers listed.
https://www.ebay.com/b/Collectible-Thermometers/14022/bn_3115701
I’d like to know if anyone has recent experience in this category. Is it OK to sell a thermometer with mercury on eBay? How would I ship it? Local pickup is always an option.
Here is what they look like:
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As we all know, simply having an item up without having it taken down is no guarantee, but I’ve had a vintage mercury advertising thermometer up for about 18 months in that Thermometer Collectibles category without a peep from eBay. I would consider that a good indication that it’s pretty safe to list, because usually if I have anything close to being forbidden eBay catches it and takes it down. As for shipping, AF is right about it needing to stay ground. It used to be you could ship some consumer quantity hazardous materials ground via USPS with an ORM-D marking on the outside but now I just limit shipping to FedEx or UPS Ground, no international sales, for something like this.
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Glass thermometer Mercury – Free Kids
Well I guess the eBay computer doesn’t pick up on the word Mercury.
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“Well I guess the eBay computer doesn’t pick up on the word Mercury.”
Maybe not for that seller, but I prefer not to tempt fate. I should have made clear that I don’t use the word at all in my listing, just the word “fluid” where necessary.
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From my research, a vintage thermometer would have more mercury than the 100 mg that the post office allows.
I researched the FedEx site, and I found on the bottom of page 87 at the link below is “Not accepted unless contained in a device and the package does not exceed 1 lb. (0.454 kg) of Mercury”.
https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/services/HazmatShippingTable.pdf
The weight of one thermometer is less than 5g, and it is contained in a device, so I think I’m good.
What I couldn’t find is the correct method of marking the package. I might call FedEx tomorrow and ask. Does anyone know where I can find that information?
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The FedEx Ground Shipping Guide at
http://www.fedex.com/us/services/pdf/HazmatShippingGuide.pdf says that Mercury is not regulated as a hazardous material under certain conditions:
“Mercury, when packaged and prepared under 49 CFR 173.164, do [sic] not require hazardous material shipping papers, certification forms, marking or labeling of the package when… [t]he mercury is contained in instruments or articles (i.e. thermometers, barometers or fluorescent lights or [contains not more than a pound].”
So no special outside marking is required, and ground shipping under that CFR provision does not require any special protections or packaging other than standard requirements for shipped goods. This all applies to US only, IFAIK.
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Excellent, and thank-you for that help! I will be in the business of vintage thermometers shortly 🙂
When my children were young, the doctor would want to know their temperatures very accurately. The digital thermometers at that time were not that great. In addition, the battery would die eventually, and I wouldn’t have a replacement on hand.
So, I switched back to the mercury thermometers I had from “back in the day” and just made sure that my kids didn’t bite down. No problems with batteries or inaccuracies. Nowadays, the newer digital thermometers are better, but I’m keeping my mercury ones on hand.
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