What to Do with Infant Car Seat?

You could donate it to The Family Place or another charity. I did a video on car seat safety for NHTSA and when we were finished we donated the seats to charity. I believe I called the local NHTSA office here in Dallas and they had someone come and pick up the seats from me.

Hope this helps!
N.

Hi C.,
Try posting on craigslist. (It's FREE) : )
http://craigslist.org (under the baby & kids category)

I see alot of used car seats for sale on there.
Around $20 most of the time.

Good luck.

C.-
I sold my daughter's on craigslist w/great ease. It sold the same day for full price. Like someone else said it is free to list.

N.

I am a certified carseat technician and sad to say, it is not recommended to use used carseats. In texas, it has to be under 5 years of age (due to heat~the plastic loses its integrity) and if you do not know the entire history, and do not have the recall information (the registration for the product will keep you the consumer informed of any newly discovered defects or problems) then even when someone goes for an inspection, they will not approve of the seat. So I am not sure if the shelters will take them or not. I would only use a used car seat from a trusted friend or family that could be honest enough to tell me about any fender benders or alterations made to the seat. You could be that dear friend or family...so keep it in the closet (not the attic) until such a situation arises, but remember to ditch it once it gets 5 years old. And when you do ~ cut the straps out of it so no one salvages it. Susan Jackson at the Plano Police Department is a Child Safety advocate and has a wealth of information on car seats and she is trying very hard to keep carseats out of second hand stores and garage sales...

I know....it's such a hard thing to just "throw away" a basically new car seat, isn't it?? When our son (who IS my last child! :) ) outgrew his infant seat, we put it in a garage sale at a friend's house. As long as you are honest with people about the seat NOT having been in a wreck or otherwise damaged, and the "expiration date" (stamped on the underside of the seat) isn't close or past, then you should not have a problem with finding someone who can use it, but not necessarily afford a *new* seat.

The other thing you might be able to do is to call a local women's shelter, and see if they might be able to use it, or give it to one of their clients. Also, do you have any friends who are expecting, or might need a 2nd car seat for Grandma or the 2nd car?? You might also want to try calling the Salvation Army or CCA (in Lewisville). I know they help families replace items that have been lost in a fire or other disaster, and they might be able to help you find a new home for your car seat.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that hates throwing "good" things away!!

I don't know if you have ever heard of it but the JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS SALE will be next spring and I am pretty sure you can sell it there. I think you have to sign a wiaver stating that it has never been in a wreck. Here is the link for it:
http://swfortworth.jbfsale.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home....
Copy and Paste it.

If it's never been in an accident and it's not past the expiration date (I've read that it's 7 years from the date of manufacture), you can try to sell it on Craig's list or ebay of course. You will definitely get takers if you list for a reasonable price. You can try a "consignment" shop like Kid to Kid or Once Upon a Child where they will pay you up front or you can donate to many charitable organizations like Goodwill, Salvation Army or GRACE in Grapevine. There's also a group called Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) that you can join locally (for free) where you can list things you just want to give away for free and you will receive many emails from people who would love to take your still usable items.

Car seats can be a sticky subject so a recipient would have to trust that it's not been in an accident, but sometimes there are people out there who don't have any other choice. I'd be more leary of someone selling a used carseat than someone giving one away. I would think someone gifting a seat would be more likely to be honest about it's history since they're getting nothing in return. Someone selling it might be more willing to overlook that little fender bender just to make a buck.

We've thrown perfectly nice looking car seats away in the past because they were either too old or had been in an accident (the baby wasn't even in the car when we had the accident but we still threw the car seat away). It's hard to do, but it must be done when it's not fit to use any longer. But if it's still usable, I wouldn't have any problem selling it or donating it to someone who really needs it.