New Law Regulates Second Hand Stores in Kent

Stores that buy and sell second-hand merchandise in Kent must now buy a license to do business.

approved a new law this week that regulates "second-hand dealers" or stores that deal mostly in used goods such as or .

Aside from the yearly $200 license fee, the law requires businesses hold goods they buy from someone for 30 days before reselling them. The rules apply only to brick-and-mortar businesses and not people selling only online out of their home or other location.

Kent Law Director Jim Silver said the holding period is meant to give police a chance to try and track down stolen merchandise that may have been sold to a business.

"We have people in Kent that buy gold and jewelry and all that stuff, and stolen items are turning up," he said. "And the dealers have no record of who sold it to them."

The new regulations also require businesses to keep records of all their transactions in second-hand articles, and those records must then be filed weekly with the Kent Police Department.

Council unanimously approved the new regulations Wednesday. The full text of the new ordinance is attached to this article as a .pdf file.

The regulations are fairly commonly adopted for pawn shops and other similar businesses in communities across Ohio, Silver said.

"I think as times get harder this becomes more and more of an issue," he said.