Photo by Flickr user K's GLIMPSES. Published under Creative Commons license.
Selling secondhand items in Greene County? Not so fast, lawmakers say.
Some Greene County legislators want to pass a law requiring secondhand shops, auction houses, and scrap metal yards to hold goods for ten days before reselling them, the Daily Mail reports.
Public Safety Committee Chairman William Lawrence, R-Cairo, introduced the concept of the law to legislators and said putting a hold period or waiting time on items that are either pawned or sold to second hand stores before they can be resold can be useful to authorities.
Still in the draft stages, the law would potentially require dealers to register with the county at no fee, something Lawrence said, is an attempt to make the transition as easy as possible.
The law's backers are basing it on a similar law in Albany County, the Daily Mail's W.T. Eckert writes. The law would also require secondhand sellers to document their purchases and log them with the county sheriff's office.
Albany's idea appears to be catching on across New York State. In 2008, Warren County passed a similar law based on the Albany law.
But Warren County secondhand businesses that are following the law's strict record-keeping requirements complain that the county is falling down on enforcement, the Post-Star reported last September:
Doug Strodel, a former police officer who co-owns D & G Coins of Glens Falls, said he has seen evidence that at least one competitor has been selling items he buys before a five-day holding period has come and gone.
That would violate Warren County’s law that restricts when secondhand shops can sell the things they buy.
After two years in business, Strodel said he has not seen or heard from any law enforcement agency seeking to check the records that the law — passed in 2008 — requires them to keep.
