Amherst, NY Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Adopted November 3, 2014 by Local Law No. 38-2014, Chapter 157 defines a "dealer" as any person or business engaged in buying, selling, bartering, exchanging, or pawning junk, antiques, secondhand articles, precious metals, gems, or secondhand automotive vehicles, and a "secondhand dealer" as one who deals in secondhand personal property including household goods, appliances, precious metals, tools, fixtures, electrical devices, and bric-a-brac (§ 157-1). Section 157-2A requires secondhand dealers in jewelry, diamonds, watches, rings, furs, gold, silver, and plated ware to hold that merchandise 21 days from the time of purchase before reselling it, and imposes the same 21-day hold on dealers in clothing and tools.

Section 157-2B extends the same 21-day hold to dealers who primarily sell new jewelry and kindred merchandise but occasionally acquire secondhand pieces in the course of business. Section 157-2C exempts goods that an authorized licensed dealer acquires from another authorized licensed dealer who already held them for the full 21-day period, preventing a double hold on the same item as it moves between dealers. The chapter does not set out a separate municipal license-application procedure; it operates as a holding-period and record-purpose law layered onto whatever state or other local licensing already applies to the dealer's business.