Dubuque, IA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Section 4-6A-1 defines a "secondhand dealer" as anyone who purchases or receives used goods or materials for resale, listing examples including bicycles, coins, computers, firearms, jewelry, precious metals in bullion or ingot form, tools, sporting goods and motor vehicles; nonprofit corporations not primarily in the secondhand business are exempt. Section 4-6A-9 carves out several categories from the licensing article altogether: private garage-type sales held at a dwelling or by a charitable or political group where the seller owns the items, runs no single sale longer than 72 consecutive hours, and holds no more than three sales in twelve months; licensed-auctioneer sales; bulk sales from an established merchant, manufacturer or wholesaler or an open sale of bankrupt stock; farmers' market goods; CDs, DVDs, videotapes and gaming systems without an original serial number; items traded under a federal firearms license; returns of secondhand items to the original seller for credit or refund; beverage containers; and scrap paper.

Licensed dealers renew annually with all licenses expiring February 1 under § 4-6A-3, and § 4-6A-11 requires an electronic upload to the city's approved reporting system at the end of each business day of every transaction, including the seller's name, address and physical description, identification details, the date, time and place, a description of each item by make, model or serial number, and whether the transaction was a purchase, security, consignment or donation. The same prohibited-acts section that binds pawnbrokers, § 4-6A-12, bars secondhand dealers from buying from anyone under 18 without a parent's written consent, from accepting goods with an altered serial number, and from receiving goods without one photo ID or two other forms of identification, and bans displaying merchandise on any public right of way, street, sidewalk, alley or parking area.