Fountain Valley, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Section 4.50.030 of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code defines a secondhand dealer as a person, firm or corporation engaged in buying, selling or otherwise dealing in secondhand goods, wares or merchandise in the City of Fountain Valley. Subsection (b) lists exemptions: genuine antiques bought directly from a wholesale dealer or imported by the seller; identifiable secondhand property taken in good faith as payment while selling new goods to consumers; used motor vehicle and watercraft sellers; and religious, charitable or educational groups that file an exemption request with the city manager and devote at least seventy-five percent of gross proceeds to their stated purposes.

Those exemptions do not cover marine hardware, automotive and motorcycle parts and related equipment with a retail value over fifty dollars, or bicycles and parts, surfboards, concealable firearms, cameras and photographic equipment, typewriters, business machines, sewing machines, musical instruments, snow skis, tape recorders, record players and television sets. A dealer in any of those items stays regulated.

Section 4.50.050 makes a felony conviction, including a guilty or nolo contendere plea, prima facie disqualifying for a pawnshop or secondhand dealer permit. The application follows section 4.04.070 and the fee under 4.02.040, set by City Council resolution.

Every secondhand dealer must deliver a report to the police department each Monday and Thursday before ten a.m. showing the hour each article was received, the seller's true name and address, a description of the seller, a statement that the seller is over eighteen, the amount paid and a complete description of the article, including any engraved number, word or initial (4.50.060). Reports are confidential, open only to the police department or by court order. Records are kept three years and open to inspection (4.50.070). Items are held thirty days (4.50.090). The reporting and holding rules also reach any merchant selling secondhand articles on commission for another (4.50.120), and items from outside California carry their own report duty (4.50.111 is not used; see 4.50.110).