Gulfport, MS Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Section 5-136 defines a "dealer in secondhand personal property" as anyone engaged, wholly or in part, in buying secondhand or used furniture, household and business equipment or accessories, garden tools, plumbing equipment and building materials for resale and reuse. Section 5-137 requires every such dealer to keep a book, in plain legible English, recording the true name and address of everyone the dealer bought property from and the character and quantity of the goods. Beyond the book, the dealer must fill out a police-department-supplied statement and report in duplicate at the time of each purchase and deliver one copy to the police department within 24 hours, listing the dealer's name, the seller's name and residence, a description and price of the property, and where the seller obtained it; the seller must countersign the report alongside the dealer.

Records must stay on file at the place of business for at least one year and remain open to police inspection at any time. Section 5-138 separately bars any dealer from buying, bartering or otherwise taking property from anyone under 18 without first obtaining written consent from the minor's parent, or the person standing in loco parentis; if there is no such person, the matter must go to the chief of police for written consent instead. These recordkeeping and reporting rules trace to Code 1963, §§ 22-1 through 22-3, with the reporting provision itself last amended by Ord. No. 1805 in 1988, and they run parallel to the state pawnbroker recordkeeping statutes at Miss. § 75-67-11 et seq.