Middleton, WI Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

05(1)(ee) applies the same electronic reporting regime to secondhand article dealers, secondhand jewelry dealers and precious metals dealers as it does to pawnbrokers, but sets shorter local retention periods reflecting the different nature of secondhand sales. Subsection (c) requires every covered dealer subject to electronic reporting to take a color digital photograph of any item purchased, received or exchanged that lacks a unique serial or identification number, specifically including jewelry, with one group photo sufficing for a batch of items acquired in a single transaction; the photograph must be kept correlated with the rest of the transaction record and available for law enforcement inspection for at least one year.

Beyond the state holding periods in Wis. 71(8)(d), Middleton's local resale holding periods for these dealer categories are: fifteen days for articles purchased by a secondhand jewelry dealer, fifteen days for articles purchased by a precious metals dealer, ten days for articles purchased by a secondhand article dealer, and fifteen days specifically for video games electronically reported and purchased by a secondhand article dealer. Each dealer must also have customers sign a declaration of ownership form, retained for at least a year, stating the customer is the article's rightful owner.