Palm Beach Gardens, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Chapter 18, Article III, Secondhand Goods Dealers, dates to the 1987 Code (§ 115.15 through § 115.19) and cross-references the state's own secondhand goods dealer statute, F.S. ch. 538, without displacing the city's own reporting duty. Section 18-71 defines a secondhand dealer broadly as any dealer in secondhand automobiles, furniture, jewelry, clothing, and other goods, wares, merchandise, and materials operating within the city, sweeping in pawn-adjacent resale businesses as well as classic secondhand shops. Section 18-72(a) through (c) requires a weekly, sworn report to the chief of police describing every secondhand item purchased, traded for, or acquired, including the name and address of the person the dealer got it from, and a corporation must have the report verified by its manager or officer in charge locally.

Section 18-72(d) layers a second, ongoing record-keeping duty on top of the weekly report: a permanent daily log book, kept on the business premises, must hold the same required information and be produced immediately on a written request from the chief of police or a subordinate officer, even outside normal business hours in an emergency, and must be kept for two years from the date of the last entry. Sections 18-73 and 18-74 add a parallel duty when the dealer buys from a minor under 18: written parental or guardian authorization notarized in the state, plus a report to the chief of police within 24 hours, and a corporate dealer must file a single designated agent authorized to handle those minor transactions.