Richmond, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

1, codified as Sec. 26-997, defines a secondhand dealer as anyone buying, selling, bartering or exchanging used clothing, wearing apparel, electronic equipment, cameras, power tools, or computers for resale. Every secondhand dealer must be licensed as a merchant and must separately obtain a permit from the Chief of Police under Sec. 26-875, with a distinct permit required for each place of business. Dealers who buy exclusively from legitimate jobbers or wholesalers by invoice pay the standard retail merchant's license tax under Sec. 00 license tax.

Dealers selling only donated or directly purchased goods from a registered 501(c)(3) organization are exempt from the recordkeeping subsections. Every licensed dealer must keep a permanent, ink-written English ledger recording each seller's name, the purchase date, the seller's address or place of business, and a full description of the merchandise, and must furnish the Chief of Police a daily account of each identifiable item, meaning anything with a serial number, special marking, brand, model number, or one-of-a-kind character, including the seller's name, address, date of birth, signature, and a current color photograph.

Purchased articles must stay in the dealer's possession, open to police inspection, for at least 15 days before resale. Sec. 26-997(e) flatly bars buying goods, wares or merchandise from a minor under any circumstances.