Stonecrest, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Because Stonecrest's code does not contain a separate general secondhand-dealer article, its Precious Metal Dealers article (chapter 15, article VI) functions as the City's licensing scheme for buying used gold, silver, platinum and gems from the public for resale, remounting or scrap. Sec. 15.6.26 makes an annual police department permit a prerequisite to the business license itself: no dealer may buy precious metals or gems, and no employee may handle a purchase, until each has a current permit, and no employee permit issues unless the employer already holds a valid dealer's permit.

The permit application must include the dealer's name, address, phone number and the zoning classification of the premises, along with the names of everyone with an ownership interest, and applicants with a disqualifying moral-turpitude or felony record are denied outright. Every purchase has to be logged, with the seller's identification and a description of the item, in a permanent, chronologically numbered book that police can inspect on the premises at any reasonable time, and that book must be kept for at least two years. Dealers may only do business between 10:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., and every item purchased must be held for at least seven calendar days before it is sold, transferred, melted or crushed, giving owners and police a window to trace stolen property before it disappears.