Wilmington, DE Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

License required. It shall be unlawful to engage in the business of secondhand dealer of precious metals without first obtaining a license therefor, and paying the license fee provided in section 5-101. A separate license shall be required for each location, place or premises used for the conduct of such business.

(c) Canvassing and solicitation prohibited. No secondhand dealer of precious metals shall solicit business upon any street or public highway of the city, nor shall any person conduct a house-to-house canvass for the purchase or sale of secondhand precious metals.

(d) Record of purchases, sales and exchanges. Every secondhand dealer of precious metals shall keep a looseleaf record, its pages numbered in sequence, which shall contain the following information and be available to any law enforcement agent upon request. Each transaction shall be recorded at the time it is made, in English, with a separate entry for each item in each transaction, except that items in a matching set shall be recorded as a set if acquired in a single transaction. The reports shall include:

(1) The place, date and time of each transaction.

(2) The name, driver's license number or serial number from any other verifiable identification card, including passports, military identification card, age of majority card; physical description including sex, race, height, weight and distinguishing features; and the