Pawnbrokers and second-hand dealer licences

A second-hand dealer licence allows you to buy, sell or exchange second-hand goods, whether the goods are bought, sold or exchanged for yourself or on behalf of another person.

As a licensed second-hand dealer, you must do all of the following:

• conduct your business fairly and ensure adequate management, supervision and control of business operations
• keep employment records for employees who enter into contracts on behalf of your business and provide their records to police on request - the records must include your employee's full name, residential address and date of birth, a photograph you can certify is of your employee, and a record of your employee's application for employment
• only enter into contracts with people over 18 years old, unaffected by alcohol or drugs, after checking their full name, address and identity
• in relation to contracts about compact discs, record the title of the disc and the name of the artist as soon as the information becomes available to your business
• for each transaction, record a contract number, name and address of the vendor, date and time of the contract, a description of the goods, and details of the good's storage and disposal
• for each contract, record the details in electronic form or in a bound book and use a distinguishing number for each contract.

Exempted goods

You do not need a licence to deal with the following exempted goods:

• boats - but not including outboard motors or other marine equipment
• books, magazines and periodicals
• ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals other than gold or silver
• goods collected under a recycling scheme for the purposes of a council
• goods other than jewellery purchased for the purpose of manufacturing another article from the goods
• clothing, including footwear
• furniture, including lamps and light fittings other than electrical or electronic appliances or movable heaters, where the second-hand dealer's retail sale price is greater than $30
• household soft furnishings, including rugs, curtains and manchester
• household decorative goods, including statues, figurines, paintings, prints and drawings
• kitchenware, including pots, pans, crockery and cutlery - but not domestic, electrical or electronic appliances where the second-hand dealer’s retail sale price is greater than $30
• motor vehicles
• mining machinery and parts
• farming machinery and parts - but not accessories such as audio equipment, electronic monitoring equipment or lamps
• rags
• bones
• glassware, including bottles
• cans
• waste plastic materials
• waste paper materials
• salvaged building materials including doors, window frames, tiles, bricks and timber
• white goods in the nature of large domestic electrical equipment, including refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, clothes dryers, ovens and ironing presses - but not portable or camping refrigerators or microwave or microwave/ convection ovens
• camping equipment and fishing gear where the second-hand dealer’s retail sale price is or will be less than $30
• collectibles such as stamps, trading cards, dolls, toys and military memorabilia
• records and cassette tapes.

Contact Occupational Licensing for more information.