What's specific to Las Vegas

Summary

Las Vegas licenses secondhand dealers under LVMC Chapter 6.74, and treats it as a privileged business — which means fingerprints, a background investigation, and a surety bond, not just a fee.

But the two duties a dealer feels every day — the daily police report and the 30-day hold — are not city rules. Las Vegas repealed its own versions in 2012. Both now run through state law, which is covered in the Nevada guide.

So the split is: the city licenses you, the state governs how you operate.

The licence, and the class question

LVMC 6.74.030 makes it unlawful to engage in the business of a secondhand dealer without a valid, unexpired licence — and unlawful to advertise as one without holding it. Your licence number must appear in all advertising material.

The definition is broader than the state's in one specific way. LVMC 6.74.020 covers anyone in the business of "buying, selling (including by consignment), or trading" secondhand personal property. NRS 647.018 speaks only of buying and selling. If consignment is part of your model, the city definition reaches you on its face even for stock you never own.

The same carve-out as the state applies — antiques, used books, coins and collectibles — and it carries the same unresolved question for watches, discussed in the Nevada guide.

None of the exemptions help a watch dealer. LVMC 6.74.040 exempts used-vehicle dealers licensed under NRS 482.322, one-for-one trade-ins of portable electronics and major appliances, and licensed pawnbrokers taking pawn or selling unredeemed property. That is the whole list.

Which class?

Licences come in classes, and the ordinance text draws the line by material:

• Class I — vehicle dismantling, used vehicle parts, scrap metal. Not you.
• Class II — "furniture, fixtures, appliances, tableware, office supplies, pictures, paintings, jewelry, cutlery, guns or other secondhand articles except those which fall within Class I."
• Class III — dealers who deal exclusively in precious metals, precious or semiprecious gem stones, or articles made wholly or in part of precious metals, "including but not limited to jewelry."

A steel-and-gold book reads as Class II, because Class III requires dealing exclusively in precious-metal articles and a mixed inventory cannot qualify. A dealer trading only gold or platinum watches has a genuine Class III argument.

Which class the Department actually issues is its determination, not a reading you can make yourself. Ask before you file. (Class IV was repealed in 2012.)

The bond nobody budgets for

LVMC 6.74.090 requires a surety bond, filed at application and maintained for the life of the licence, in an amount the Director determines, with a surety the City Attorney approves.

The bond must be conditioned to pay the City, or anyone injured by a violation of the Code by you, your agents or your employees — and to hold you to any conditions or restrictions placed on your licence.

The ordinance states no figure. That makes it the one opening cost you cannot estimate from the code, so ask the Department for the current amount early rather than discovering it mid-application.

Fingerprints and a background investigation

Secondhand dealing is a privileged business under LVMC 6.74.010, which pulls in Chapter 6.06.

LVMC 6.06.080(C) lists the categories subject to a criminal-records investigation. "Secondhand dealer" is item (13) — alongside pawnbroker, gaming and cannabis establishments.

For those categories, subsection (D) requires fingerprinting for an FBI check: a complete set of prints goes to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History, which is authorised to forward them to the FBI and exchange fingerprint data, for a state and federal criminal records investigation to determine suitability for licensing.

Subsections (A) and (B) add the rest of it. The application is signed and verified under oath. You are photographed. And you must authorise the City in writing to obtain information from past and present employers, criminal justice agencies, financial institutions, and federal, state and local governments, consent to its release, and sign a release of claims and a hold-harmless agreement.

Budget time for this, not just money.

The fee is twice a year, and scales with your sales

LVMC 6.74.100 sets the fee by reference: payable to the Department in advance, semiannually, based on gross sales, per the schedule at LVMC 6.04.005.

• $0 – $30,000 of semiannual gross — $55.00
• $30,001 – $180,000 — $100.00
• $180,001 – $300,000 — $200.00
• $300,001 – $540,000 — $300.00
• $540,001 – $720,000 — $400.00
• $720,001 – $900,000 — $500.00
• $900,001 – $1,080,000 — $600.00
• $1,080,001 – $1,250,000 — $700.00
• $1,250,001 and over — gross income × 0.00056

Two things to note. It is semiannual, not annual — a dealer under $30,000 of half-yearly gross pays $55 twice a year. And because it is banded on gross sales, a good six months moves you up a band: the step from the second band to the third is another $100.

What the city gave back to the state in 2012

This is the part most likely to mislead someone reading an old summary.

LVMC 6.74.120 — "transaction records: daily police report" — is Reserved. Ord. No. 6227, adopted 5 December 2012, repealed it.

LVMC 6.74.130 — "keeping and inspection of goods" — is Reserved. The same ordinance repealed it.

In their place, LVMC 6.74.110 now says only that every secondhand dealer shall comply with all applicable requirements of NRS Chapter 647 in addition to the chapter.

So in Las Vegas today:

• The daily report is the state transcript under NRS 647.120 — everything from the previous day, before noon, to the chief of police, with a certificate signed by the seller confirming their right to sell.
• The hold is the state period under NRS 647.130 — and because Clark County's 2020 census population is 2,265,461, above the 700,000 threshold, that is 30 days, not 15.

Both are set out in the Nevada guide, including the record format that requires a watch description to carry the maker's name and the number of the works or the case.

What this guide does not cover

LVMC 6.74.050 (prohibited location) and the zoning treatment of an appointment-only or no-storefront dealer were not retrieved for this edition. If you plan to run without a storefront, confirm both with the Department before you commit to premises.

Unincorporated Clark County is a different jurisdiction. Much of what people call "Las Vegas" — including the Strip — sits outside the city limits. There the daily transcript goes to the county sheriff rather than a city chief of police, and county licensing applies instead of Chapter 6.74. That research is not yet done.