What's specific to San Diego

San Diego runs a genuinely local regime on top of the state's, and two of its rules will change how you trade: a nine-hour daily trading ban and a requirement that transactions happen on the licensed premises. The reporting substance is state law, in the California guide.

The permit, and the category you are not in

§ 33.1102 makes it unlawful to operate as a secondhand dealer without a police permit. San Diego defines the term by reference: § 33.1101 says secondhand dealer means what Business and Professions Code §§ 21626 and 21626.5 say, and tangible personal property means what § 21627 says. There is no separate city test to satisfy.

The city does create a lighter second category — secondhand non-tangible personal property dealer — for clothing and shoes, books and magazines, household furnishings, and sports equipment. It expressly excludes secondhand dealers, and watches appear nowhere in it. The permit you need is Second Hand Dealer Tangible.

What it costs

From the Office of the City Treasurer, which has administered police permit applications since July 2015:

• $550 per year — Second Hand Dealer Tangible regulatory fee. (A Pawn Shop is also $550; Second Hand Dealer Non-Tangible is $249 per decal.)
• $87 — non-refundable new application fee.
• $24 — investigation fee for each additional owner or officer put through background.
• $83 — non-refundable application fee at renewal, plus $24 per additional owner or officer.

Then the state's $300 Department of Justice fee, every two years.

One permit, not one per address

This is where San Diego is easier than Los Angeles. § 33.0102(a) requires a separate police permit for each police-regulated activity at a specific location — and then excepts secondhand dealers, who need only one permit per dealer, with a copy posted wherever they operate.

The catch sits elsewhere. § 33.1105 ends with: all transactions shall be conducted only on the licensed premises. So the permit travels, but the trading is supposed to stay home. What that means for a dealer who meets sellers at their office, buys at a show, or ships is the question to put to an attorney.

No trading between 9:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m.

§ 33.1107 makes it unlawful for a secondhand dealer to conduct the business between 9:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. Non-tangible dealers are excluded; you are not. Nine hours a day, every day, are closed to you — which is worth knowing before you agree to meet a seller after work, and worth remembering when a buyer in another time zone wants to close late.

Records, and a daily report to the Chief of Police

§ 33.1103 layers the city's requirement onto the state's:

• Keep a record in accordance with state law of every article acquired by purchase, pledge or otherwise.
• The record and the articles are open to inspection by any San Diego police officer during ordinary business hours.
• Daily, deliver to the Chief of Police a full, true and complete report of everything acquired during the entire preceding calendar day, on Department of Justice forms.
• Everything must be legible.

That runs alongside the CAPSS transmission the state requires by the next business day.

The 30-day problem

§ 33.1105 makes it unlawful to sell or otherwise dispose of any article — except back to the pledgor — for 30 days from the date the report of its acquisition was made to the Chief of Police.

State law says something different. § 21636.1 sets seven days from the CAPSS report, cut to five once you record the buyer's details. And §§ 21637 and 21638 bar a city from adopting holding requirements for the acquisition of tangible personal property, in the ordinary course of business ... other than as set forth in the state's own sections.

This guide is not going to tell you which one wins — that is a preemption question, and it deserves a lawyer rather than a website. What it will tell you is that the ordinance is on the books as written, the state provision is on the books as written, and the difference is 23 days of carrying cost on every watch you buy — the carrying cost article puts a number on what that wait is worth. Resolve it before you build a business model on the shorter figure.

Two smaller things

Scales. If you buy anything by weight, § 33.0109 bars the City from issuing your permit unless you have filed a certificate from the County Sealer of Weights and Measures confirming your scales were tested and found accurate. A dealer who occasionally buys a case for its gold content is inside this.

Your name. § 33.0106 makes it unlawful to operate under any name or designation other than the one on the permit. A trading name you use online should match.

Business tax

Separately, § 31.0121 bars engaging in a taxable business until you hold a certificate of payment, and makes failing to obtain one a misdemeanour. The City is explicit that this reaches home-based businesses, self-employed persons and independent contractors. Post it at a fixed place of business (§ 31.0127); for a new business the tax is due on the day you start trading (§ 31.0131).