Police Report on Trade-Ins & Consignments

One of the legal procedures required of a dealer in second-hand merchandise is to report to the police all buys, trades and consignments of merchandise. The police enter the information being reported into some data bank and attempt to match up any stolen goods reports to the items we report.

We are required to write up not only straight out buys, but also trade ins and consignments. Any time we receive or purchase merchandise from a private party (not a dealer) we have to fill out a buy slip, complete with thumbprint.

The only exception is if we can prove they bought the item from us originally. Then we can treat it like a “refund” instead of a buy or trade. Refunds do not have to be reported to the police dept.

Inventory should fill out the correct paperwork for the salespeople when they are taking in a trade on a sale. Inventory also fills out the paperwork when they are taking in a consignment. The Estate buyer does their own paperwork for their own buys. Sales are responsible to see that they deliver their buy, trade and consignment slips to the estate buyer by the end of each business day, so he/she can mail them the same day as is required by law.

Div 4 is to check over all slips before they are mailed, to ensure they are correct and complete.