Tosa Adopts Area's Toughest Resale Shop Law

With only one dissenting vote, the Wauwatosa Common Council approved what is for now the metro area's most stringent law governing buyers and sellers of second-hand goods.

The Wauwatosa Police Department asked for the new ordinance, which requires dealers in used items to hold merchandise they buy for 21 days before putting it up for sale. It also virtually requires daily electronic reporting of purchased property by imposing penalty fees for those who don't.

The ordinance kicks in for any single item or any group of items sold together worth $50 or more.

The types of property covered by the ordinance forms a long list including jewelry, tools, musical instruments, sporting goods, video games and systems and more. Exempt from the list are books and clothing with the exception of fur pieces.

The 21-day wait is the longest adopted by any municipality in the area and triples the holding period required by state law.

Ald. Michael Walsh voted against the ordinance, citing that wait as too long for merchants who will have to store the goods they buy and keep track of the hold dates on every item.

"I had two real issues with the proposal," Walsh said. "One was the reporting period; I thought that was exessive. It was based on anecdotal evidence – no real data – and it will put real a burden on retailers.

"The second thing is we went into some specificity, about crystal and china and this and that kind of electronic equipment but not leather jackets and furniture.

"I think the intent was good but when you get into that level of micromanagement it has unintended consequences."

Ald. Bobby Pantuso said that he agreed with Walsh that the wait was too long but voted for the ordinance anyway because he felt the time had come for a better reporting system on merchandise that moves between sellers and resellers.

Up to now, dealers have been required to take identification from sellers and log the merchandise on paper forms, which they then dropped off at the police station. Filing and accessing the scribbled information on the paper reports had become a nightmare for police clerks and officers trying to track stolen property.

The new reporting system is a web-based software program that allows dealers to file their reports right from their business – and requires them to do so daily.

"I feel the benefits of the software outweigh the downside of the waiting period," Pantuso said. "Another reason I have changed my original position (against the ordinance): If this doesn't work, we can always revoke it like Greenfield did."

Greenfield had adopted a similar ordinance early last year only to repeal it six months later and head back to the drawing board. Business owners hated the law, which not only required more stringent logging and reporting standards but imposed a fee on every filing.

One Greenfield book dealer – books were included there – said the law cost him $48,000 during its brief life.

Wauwatosa, learning from Greenfield's lesson, did not impose a fee unless electronic filing deadlines are missed. A dealer who cannot file electronically for any reason must get the information to the police station within 24 hours or face a penalty.

Police Chief Barry Weber had originally asked for even tougher standards; the first draft called for a 30-day wait and a $20 reporting benchmark for the value of an item or colleciton of items purchased by a dealer.

Weber said 30 days were needed to allow police the time to gather information from other police departments on property that had been stolen in thefts, robberies and burglaries, some of which are not reported promptly by victims.

Most aldermen in earlier committe debates of the measure thought that was just too much to ask of business people trying to move inventory; they amended the draft to the 21-day, $50 standards adopted Tuesday.