Selling a catalytic converter in Delaware

Who may sell a detached converter

No individual may purchase or sell a converter from an individual unless that individual, at the time of purchase or sale, provides identification showing that they are a scrap metal processor licensed under the chapter, an automotive recycler licensed under Chapter 75 of Title 21, or an agent or employee of a licensed processor or recycler (§ 2307(c)). Delaware gives no route for a private owner selling a converter off their own vehicle, so both sides of a lawful converter sale are licensed businesses or their staff. A catalytic converter means a used, detached unit used for controlling motor vehicle exhaust emissions that contains a catalyst metal, and excludes one that has been tested, certified, and labeled for reuse under federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations (§ 2301(3)).

Two further limits fix when and where the sale happens. The purchase and sale of a converter has to occur between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. (§ 2307(g)), and the sale has to occur at a fixed business address of an individual authorized to purchase under § 2307(c) (§ 2307(h)). Age rules are stricter for converters than for other goods: no processor may knowingly buy from anyone under eighteen unless that person is recycling aluminum cans, or is accompanied by a parent, grandparent, or guardian and is not selling a converter (§ 2307(a)(1)). Nobody visibly or apparently under the influence of liquor or drugs may be bought from at all (§ 2307(a)(2)), and property with an altered, obliterated, or tampered serial number or identifying marking is off limits (§ 2307(a)(3)).

The license that makes a buyer or seller eligible is itself regulated. Nobody may carry on the business of a pawnbroker, secondhand dealer, or scrap metal processor without first taking out a license, which the State Police grant, which expires annually on December 31, and which designates the address where the business is carried on (§ 2310(a) to (c)). An applicant has to be at least eighteen, submit a current valid Delaware business license from the Division of Revenue, have no pending criminal charges, no felony conviction within five years, and no theft-related or moral turpitude misdemeanor conviction within three years (§ 2311). A licensee notifies the Professional Licensing Section within five days of any misdemeanor or felony arrest, and the Director may suspend or revoke a license, or issue an emergency suspension, for a violation of the chapter (§ 2310(d), (e)).

What the buyer must record

Every scrap metal processor creates a record and submits it electronically in a format the Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security determines for copper, silver, gold, brass, platinum, bronze, automobiles or parts displaying a vehicle identification number, lead-acid batteries, and catalytic converters (§ 2302(b)(1)). The base record holds the date and time of purchase, the type and grade of scrap where applicable, the weight of each type and grade where payment is by weight, the amount or other consideration, the plate number, make, and model of the vehicle used in the delivery, the name and address of the individual the scrap came from, and the signatures of both that individual and the processor (§ 2302(b)(2)(a) to (g)). Identification is either a date of birth with a driver license, or information from a valid state-issued photo identification card giving a physical description including sex, race, distinguishing features, and approximate age, height, and weight (§ 2302(b)(2)(h)). A photograph of the seller is collected for every transaction regardless of value (§ 2302(b)(3)).

Converters add seven further items. The processor or other authorized purchaser also records the seller's business license number, the name or identification of the employee who made the purchase, a description of the converter including any obvious markings such as paint, labels, or engravings that would aid identification, and the vehicle identification number of the vehicle the converter was removed from (§ 2302(b)(4)(a) to (d)). It records a signed statement from the individual receiving the money that they are the rightful owner or are authorized to sell, a photocopy or scanned copy of that individual's driver license or state photo identification card including the card type and any distinctive number, and a digital photograph or video of the individual with facial features clearly visible together with one of the converter as sold, with the date and time digitally recorded on it (§ 2302(b)(4)(e) to (g)).

Filing is next-day and the clock for holding runs from it. The forms are completed immediately after the purchase and submitted electronically by the close of the next business day to the law enforcement agency with primary jurisdiction over the business, and the holding requirements in § 2304(a)(1) do not begin until all required reports are complete and submitted (§ 2302(c)). The processor records the name of the person making the entry and makes it available to police (§ 2302(d)), stores the information for one year and provides it to police immediately on request (§ 2302(e)), and records purchased articles by still or video image, supplying copies within twenty-four hours of a specific law enforcement request and keeping those images on file for at least thirty days (§ 2302(g)). Every licensee also maintains at the business address named on the license all information the chapter requires, together with a photocopy of government-issued photo identification, for at least one year from the date the transaction was recorded, open during regular business hours to inspection by a Delaware law enforcement officer or by the Attorney General or a Deputy Attorney General (§ 2305).

How you are paid

A converter may not be purchased with cash. Payment has to be made by check payable to the licensed individual or licensed entity selling the converter (§ 2307(e)). Because § 2307(c) limits sellers to licensed processors, licensed automotive recyclers, and their agents or employees, the check is always written to a licensed business rather than to a person selling on their own account.

Payment is also delayed. An individual authorized to purchase a converter under § 2307(c) has to withhold payment to the seller for forty-eight hours, not counting holidays or weekends, and during that period keep the converter intact and safe from alteration, damage, or commingling, with an identifying tag or other suitable identification placed on it (§ 2304(c)). That is a true hold on the unit as well as on the money, and it is separate from the general holding periods: eighteen days for pawnbroker and secondhand dealer goods and for a processor's platinum, gold, and silver articles (§ 2304(a)(2)), and seventy-two hours from the time of electronic reporting for copper or brass, which drops away for articles bought from a commercially licensed entity, of a type commonly received from commercial entities, and paid for directly to the commercial entity rather than to the individual delivering them (§ 2304(b)).

Two further rules sit alongside. A licensee may not destroy, disfigure, or obliterate identification marks or otherwise destroy the identity of an article while it remains in their possession (§ 2304(f)), and law enforcement officers may require an item be held for an additional thirty days beyond the § 2304(a) periods where they know or have reason to believe it is missing or stolen (§ 2304(g)). Holding periods fall away where the person the goods came from wants to redeem, repurchase, or recover them and the dealer can produce the original transaction record with verification of identity (§ 2304(e)).

Penalties

The chapter's general penalty is broad. Whoever violates the chapter, except where another penalty is provided, is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction may be fined up to ten thousand dollars (§ 2308). A civil or administrative penalty is sized by the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violations, the violator's ability to pay, any prior history, the degree of culpability, and any economic benefit or saving from the violation (§ 2308(1)). Where an administrative penalty goes unpaid after appeals are exhausted, the Superintendent may bring a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction to collect it with interest, fees, and costs, and the penalty's validity is then not open to review (§ 2308(2)).

Converter-specific conduct carries its own prohibitions. An entity or individual authorized to sell a converter under § 2307(c) may not provide false, fraudulent, altered, or counterfeit information or documentation to the purchaser (§ 2307(f)), and the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and its designees may seize any item found in violation of § 2307 (§ 2307(i)). Where the seized item was taken for the sealed-packaging rule in § 2307(a)(4), the Department holds it for no more than thirty days while the licensee may produce proof of ownership (§ 2307(i)).

Delaware also lets a buyer act on suspicion and leaves room for stricter local rules. Any pawnbroker, secondhand dealer, or processor may seize goods offered for sale or pledge that they have reason to believe were stolen, has to notify the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction immediately, and is immune from civil or criminal penalties for acting in good faith under that section (§ 2306). Nothing in the chapter stops political subdivisions and municipalities from enacting more restrictive laws, which are additional to rather than in place of the chapter (§ 2309).

What this means when you sell to us

Delaware only allows converter sales between licensed processors, licensed automotive recyclers, and their staff, so bring the license and a government photo ID, and we record the business license number with the transaction (§ 2307(c), § 2302(b)(4)(a)). Bring the vehicle identification number for each unit (§ 2302(b)(4)(d)). You sign an ownership statement, and we photograph you and each converter with the date and time recorded (§ 2302(b)(4)(e), (g)). Cash is prohibited; payment is by check to the licensed seller, withheld for forty-eight hours while we keep each unit tagged and intact (§ 2307(e), § 2304(c)).