Selling a catalytic converter in Nebraska

Who may sell a detached converter

Nebraska imposes no license or trade test on the seller, and the statute has no separate class of authorized converter sellers. What it does have is a floor and a document. A secondary metals recycler may not purchase or receive regulated metals property from any person who is under the age of majority, and may not purchase or receive it from any person who does not possess a valid form of personal identification or current motor vehicle operator's license at the time of the recorded transaction (§ 69-405(1), (2)).

The materials covered are defined broadly. Regulated metals property means catalytic converters, all nonferrous metal except gold and silver, manhole covers, sewer grates, or metal beer kegs, including those kegs made of stainless steel (§ 69-401(1)). A secondary metals recycler is any person, firm, or corporation in the state that gathers or obtains regulated metals property that has served its original economic purpose, or that has facilities for converting it into prepared grades by methods such as processing, sorting, cutting, classifying, cleaning, baling, wrapping, shredding, or shearing, but not by the exclusive use of hand tools (§ 69-401(2)).

Three kinds of transaction sit outside the whole scheme: purchases from a manufacturing, industrial, or other commercial vendor that generates or sells regulated metals property in the ordinary course of its business; the collection or purchase of beverage or food cans; and recycling or neighborhood cleanup programs contracted or sponsored by the state or a political subdivision (§ 69-407). Nebraska also leaves stricter local rules standing, since nothing in §§ 69-401 to 69-409 abrogates a more restrictive ordinance, resolution, rule, or statute (§ 69-409).

What the buyer must record

Every secondary metals recycler maintains a record, in hard copy or electronically, of all purchase transactions in regulated metals property (§ 69-402(1)). Eleven items go into that record: the recycler's own name and address; the name and signature of the individual entering the information; the date and time of the transaction; the weight and grade of the property purchased; a description of the type made in accordance with the custom of the trade; the amount of consideration given, if any; and the name, signature, and address of the vendor (§ 69-402(2)(a) to (g)).

Identity and imagery carry the rest. The record holds the motor vehicle operator's license number, state identification card number, or federal government-issued identification card number of the person delivering the property, together with a photocopy of that same document (§ 69-402(2)(h), (i)). It also holds a date-and-time-stamped photograph or video recording of the regulated metals property itself (§ 69-402(2)(k)). Converters and copper draw one extra step that nothing else in Nebraska draws: a fingerprint from the person, taken from the right index finger, or from the left index finger if the right one is missing (§ 69-402(2)(j)).

The seller gets a copy and the state gets access. The vendor receives at no charge a plain written or printed receipt of the recorded transaction containing a copy of the entries the section requires (§ 69-402(3)). The recycler keeps the information for not less than one year after the date of purchase (§ 69-402(4)), and during the usual and customary business hours of the recycler any peace officer may inspect both the purchased regulated metals property on hand and the records § 69-402 requires (§ 69-403(1), (2)).

How you are paid

Converters are not a cash item in Nebraska at any amount. Payment for copper and catalytic converters shall be by check (§ 69-404). The general cash rule for other regulated metals property is a twenty-five dollar ceiling, and purchases made from the same person within a four-hour period count as a single transaction, so the ceiling cannot be split across visits (§ 69-404).

Whoever is named on the identification is the one who gets paid. Payment shall be made payable only to the individual named on the identification presented under § 69-402, which ties the check to the photocopy in the record (§ 69-404). Nebraska adds a mailing requirement for copper above one hundred dollars, where the check has to be sent by United States mail, postage prepaid, but it does not extend that mailing rule to converters (§ 69-404).

There is no waiting period in these sections. Nebraska does not tell the recycler to hold a converter, tag it, or keep it intact for a number of days before processing, and no law enforcement hold procedure appears anywhere in §§ 69-401 to 69-409. The only clock that runs is the one-year record retention clock (§ 69-402(4)).

Penalties

The penalty section is a single sentence covering the whole scheme. Any person violating any of the provisions of §§ 69-401 to 69-409 is guilty of a Class II misdemeanor (§ 69-408). That reaches a missing fingerprint, a cash payment for a converter, a purchase from someone without identification, and a record kept for eleven months rather than twelve, all at the same grade.

The exposure is not limited to the buyer. Section 69-408 speaks of any person violating any of the provisions, and the purchase restrictions in §§ 69-404 and 69-405 describe conduct that only the recycler can commit, while the age and identification rules in § 69-405 turn on facts the seller controls (§ 69-405(1), (2), § 69-408). Nebraska also keeps one absolute purchase ban in the same chapter: no recycler may buy or receive a metal beer keg whose serial number or other identifying insignia has been destroyed, removed, altered, covered, or defaced (§ 69-406).

Because §§ 69-401 to 69-409 do not displace stricter local law, a city or county ordinance may add requirements or heavier consequences on top of the Class II misdemeanor (§ 69-409). Nebraska has no separate converter possession or transport offense in this chapter, so the theft of a converter is prosecuted under the general criminal code rather than here.

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a government photo ID or a state operator license, since Nebraska will not let us buy from anyone who cannot produce one, and you have to be at or over the age of majority (§ 69-405). We copy the ID, record the weight, grade, and description, photograph the units with a date and time stamp, and take a right index fingerprint, which Nebraska requires for converters and copper (§ 69-402(2)). Payment is never cash. Converters are paid by check made out to the name on the identification you showed us (§ 69-404). You leave with a free receipt showing every entry we made (§ 69-402(3)).