Selling a catalytic converter in New York

Who may sell a detached converter

New York licenses the buyer locally and says nothing about licensing the seller. It is unlawful to engage in business as a scrap processor without complying with article 6-C and obtaining a license from the mayor of the city or village or the supervisor of the town where the place of business sits, at seventy-five dollars for a principal place of business in the state and fifty dollars otherwise, expiring each June thirtieth (§ 69-f). A scrap processor is any person, association, partnership, or corporation operating and maintaining a scrap metal processing facility, meaning an establishment engaged primarily in the purchase, processing, and shipment of ferrous or nonferrous scrap whose end product is raw material for remelting by steel mills, foundries, smelters, and refiners (§§ 69-e(1), 69-e(2)).

A separate article covers everyone else in the trade. A junk dealer is any individual, firm, corporation, limited liability company, or partnership engaged in the business of purchasing and reselling valuable metal, whether at a permanently established place of business or in connection with an itinerant business, including junk shops, junk yards, junk stores, auto wreckers, salvage yards, and collectors of or dealers in junk and junk cars or trucks, but not anyone licensed as a scrap processor under article 6-C (§ 60(2)). A license is denied to anyone convicted of larceny, of knowingly receiving stolen property, or of a violation of the article (§ 61).

The converter-specific duties attach one step upstream. Every person required to be registered under § 415-a, meaning a vehicle dismantler, a salvage pool, a mobile car crusher, or an itinerant vehicle collector, maintains a record of all motor vehicles, trailers, and major component parts coming into possession, together with the disposition and receipt dates, and maintains proof of ownership for any such part while it is in possession, and for the purposes of that article a catalytic converter is a major component part (§ 415-a(5)(a)). The sixty-day converter count is required of vehicle dismantlers alone: the commissioner requires every vehicle dismantler to produce, every sixty days, all records regarding the number of converters taken in during that period (§ 415-a(5)(a)). A catalytic converter there means a device installed in the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine that uses catalytic action to oxidize hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions to carbon dioxide and water (§ 415-a(5)(c)).

What the buyer must record

A scrap processor's record is triggered by item type or by price. The processor records each purchase of a pig or pigs of metal, bronze or brass castings or parts of them, sprues or gates or parts of them, utility wire or brass car journals, or metal beer kegs, and each purchase of iron, steel, or nonferrous scrap for a price of fifty dollars or more (§ 69-g(1)). A detached converter is nonferrous scrap rather than a listed item, so the fifty dollar threshold is what brings it into the book.

Seven things go into that record and it is kept for three years: the date of purchase; the seller's name; the seller's residence address by street, number, city, village, or town; the driver license number or information from a government issued photographic identification card, if any, or else such description as will reasonably locate the seller; and the type and quantity of the purchase, with the record signed by the seller or the seller's agent (§ 69-g(1)). It is unlawful for a seller to refuse to furnish that information or to furnish incorrect or incomplete information (§ 69-g(1)). The processor also makes and retains a copy of the government issued photographic identification card used to verify the identity of the person the metal was bought from, kept in a separate book, register, or electronic archive for two years from the date of purchase (§ 69-g(1)). Those records are available for inspection by the police department of the state or of the municipality where the establishment is located (§ 69-g(2)).

Junk dealers work from a different and narrower list. On purchasing a pig or pigs of metal, bronze or brass castings or parts, sprues or gates or parts, copper wire, brass car journals, or metal beer kegs, the junk dealer has the seller subscribe a statement covering when, where, and from whom the seller obtained the property, identity as verified by a government issued identification card, age, residence, license number or identification card information, and the seller's occupation, employer, and place of employment or business, and files that statement with the chief of police or the county sheriff, along with a copy of the photographic identification, keeping its own copy for two years (§ 62). Because a converter is not on that list, none of § 62 is triggered by a converter sale to a junk dealer.

How you are paid

New York sets no payment rule for scrap. Articles 6 and 6-C name no method of payment, no cash ceiling, no payee restriction, and no mailing requirement, and § 415-a does not reach payment either. The obligations New York imposes are licensing, records, retention, filing, and inspection (§§ 62, 69-f, 69-g).

There is also no waiting period on a converter. The one standing hold in these articles is the junk dealer's separate pile rule: on purchasing any of the property described in § 62, the junk dealer places and keeps each separate purchase in a separate and distinct pile, bundle, or package at the usual place of business, without removing, melting, cutting, or destroying any article, for five days immediately succeeding the purchase, with a tag bearing the seller's name and residence and the date, hour, and place of purchase and the weight (§ 63). That rule is tied to the § 62 list, which does not include converters.

What does bind the converter itself is proof of ownership, and only in a dismantler's hands. A registered vehicle dismantler has to maintain proof of ownership for any major component part while it is in the dismantler's possession, and a converter is such a part (§ 415-a(5)(a)). The commissioner may also require by regulation that vehicle dismantlers and salvage pools mark, stamp, or tag major component parts so a part can be identified as having come from a particular vehicle and a particular dismantler or salvage pool (§ 415-a(5)(b)).

Penalties

Article 6-C splits liability between the two sides of the counter. Each violation of the article by a scrap processor is a violation subject to a fine of not more than two hundred dollars unless it is willful, in which case it is a misdemeanor, and the processor is not liable for a violation committed by a seller, the seller's agent, or a purported seller or agent (§ 69-h(1)). Each violation of the article by a seller or the seller's agent is a misdemeanor (§ 69-h(2)).

Article 6 is harsher on the license. Each violation by a junk dealer or its agent or servant, and each false statement made in or on any statement or tag the article requires, is a misdemeanor, and the person convicted forfeits the license to do business in addition to any other penalty imposed, although nothing in the article applies to cities of the first class (§ 64).

The converter-specific penalties are in the vehicle code. Failing to produce the records § 415-a(5)(a) requires, or to permit the inspection it authorizes, is a class A misdemeanor for any person required to be registered (§ 415-a(5)(a)), and where a vehicle dismantler has gained money or property by failing to produce records of the number of converters taken in, the court may order payment of an amount, fixed by the court, not to exceed double the defendant's gain from the offense (§ 415-a(5)(a)). A violation of the sign and marking requirements is also a class A misdemeanor (§ 415-a(5)(b)).

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a government photo ID. New York has us copy it, keep that copy in its own register for two years, and record your name, address, and the type and quantity you sold, and you sign the entry (§ 69-g(1)). Furnishing incorrect or incomplete information is itself unlawful for a seller, so the details on the ID need to match (§ 69-g(1), § 69-h(2)). Registered vehicle dismantlers should also bring their registration number, since their own converter counts are produced to the state every sixty days (§ 415-a(5)(a)). New York sets no payment rule for scrap, so nothing in state law restricts how we settle with you.