Selling a catalytic converter in Ohio

Who may sell a detached converter

The volume limit is the converter rule. No scrap metal dealer shall purchase or receive more than one catalytic converter per day from the same person, except from a motor vehicle dealer as defined in § 4517.01 (§ 4737.04(F)(5)). Sales of converters between a scrap metal dealer and such a motor vehicle dealer are also exempt from the record and special purchase requirements of §§ 4737.04 and 4737.041 altogether (§ 4737.043(F)).

Registration falls on the buyer. No person shall engage in the business of scrap metal dealing or act as a bulk merchandise container dealer without first registering with the Director of Public Safety (§ 4737.04(B)(1)), which means giving the name and street address of the place of business, the primary owner and manager, an electronic mail address, and confirmation that the dealer can connect electronically with the department, and paying a two hundred dollar initial fee (§ 4737.045(A)(1) to (6)). A registration is valid for one year, renewed for a hundred fifty dollar fee, and the certificate is displayed prominently (§ 4737.045(C), (D)). A scrap metal dealer is the owner or operator of a business that purchases or receives scrap metal for the purpose of sorting, grading, and shipping metals to third parties for direct or indirect melting into new products (§ 4737.04(A)(1)).

Ohio also closes the counter to certain sellers and certain hours. No dealer may purchase or receive metal articles from a person who refuses to show a personal identification card or refuses to allow the dealer to take the required photograph (§ 4737.04(F)(1)), or from any person identified on the searchable electronic list of known thieves and receivers of stolen property that the local law enforcement agency supplies (§ 4737.04(F)(2)). No person may purchase the articles §§ 4737.01 to 4737.03 cover from a minor or apprentice known or reasonably believed to be one, or from any person between nine p.m. and seven a.m. (§ 4737.03), and separately no scrap metal dealer or bulk merchandise container dealer may buy a special purchase article or a bulk merchandise container from anyone under eighteen, a rule that does not reach converters (§ 4737.04(F)(3)). A personal identification card means a current and valid driver license, military identification card, or a state identification card issued under §§ 4507.50 to 4507.52 or a substantially similar card from another state bearing a photograph (§ 4737.01(A)).

What the buyer must record

Every scrap metal dealer keeps a record book or electronic file with an accurate and complete record of all articles purchased or received in the course of daily business, with every entry numbered consecutively and maintained for inspection in numerical order (§ 4737.04(C)). The record carries the name and residence of the person the articles came from, a copy of that person's personal identification card, and a photograph of the person; the date and time of the purchase and the weight as determined by a licensed commercial scale; and, where the seller arrives in a motor vehicle, that vehicle's license plate number and the issuing state (§ 4737.04(C)(1) to (3)).

Converters are recorded by category code rather than by description. For recyclable materials that are not special purchase articles the dealer enters one of the statutory category codes, and catalytic converters are one of them (§ 4737.04(C)(5)(u)), alongside codes such as number one copper, insulated copper wire, aluminum or copper radiators, stainless steel, and motor vehicle nonbody parts (§ 4737.04(C)(5)(a) to (x)). Metal articles that are not recyclable materials instead get a full and accurate description including identifying letters or marks and the name and maker if known (§ 4737.04(C)(4)). The dealer photographs each person who sells an article for which a record is required, at the time of the purchase, and keeps the photograph as part of the record (§ 4737.04(I)).

Retention and reporting run on two clocks. Until the registry the director develops under § 4737.045(E) is operational a dealer keeps each record for a minimum of one year and the photograph for sixty days, and beginning on the date the registry is operational a dealer keeps the record only for sixty days after the purchase (§ 4737.04(C)). Separately, the dealer prepares a daily electronic report of all retail transactions from the preceding day and transfers it by twelve noon eastern standard time for inclusion in the registry (§ 4737.04(E)(1)(b)), which the department's rules now direct to the Scrap Metal and Bulk Merchandise Container Dealer website, with photographs submitted as color JPEG files no larger than one megabyte carrying a date and time stamp and clearly displaying the seller's face (Ohio Admin. Code 4501:5-3-03(A), (C)). Records are open for inspection by any law enforcement agency, railroad police officers, and the director during all business hours, and are not public records (§ 4737.04(E)(1), (E)(3)).

How you are paid

Ohio sets no payment rule for a converter. The check requirement and the payment delay in the chapter attach to special purchase articles and bulk merchandise containers: for those the dealer issues a check and withholds payment for a period of two days after the day of purchase (§ 4737.041(D), (E)). Catalytic converters are not on the special purchase article list, which runs from beer kegs and utility cable through grave markers, guard rails, grocery carts, railroad material, and burnt wire (§ 4737.04(A)(2)(a) to (j)), so neither the check nor the two day delay reaches them.

There is likewise no hold on a converter, and Ohio has gone out of its way to keep it that way. Railroad material has to be held by a scrap metal dealer for thirty days after purchase (§ 4737.04(D)), but nothing in the chapter imposes a holding period on recyclable materials generally. No municipal corporation or other political subdivision may enact or enforce a regulation or ordinance requiring a scrap metal dealer to individually identify and retain any scrap metal purchased or received, a practice the statute itself calls tag and hold (§ 4737.044).

Several transactions sit outside the record rules entirely, which changes what a seller has to produce rather than how the money moves. The exemptions cover donations where the donor receives no consideration, the sale or donation of common recycled matter, sales to a dealer by a section 501(c)(3) organization collecting scrap for its own fundraising, sales by a government unit or another business that generates scrap in the course of its services or property maintenance, sales by a person whose primary business creates bulk quantities of recyclable metal, and converter sales between a dealer and a licensed motor vehicle dealer (§ 4737.043(A) to (F)). A dealer may not treat a transaction as exempt unless the seller provides evidence of satisfying the business criteria in § 4737.043(D)(3) (§ 4737.04(F)(7)).

Penalties

The grading turns on which duty was broken and how often. Failing to comply with or violating § 4737.01, § 4737.012, § 4737.041, division (C), (D), (E), (F), (G), or (I) of § 4737.04, or § 4737.045(D) is a misdemeanor of the first degree, a felony of the fifth degree with one prior such violation, and a felony of the fourth degree with two or more (§ 4737.99(C)). On a second or subsequent violation of those provisions a court may suspend the dealer's registration for ninety days, during which the person may not engage in the business at all (§ 4737.99(C)). Because the one converter per day rule sits in division (F), it falls inside that ladder.

Operating unregistered is treated more severely. Whoever violates § 4737.04(B)(1), the registration requirement, is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree and the court also enjoins the person from engaging in the business (§ 4737.99(D)), and whoever violates § 4737.04(B)(2), which requires special purchase articles and bulk merchandise containers to be handled only in accordance with the statute, is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree for a first offense and of the third degree for any subsequent offense (§ 4737.99(E)). Everything else in §§ 4737.01 to 4737.11 draws a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one thousand dollars plus the costs of prosecution (§ 4737.99(A)).

The vehicle and the registration are both at risk. Any motor vehicle used in the theft or illegal transportation of metal is impounded for at least thirty and not more than sixty days, rising to at least sixty and not more than one hundred eighty days for a second or subsequent offense involving the same vehicle, and to at least ninety and not more than three hundred sixty days where a special purchase article or bulk merchandise container was involved (§ 4737.99(F)). The director may also deny, revoke, suspend, reprimand, or fine up to five hundred dollars per violation against a dealer's certificate of registration (Ohio Admin. Code 4501:5-3-05(B)(1)). A further enforcement section, § 4737.046, adds investigative powers, a ten thousand dollar civil penalty for acting unregistered, and suspension and revocation procedures, effective October 6, 2026.

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a personal identification card, meaning a current and valid license, a military ID, or a state ID card, because Ohio forbids us to buy from anyone who will not show one or will not be photographed (§ 4737.01(A), § 4737.04(F)(1)). Expect one converter per visit per day: Ohio caps us at one converter a day from the same person unless you are a licensed motor vehicle dealer (§ 4737.04(F)(5)). We weigh on a licensed commercial scale, record the converters under the state's own category code, photograph you, and send the whole transaction to the state registry by noon the next day (§ 4737.04(C), (E)(1)(b)). Ohio sets no payment rule for converters, so nothing in state law restricts how we settle with you.