Selling a catalytic converter in Tennessee

Who may sell a detached converter

Tennessee narrows possession and sale of a used, detached converter to a short list of businesses plus one kind of private seller, and each of them has to have given written notice of the activity to the chief of police and the sheriff of every city and county where it is carried on (§ 62-9-115(a), (g)). The list covers a motor vehicle dismantler and recycler licensed under § 55-17-109, a scrap metal dealer registered under § 62-9-102, a licensed motor vehicle dealer, a licensed mechanic or automotive repair facility, and any other licensed business that might reasonably generate, hold, or sell converters (§ 62-9-115(g)(1) to (5)). A private individual may sell only while holding documentation showing that the converter in that individual's possession is the result of a replacement of a converter from a vehicle registered in that individual's own name (§ 62-9-115(g)(6)).

The buyer has to be a registered scrap metal dealer (§ 62-9-115(b)), and no dealer may buy scrap metal of any kind from anyone under eighteen (§ 62-9-104(c)(4)). The sale itself has to happen in person at the dealer's fixed site, or else the dealer has to keep a fixed site, obtain and verify everything §§ 62-9-103 and 62-9-104 require, and keep a copy of the seller's license or a copy of the seller's documentation together with the vehicle registration (§ 62-9-115(d)).

A converter may not be shipped at all unless it moves between licensed entities (§ 62-9-115(e)), although a licensed dismantler and recycler or a registered dealer may transport converters to a processor, smelter, or refiner and sell them there (§ 62-9-115(i)). None of this reaches a converter that has been tested, certified, and labeled or otherwise approved for reuse under the federal Clean Air Act and is being bought or sold for reuse (§ 62-9-115(c)).

What the buyer must record

Every seller hands over a state or federally issued photo identification card that appears valid on its face, and the dealer records the name, sex, height, date of birth, residence address, and card number, photocopies the card, and keeps the copy with the transaction record (§ 62-9-103(a), (b)(1)). The dealer also records the license plate number, make, and model of the vehicle the seller arrives in, plus the name of the business that owns or leases it when the vehicle is commercial (§ 62-9-103(b)(1)). A seller without a photo identification card has to produce some other state or federally issued identification and be photographed before the sale, and the dealer may not go through with the purchase at all if the seller has no such identification or refuses to show it (§ 62-9-103(b)(2)). The dealer then takes a right thumbprint, or a print from another finger named on the transaction sheet if the right thumb will not do, clear and free of smudges, and keeps it for three years (§ 62-9-104(a)).

Before buying, the dealer makes a reasonably diligent inquiry into whether the seller may lawfully sell, weighing the seller, the type and quantity of metal, and the circumstances, and photocopies any bill of sale or receipt offered as proof of lawful possession (§ 62-9-104(b)(1)). The transaction record itself carries the date, the seller's name, the amount paid, the weight of each kind of metal, and a detailed description written in the uniform terminology the department publishes, entered in the order the sales happen (§ 62-9-104(b)(2)). For a converter the dealer additionally notes any obvious marking that would help identify the unit, including paint, labels, and engravings (§ 62-9-115(f)), and, where the purchase is not made in person at the fixed site, keeps a copy of the seller's license or of the seller's documentation and the vehicle registration (§ 62-9-115(d)(2)(C)).

Records stay on the site where the sale happened for three years (§ 62-9-105(b), (c)(3)), and during business hours a law enforcement officer or the commissioner of commerce and insurance may inspect both the purchased metal and the records without a warrant, with a warrant or judicial subpoena available at any time (§ 62-9-105(c)(1), (c)(2)).

How you are paid

For ordinary scrap, once the dealer is satisfied the seller holds the metal lawfully, payment may be by any method, on site, at the time of the sale (§ 62-9-104(c)(1)). Copper and unattached catalytic converters are carved out of that rule (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)).

Someone selling as an employee or agent of a business is paid only by check or money order, made out to the business and mailed to the business address (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(A)(i)), unless the business has preregistered a list of authorized employees with the dealer for the year, in which case the dealer may pay that employee by any method, on site, at the time of the sale (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(A)(ii)). A seller who is not selling for a business chooses between a check, a money order, and a voucher; a check or money order goes in the mail to the physical address printed on the driver license used as identification, and a seller whose license carries no physical address is paid by voucher (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(B), (B)(i)). A voucher cannot be redeemed sooner than five days after the sale (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(B)(ii)) and expires six months after the transaction date (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(B)(i)). The dealer may pass on a check-issuing fee that the department sets by rule, which can never exceed five dollars per check (§ 62-9-104(c)(3)).

Tennessee imposes no waiting period on the converter itself; the five-day wait attaches to redeeming a voucher, not to the metal (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)(B)(ii)). Two dealers who are both registered under the chapter settle the terms of sale between themselves (§ 62-9-112).

Penalties

Holding a used, detached converter without fitting inside § 62-9-115(g) is an offense in itself: the holder is presumed to be in possession of contraband, which a state or local officer may seize and which is then forfeited the way other contraband is (§ 62-9-115(h)(1)). The offense is a Class A misdemeanor, every converter counts as a separate charge, and anyone who sells a stolen converter also owes the victim the cost of repair and replacement as a court may order (§ 62-9-115(h)(2)). That penalty grew heavier in 2025, when Public Chapter 439 struck the words limiting the punishment to a fine, effective July 1, 2025, so a jail sentence is now possible.

On the dealer's side, buying scrap metal without registering, registering falsely, knowingly buying metal the seller did not own or had obtained unlawfully, and any other act that breaks the chapter are Class A misdemeanors punishable by fine alone, unless the value of the metal in its original undamaged condition plus the cost of repairing or recovering property damaged in taking it comes to more than five hundred dollars, which makes it a Class E felony punished only by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars (§ 62-9-109(a) to (c)). Selling metal in the knowledge that it is stolen is punished as theft and graded on that same value under § 39-14-105 (§ 62-9-109(d)).

A conviction under the chapter, or for theft, burglary, or vandalism involving scrap metal, revokes the dealer's registration by operation of law (§ 62-9-110(a)), and the commissioner may separately deny, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew a registration and add a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars for each violation, with every day a violation continues counted separately (§ 62-9-110(b)).

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a government photo ID. Shops and yards also bring their business license number. We record each unit and photograph it, and you sign the count. Payment is never cash. Tennessee limits converter payments to a check, money order, or voucher, and businesses that preregister their authorized sellers with us can be paid on the spot (§ 62-9-104(c)(2)).