Selling a catalytic converter in Wyoming

Who may sell a detached converter

No license, permit, or registration attaches to either side of the transaction under this chapter. Every person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of buying or selling second-hand or broken metals, such as copper, brass, lead, zinc, tin, steel, cast iron, rags, rubber, or waste paper, is a junk dealer within the meaning of the act (§ 33-18-101). The list is illustrative rather than closed, so a detached converter sold for its metal content falls inside it as a second-hand metal item.

There is no converter-specific rule of any kind. Wyoming has no volume cap, no requirement that the converter be marked with a vehicle identification number, no requirement that the seller own the vehicle it came off, no requirement that a title or registration be produced, and no separate converter offense. Nothing in the chapter singles out any particular metal or item.

Two categories of seller are closed off, and both turn on the seller's condition or record rather than on credentials. No person, firm, or corporation engaged in buying or selling junk metals, rubber, rags, or paper may purchase any articles from a person appearing to be intoxicated, or from any person known to have been convicted of larceny or theft (§ 33-18-105). Where a person is found to be the owner of stolen property that had been sold, the property is returned to that owner without any payment on the owner's part (§ 33-18-105).

What the buyer must record

The book is the whole of it. Every person engaged in the junk business keeps a book or dedicated computer software program in which all entries are written in a computer or in ink, in the English language, and entered at the time of each and every transaction (§ 33-18-102(a)). Into it go an accurate account and description of all junk metal or rubber goods purchased or sold, and the name and residence of the person selling or buying them (§ 33-18-102(a)(i), (ii)).

Identification is one of two alternatives rather than a requirement. Where the person is selling, the record carries either the license plate number of the person's vehicle, if applicable, or verification of the person's name and residence through presentation of the person's United States federal or state-issued photo identification (§ 33-18-102(a)(iii)(A), (B)). Compliance with that subparagraph is optional altogether for common household and personal items of less than fifty dollars market value (§ 33-18-102(b)), and no entry in the book or computer may be erased, mutilated, or changed (§ 33-18-102(c)).

Wyoming sets no retention period and adds a public posting duty instead. Nothing in the chapter says how long the book has to be kept; what it says is that the book and the entries in it shall at all times be open to the inspection of the county sheriff and deputies, or any member of the police force of any city or town in the county where the dealer does business (§ 33-18-104). Every dealer also keeps posted conspicuously in the office of the place of business the description and amount of junk articles purchased each day, the names and addresses of the parties for whom each purchase was made, and the names and addresses of everyone to whom sales of junk metals are made (§ 33-18-103).

How you are paid

Wyoming says nothing about payment. The junk dealer chapter names no method, no cash ceiling, no payee, no mailing requirement, and no delay, so nothing in state law restricts how a converter sale is settled.

There is no waiting period either. The chapter imposes no holding period on any metal, gives law enforcement no hold-notice procedure, and does not require that any item be kept intact, tagged, or separated from other inventory. The one provision that reaches the metal after the sale is the stolen-property rule: where a person is found to be the owner of stolen property that was sold to the dealer, the property is returned to the owner without payment from the owner (§ 33-18-105).

Because the state floor is this low, local government is where extra requirements would come from. The chapter provides expressly that it shall not be construed to in any way impair the power of cities or incorporated towns in the state to license, tax, and regulate any person or corporation engaged in the buying and selling of second-hand metals (§ 33-18-106). A Wyoming yard may therefore be subject to municipal identification, reporting, or holding rules that the statute itself does not impose.

Penalties

The chapter's penalty is small and it escalates only once. Every junk dealer found guilty of a violation of the act shall, for a first offense, be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county jail not more than sixty days, or either or both, in the court's discretion (§ 33-18-106). For each subsequent offense the fine is not less than one hundred dollars nor more than three hundred dollars, or imprisonment of not less than thirty nor more than ninety days, or either or both (§ 33-18-106).

That penalty reaches the dealer, not the seller. Section 33-18-106 is written against a junk dealer, and the record, posting, and purchase restrictions in §§ 33-18-102, 33-18-103, and 33-18-105 are all duties the dealer owes, so a seller who lies about ownership is reached through the general criminal law rather than through this chapter.

Theft of the converter itself is graded by value under the criminal code. A person is guilty of theft who knowingly takes, obtains, procures, retains, or exercises control over the property of another without authorization, intending to deprive the owner of its use or benefit, and that also covers receiving or disposing of property the person knew or reasonably should have known was stolen (§ 6-3-402(a)). Theft is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than ten years, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, or both, where the value of the property is one thousand dollars or more, and a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, a fine of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars, or both, where the value is less than one thousand dollars (§ 6-3-402(c)(i), (c)(iii)).

What this means when you sell to us

Wyoming asks for very little, and we ask for a government photo ID anyway, because the statute accepts that as the way to verify your name and residence (§ 33-18-102(a)(iii)(B)). We record an accurate description of what we buy, along with your name and residence, in a book that cannot be altered and that the sheriff or local police may inspect at any time (§ 33-18-102(a), (c), § 33-18-104). We cannot buy from anyone who appears intoxicated or who is known to have been convicted of larceny or theft (§ 33-18-105). Wyoming sets no payment rule, no cash limit, and no waiting period for converters, so nothing in state law restricts how or when we settle with you. Municipal rules can add requirements the statute does not (§ 33-18-106).