2025 California Code
Business and Professions Code - BPC
DIVISION 8 - SPECIAL BUSINESS REGULATIONS
CHAPTER 9 - Secondhand Goods
ARTICLE 4 - Tangible Personal Property
Section 21627.
21627. (a) As used in this article, “tangible personal property” means all secondhand tangible personal property that bears a serial number or personalized initials or inscription or that, at the time it is acquired by the secondhand dealer, bears evidence of having had a serial number or personalized initials or inscription.
(b) “Tangible personal property” also means the following:
(1) All tangible personal property, new or used, including motor vehicles, received in pledge as security for a loan by a pawnbroker.
(2) All tangible personal property that bears a serial number or personalized initials or inscription and that is purchased by a secondhand dealer or a pawnbroker or that, at the time of the purchase, bears evidence of having had a serial number or personalized initials or inscription.
(3) All tangible personal property that the Attorney General statistically determines through the most recent Department of Justice crime data, updated pursuant to Section 13010 of the Penal Code, to constitute a significant class of stolen goods. A list of that personal property shall be supplied by the Attorney General to all local law enforcement agencies and posted on the Attorney General’s Internet Web site. That list shall be updated annually by the Attorney General, beginning January 1, 2016, to ensure that it addresses current problems with stolen goods.
(c) As used in this article, “tangible personal property” does not include any new goods or merchandise purchased from a bona fide manufacturer or distributor or wholesaler of the new goods or merchandise by a secondhand dealer. For the purposes of this article, however, a secondhand dealer shall retain for one year from the date of purchase, and shall make available for inspection by any law enforcement officer, any receipt, invoice, bill of sale, or other evidence of purchase of the new goods or merchandise.
(d) As used in this article, “tangible personal property” does not include coins, monetized bullion, or commercial grade ingots of gold, silver, or other precious metals. “Commercial grade ingots” means 0.99 fine or finer ingots of gold, silver, palladium, or platinum, or 0.925 fine sterling silver art bars and medallions, provided that the ingots, art bars, and medallions are marked by the refiner or fabricator as to their assay fineness.
(e) For purposes of this article, a “significant class of stolen goods” means those items determined through the Department of Justice’s most recent OpenJustice Web portal update to constitute more than 10 percent of property reported stolen in the calendar year preceding the annual posting of the list of significant classes of stolen goods.
(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 418, Sec. 3. (AB 2524) Effective January 1, 2017.)
