Customers of secondhand dealers and pawnbrokers

If you are a customer selling or pledging goods to a licensed secondhand dealer or pawnbroker, be aware that they have to record your details and verify your identity before they can complete a transaction. So please do not be offended, they are only complying with the law.

The information that you supply to a licence holder is kept in their 'dealers record' or 'pawnbrokers record' for three years. The information kept by an Internet auction provider in their 'Internet auction provider record' is held for 12 months from the close of the auction to which it relates. Police may, at any time, have access to these records.

Details you must provide

As a customer selling 'articles' to a secondhand dealer, or scrap metal to a scrap metal dealer, you will need to supply your:

  • full name
  • contact address
  • contact phone number
  • date of birth.

You will have to sign the dealers record of the transaction.

Items defined as articles.

Verifying your identify

You will need to confirm your identity by providing acceptable photographic ID.
There are only a limited number of acceptable forms of photographic ID. These are:

  • a current passport
  • a current New Zealand driver licence or a current overseas driver licence that contains a photograph
  • any current document containing a photograph that is issued for purposes of identification by the New Zealand Government
  • any document referred to in the three points above that has expired, but only if it expired less than two years before the date on which it is being used as identification
  • an 18+ card issued by the Hospitality Association of New Zealand
  • a current document issued by a New Zealand secondary or composite school to a student that is issued for the purpose of identifying the student and contains a photograph of the student.

These means of identification and verification do not work if you are selling goods to a secondhand dealer online.

Details you must provide to an online secondhand dealer

As a customer selling articles to a secondhand dealer online you must supply some details before he or she can purchase the item from you:

  • full name
  • contact address
  • contact phone number.

You will not have to provide photographic identification in these circumstances. Your identity will be able to be verified through cross-referencing a dealers record with an Internet auction provider record.

Details held by your Internet auction provider

The Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 2004 requires Internet auction providers to record details of every person offering secondhand articles or scrap metal for sale on their website. These details are:

  • full name
  • date of birth
  • contact telephone number
  • email address.