The city of Oakland has implemented a new tax on sellers of used goods that, in effect, now places the used bookshop in the same realm as the pawn shop.
The tax, which is based on the state’s Secondhand Dealers’ law; a 50-year-old law written to help police locate stolen goods, will cost bookshops at least $600 a year and force them to fingerprint employees and “keep meticulous, detailed notes of every item they buy and sell, including the private personal information of the persons involved in each transaction.”
Failure to comply with the law is considered a misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $1,500 or two months in county jail.
Amy Thomas, owner of Pendragon Books, will not comply with the new law saying ” “I don’t think this should apply to our business.” And she is right. Equating a used bookshop to a pawnshop, regardless of the city’s budgetary needs, is ludicrous. Their similarities end with “used goods” and to apply the rules and regulations governing the questionable inventory of a pawnshop to the inventory of a used bookshop is beyond logic.
Of course, online retailers like Amazon and Ebay, are exempt from the law.
Full story in the East Bay Express, New Tax Angers Small Oakland Retailers
Image: Bookseller label of Holmes Book Co.
Thanks to David Sachs for the lead