Your ordinance says report every used-goods purchase to the police. PawnSmarts writes the buy ticket, holds the item, and sends the LEADS Online report — automatically.
The short answer: if you buy used merchandise from the public — resale store, used electronics, antiques, buy-sell-trade — many cities and counties require you to report every purchase to law enforcement, usually through LeadsOnline, the same way pawn shops do. PawnSmarts handles the whole obligation from one buy ticket: seller ID capture, purchase hold, and automatic report submission. You never touch the pawn side if you don't need it.
The ordinances that cover pawnbrokers almost always cover secondhand dealers in the same breath — anyone buying used property from the public is a channel stolen goods can move through, and police treat the record-keeping identically. What varies is the label: "secondhand dealer," "junk dealer," "used merchandise dealer." If your city licenses you as any of these, assume a reporting duty exists and confirm the details — our requirements-by-state guide explains where the rules come from, and the step-by-step reporting guide covers getting enrolled.
In PawnSmarts, a purchase from the public is a buy ticket — a first-class transaction, not a pawn workaround:
With LEADS Online reporting enabled, every saved buy ticket submits to law enforcement automatically — no end-of-day portal session, no retyping, no missed days. If your jurisdiction wants a person in the loop instead, PawnSmarts produces the same report as a file you upload yourself. Either way, nothing is entered twice; see what manual entry costs if you're doing it by hand today.
Reporting is the requirement; the rest of PawnSmarts runs the store: register / point of sale, inventory with labels and barcodes, store credit, layaway, consignment, daily close and reports — and it keeps working if the internet drops. If you buy gold or jewelry across the counter, the precious-metals tools (melt calculator, spot prices, scale reading) are built into the same buy ticket.
In many jurisdictions, yes. City and county ordinances that require pawn reporting usually cover secondhand and used-merchandise dealers in the same section. Check your local ordinance or ask your police department — the obligation depends on your locality, not on whether you write loans.
Yes. Buy tickets are a standalone transaction type — a buy-only store uses buy tickets, inventory, and the register without ever creating a pawn loan. The pawn features simply sit unused.
Yes. With LEADS Online reporting enabled, purchase transactions submit to law enforcement automatically when each buy ticket is saved. A manual file-upload option is available for jurisdictions that require it.
The hold date is stored on each purchased item and enforced at the register — the item cannot be sold until the hold expires. Hold rules are configured for your state and local requirements.
Name, address, date of birth, physical description and government ID details — auto-filled by scanning the driver's license barcode — plus per-item description, brand, model and serial number. That's the full field set LEADS reporting requires.
From $89/month with no contract, or $2,995 one time. LEADS Online reporting, OFAC checks and police reports are included on every plan — there is no reporting surcharge, and LeadsOnline itself is free to reporting businesses.
PawnSmarts is independent software for pawn and secondhand businesses and is not affiliated with or endorsed by LeadsOnline, LLC. LeadsOnline is a trademark of its owner.
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