No person shall act as an auctioneer, and no person shall hold or cause to be held any auction within the City without first obtaining a license from the City Clerk as hereinafter provided.
Every person applying to the City Clerk for a license required by this article shall furnish evidence to the City Clerk that he or she has complied with the laws of the state regulating auctions and auctioneers.
No person shall be entitled to receive nor shall any person receive a license under the provisions of this article unless such person shall be of good moral character and shall furnish satisfactory evidence to the City Clerk of such good character.
A. 
Fee. The fee for an auctioneer's license shall be $150 per year, and such fee shall not be prorated for a shorter period of time.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. IV).
B. 
Restriction on use. A license issued under the provisions of this article shall contain the name of the auctioneer to whom it is issued and no person other than the one named therein shall act as auctioneer under such license.
C. 
Expiration. All licenses issued under the provisions of this article shall expire on the 31st day of December.
A. 
Mock auction.
(1) 
A person who buys or sells, or pretends to buy or sell, any goods, wares, or merchandise, or any species of property except ships, vessels, or real or leasehold estate, exposed for sale by auction, if an actual sale, purchase, and change of ownership therein does not thereupon take place, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for up to one year, or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or both.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. IV).
(2) 
A person who obtains money or property from another, or obtains the signature of another to any writing, the false making of which would be forgery, by means of any false or fraudulent sale of property or pretended property by auction, or by any of the practices known as “mock auctions,” is guilty of a misdemeanor; and in addition thereto he or she forfeits any license he or she may hold to act as an auctioneer, and is forever disqualified from receiving a license to act as an auctioneer in this City.
B. 
Records to be kept by auctioneers. Every auctioneer or person engaged in the business of selling goods at auction, whether acting in his or her own behalf or as the officer, agent or representative of another, shall, upon the receipt or acceptance by him or her of any goods for the purpose of sale at auction, and before offering the same or any part thereof for sale at auction, write or cause to be written in a book to be kept by him or her for that purpose:
(1) 
The name and address of the person who employed him or her to sell such goods at auction.
(2) 
The name and address of the person for whose benefit, behalf or account such goods are to be sold at auction.
(3) 
The name and address of the person from whom such auctioneer received or accepted such goods.
(4) 
The name and address of the person who was the owner, the authorized agent of the owner or the consignor of such goods immediately prior to the receipt or acceptance for the purpose of sale at auction of the same by such auctioneer.
(5) 
The location, with street and number, if any, of such goods immediately prior to the receipt or acceptance of the same by such auctioneer for the purpose of sale at auction.
(6) 
The date of the receipt of acceptance by such auctioneer of such goods for the purpose of sale at auction.
(7) 
The place, with street and number, if any, in which such goods are to be held, kept or stored until sold or offered for sale at auction.
(8) 
The place, with street and number, if any, in which such goods are to be sold or offered for sale at auction.
(9) 
A description of such goods, the quantity thereof and the distinctive marks thereon, if any.
(10) 
The terms and conditions upon which such auctioneer receives or accepts such goods for sale at auction.
C. 
Records open to inspection. The said book and the entries therein, made as provided by the preceding subsection, shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the inspection of the Mayor and the Chief of Police for business conducted within the City, the District Attorney of Erie County and any person who shall be duly authorized in writing for that purpose by any or either of them and who shall exhibit such written authorization to such auctioneer.