As college students, many of us are broke.
Instead of buying new things, we scour Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, thrift stores and the classified section to find the things we want at reasonable prices, and a reasonable price typically means buying the good secondhand.
A recent bill passed in the Louisiana Legislature seems to threaten the way people deal with secondhand goods.
House Bill 195, which became law on Aug. 15, essentially prohibits people who buy or sell secondhand goods from using cash. State Rep. Rickey Hardy, a co-author of the bill, told Lafayette’s KLFY TV-10 that people now have to pay with checks, money orders or electronic transfers on money.
He explained that each transaction will also need a receipt, which is intended to give police a paper trail when tracking thieves who steal things like copper and sell it to stores.
The bill appeared to go unnoticed until recently, when some news stations ran stories on how the law can potentially hurt businesses.
The bill has also been derided by the public, who claim the law has made it illegal to deal on Craigslist and have garage sales.
Being a Craigslist fiend, I had many concerns and decided to get clarification. It didn’t seem logical to have to go get a money order before deciding to purchase something.
Fairly upset, I contacted Rep. Hardy’s office, and was told to talk to Rep. Clif Richardson, another co-author of the bill. Unfortunately, Rep. Richardson was out of the office, so I had to settle for Deana Vickry, his legislative assistant.
She talked to me a bit and sent me a press release in which Rep. Richardson explained the bill more thoroughly.
While the bill sounds pretty bad, after learning more, much of it seems to have been misunderstood.
The bill actually excludes pawn shops, garage sales, nonprofit organizations and charities. Basically, business in these markets can go on using cash without question.
Vickry said Craigslist falls under the “garage sale” category, so it would not be affected.
Also, the bill does not affect how consumers purchase, and they can always purchase with cash, Rep. Richardson wrote in the press release.
So it seems the unclear legal jargon of the bill is probably what caused the misunderstanding.
While most markets aren’t affected, there are two places where the bill may actually cause damage to businesses.
The bill affects how flea markets and jewelers purchase goods from people, Vickry said.
Essentially, if a jeweler wants to buy old jewelry from people, they must use a check, money order or electronic transfer.
KLFY reported that businesses aren’t happy with the new law. According to that report, Danny Guidry, owner of the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette finds the bill unacceptable.
“We’re going to lose a lot of business,” Guidry told KLFY. “We don’t want this cash transaction taken away from