Natick’s Select Board this past week approved license renewals for billiards, livery/taxi cabs, and for a dozen… junk dealers.

Junk dealers? In this pristine town?

The term’s nothing personal on the Select Board’s part, it’s just a legacy designation that according to Natick’s website page on the Junk Dealer’s License “is for those looking to be collectors of junk, dealers in junk, or keepers of shops for the purchase, sale, or barter of junk, old metals, or second-hand articles.” This stems from Section 54 of the Commonwealth’s General Laws.

I reached out to handful of those getting their Junk Dealer’s License renewed, including The Gold Rush and Guitar Center.

I guess my email wound up in their junk mail boxes, but I did hear from Gary Stucchi of Stucchi Jewelers in Natick Center. I wanted to know if he took offense to being labeled a junk dealer, or if he wore the title as a badge of honor.

“It’s an old term that could sound better, but I take no offense. It is just another permit with a wide application,” Stucchi says.

“Our main reason for having this license it to legally trade with the customer,” he adds. “Most of our clientele are redesigning and re-purposing their gems and metals into something new and different. This will sometimes involve a trade in metals and gems or a buyout if the value of the customers pieces exceeds the newly designed piece.”

Stucchi Jewelers has the license framed and posted where customers can see it, but there are few inquiries about it, says Stucchi, who has been busy as part of the Natick re-opening committee helping businesses navigate the regulations, funding, grants in play over the past year. For its part, Stucchi Jewelers finished construction of a design studio for private consultation that has been handling a brisk appointment-only stream of work.

We also heard back from Phil Chernin of Music Go Round, which buys and sells musical instruments and gear at its Rte. 9 east location. He refers to the term “junk dealer” as “an annoying term, but benign.”

“We are required to have this license in order to buy used musical instruments, refurbish and resell them. Yeah, certainly we don’t consider it junk, nor do our customers, but the related requirements and the annual fee are both reasonable,” he says.

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