Use case · Workflow
Preparing to sell an antique
Before selling, identify the piece and read its auction range, not its retail range — the auction range minus commission is what a seller can realistically expect. Document every fault, keep any provenance, and compare what a general saleroom, a specialist sale and a dealer would each offer. For a genuinely valuable piece, get an independent opinion before consigning.
The workflow, step by step
- Identify it from good photographs. Whole piece, mark, construction, faults. A legible mark narrows the maker and the market pays for that certainty.
- Read the auction range, not the retail one. Trove shows both side by side. The retail range is what a dealer asks after research, restoration and holding costs; a seller’s honest expectation is the auction range, less commission.
- Check the authenticity verdict and the condition notes. An uncertain or likely-reproduction verdict, or a fault you had not noticed, changes where the piece should go and what to expect for it. Buyers will find faults; listing them first protects the sale.
- Gather any provenance. Receipts, a family letter, a catalogue entry or a house-sale record. On the right piece documented history adds more than anything you can do to the object.
- Choose the venue, and get an independent opinion on anything significant. General saleroom, specialist sale, dealer or online marketplace each reach a different audience. Where the range is high, an independent appraisal before consigning changes what reserve and offer you accept.
Why sellers are disappointed
Most disappointment at the saleroom comes from reading the wrong number. A retail figure is two to three times what the same piece often brings at hammer, and the gap is the dealer’s margin, not a low opinion of your object. A dealer offering a third of their shop price is quoting a wholesale price.
Where this workflow stops
Trove’s range helps you decide whether a piece is worth selling carefully and roughly what to expect. It is not accurate enough to set a reserve or accept an offer on a valuable piece — before money changes hands, have it seen by someone who can handle it.
Trove identifies antiques from photographs and gives an estimated value range, with the reasoning behind it. Every figure is an AI estimate, not a professional appraisal.