For Antique Dealers
Antiques break every assumption that inventory software usually makes: no catalogue match, no comparable in stock, and a shipping problem that starts before you have bought the piece.
THE SHAPE OF THE PROBLEM
Most reseller tooling assumes a product database: scan the code, pull the title, done. That assumption fails completely on a Victorian side table, a piece of studio pottery with an unclear mark, or a run of estate silver. Each item is singular, its identification is partly a research task, and what you write about it is a substantial part of what you are selling.
Instica is built to hold that. Records are created from your own description, photographs and measurements rather than from a lookup, and the research you do — the maker mark you identified, the estate the piece came from, the repair you found on the underside — stays attached to the item permanently rather than living in the listing you will eventually take down.
WHAT THE RECORD HOLDS
Items are created from your photographs and your description. There is no requirement for a barcode, an ISBN or a database entry, which is the baseline requirement for anything that is going to be usable in this trade.
Where a piece came from, what the mark appears to be, what you could and could not verify. This is the material a serious buyer asks about, and it belongs on the record so it survives across every listing and every year you hold the piece.
For furniture, glass and ceramics the shipping question determines whether a sale is even possible. Capturing measurements at intake is what lets you answer a buyer immediately rather than going back to the warehouse with a tape measure.
THE WORKFLOW
Antique sourcing involves buying under time pressure, in a crowded room, on items you may not be able to identify until later. The workflow assumes research happens after the purchase, not before.
Undersides, backstamps, joins, repairs and hallmarks. These photographs are what you will do your identification from, and going back to an estate sale for a better picture is not an option.
Once a piece is packed for the van it may not be unwrapped again until it sells. Dimensions taken at the point of purchase decide what you can quote for shipping and whether the piece is a local-collection item.
Auction lots and estate buys mix pieces of very different value. Attributing the cost sensibly across them is what makes the eventual margin figures meaningful, and it is far easier on the day than months later.
Identification work is the expensive part of this trade. Writing it onto the record rather than straight into a listing means it is still there next season when the piece is relisted or a buyer asks a question.
CHANNEL BY CHANNEL
Instica connects to eBay, Shopify and Discogs. Antique dealers usually sell through several routes that no software touches, so it is worth being clear about the boundary.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG
A large fragile piece bought cheaply can be effectively unsellable outside a collection radius. Recording dimensions and weight at purchase turns that from a discovery made after listing into a decision made before buying.
Identification work written into a listing description disappears when the listing ends, and the next time the piece is offered it gets researched again from scratch. That is the same expensive hour spent twice.
Repairs, replaced parts and later additions materially change value, and a knowledgeable buyer will find them. Recording what you found at intake means the disclosure is in the listing automatically rather than depending on memory.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Yes, and that is the normal case here. Records are built from your own photographs, measurements and description, with no lookup required at any point.
On the item record, separate from the listing text. That way they persist through relisting, price changes and moves between channels, and they are still there years after the original listing came down.
No. It records what you paid, what you asked and what you realised. Valuing antiques depends on expertise and comparables that we do not hold, and we would rather be plain about that than suggest a capability we lack.
From the reselling course
Nothing you sell has a catalogue match or a comparable sitting in stock, and the freight question starts before you have bought. These six guides are written for one-of-one inventory.
Pricing a piece with no comparable, at an estate sale, under time pressure.
Attribution, repair and reproduction — the three claims that need evidence behind them.
Age, wear and earlier restoration described so a buyer knows what is arriving.
Crating, freight, and the pieces that should not be shipped at all.
A high-value one-off attracts approaches that ordinary stock does not.
Cover for stock in a van, a unit and a booth, which are three different risks.
All free to read — the full guide index. If you would sooner start from your own bottleneck, use the three-minute diagnostic.
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