When should you use AntiqBot? 10 moments where an online antique analysis makes the difference

Many people know AntiqBot exists but are unsure when they should actually use it. That makes sense. Antiques are not a daily purchase or a weekly decision. They arrive in waves: an aunt passes away, a storage unit needs to be emptied, a flea market yields a find, a buyer offers a price that sounds too good. In those moments the question is always the same. What is this, what is it worth, and what should I do with it?

This article lays out ten situations where an AntiqBot analysis makes the difference between a good decision and later regret. No theory, no sales pitch. Just the moments when one photo and a few minutes save you more than hours of online searches or an hour waiting at an auction house.

1. During an inheritance or estate settlement

This is probably the most common moment. A parent, uncle or grandparent has passed away. You stand with brothers, sisters or cousins in a house full of belongings. Some objects are clearly of sentimental value, others are clearly worthless. But between those extremes lies a grey zone: items where nobody is sure whether they are something special or not. A vase on the mantelpiece, a painting in the hallway, a box of silver in a cupboard.

The problem with inheritances is that decisions often fall under time pressure. The house must be emptied, the notary is waiting, the division must be fair. In that haste, objects vanish to charity shops, to opportunistic dealers, or into the skip, while in reality they may be worth thousands. The reverse also happens: items are carefully preserved in the belief that they are valuable, when in fact they are not.

An AntiqBot analysis per object gives you a first impression in minutes. Not the final valuation, not a replacement for formal appraisal, but enough to know which objects deserve further attention and which you can release without worry. For those who want to go deeper into this topic, we have a dedicated page on estate and inheritance valuation that helps you work through a collection in a structured way. Our companion article on inherited antiques: first steps walks through the practical workflow.

2. Before you throw something away or give it to charity

The clearing-out scenario. You are tidying, moving, downsizing. Between the old books, the dinner service you never use, and the Christmas decorations that have sat in the same box for twenty years, there is an object where you think: could this be something? But you have no energy to find out, and into the charity van it goes.

The worst stories in the antiques world always begin the same way. Someone recounts later that their mother gave away a vase to the neighbour, and that this vase was auctioned three years afterwards for seven thousand euros. Or that they took a painting to the dump because it looked so dark and gloomy, and that a neighbour pulled it from the skip and recognised an East-Flemish luminist within.

Investing five minutes in an AntiqBot analysis before discarding something costs less than a coffee and may prevent a regret that lasts twenty years. The idea is not to become paranoid about every object in the house. It is meant for the items where you suspect they might be something special, but you did not feel they were worth the effort of finding out.

3. Before you sell on Catawiki, eBay or Marktplaats

You have something you want to sell. You hesitate about the asking price. On Marktplaats you see comparable objects ranging from fifty to five hundred euros, and you have no idea where your example fits in that spectrum. Going too low means giving money away. Going too high means months of listing without a single bid.

On Catawiki it works differently. There you have to set a reserve, and you correspond with specialists. With well-supported information about your object you come across more professionally and can better negotiate the estimate set by the auction master. AntiqBot gives you that grounding: style period, likely origin, comparable sales, indicative market value.

Most clients use AntiqBot precisely in this moment. They have something lying around, they want to convert it into money, and before the first sale conversation or the first listing they want to form an initial picture. Not because they want to know the market value to the euro, but because they want to avoid arriving at the table empty-handed. For anyone who wants to understand the difference between what an appraiser writes down on paper and what a market actually pays, our article on appraisal value versus market value is useful additional reading.

4. After a flea market or garage sale

You got up early, you walked around, you bought something. A mask, a small painting, a wooden figure, a porcelain set. The seller said something about its origin. It felt authentic. You paid twenty or fifty euros and went home satisfied. But the next evening, with the object on the kitchen table under better light, doubt creeps in. Is this real? Is it old? Did you make a find, or were you taken in by someone who knew exactly what they were doing?

For flea market finds AntiqBot is ideal. The stakes are low (you have already bought, no further money is at risk) but the learning value is high. You get an honest impression of whether you made a find, picked up a worthless but charming object, or were sold something under false pretences. For doubtful cases involving African masks or figures, a common flea-market risk, we refer to our specialist page on African art and authentication. There you will read which patina, use-wear and origin markers separate a genuine object from a tourist souvenir.

5. Holiday find or item brought back from abroad

Related to situation 4, but with an added dimension. You bought something in a souk in Marrakech, in an antique street in Hanoi, in a market in Dakar, or in a small shop on a Greek island. The seller spoke of old family pieces, of generations, of rarity. At home, sober again, you wonder what you actually have.

Holiday antiques are a world of their own. A large share of what is sold as antique in tourist areas is not. That need not be a problem in itself (a beautifully made souvenir remains beautifully made) but it is good to know whether you have a valuable object or a decorative piece in your home. For Chinese porcelain, one of the most counterfeited categories worldwide, the signals we weigh in our analysis are specifically trained. Our page on identifying Chinese porcelain gives you more background on reign marks, glaze quality, and the difficulty of distinguishing originals from later reproductions.

One thing worth stating explicitly: for objects of organic materials (ivory, coral, tortoiseshell, certain tropical woods) international import rules apply under CITES. A first AntiqBot analysis says nothing about your legal position, but it can flag that you are dealing with a sensitive material and that further investigation is needed.

6. For a valuation or insurance policy

Here we must be honest. AntiqBot does not replace an appraiser or an insurance expert. For a policy that holds up legally, you ultimately need a certified valuation on paper, with signature and stamp from someone who is personally liable.

But before you take that step, AntiqBot can help with the preparation. Do you have ten objects you think might need to be polished and assessed? An analysis per piece costs you less than an hour and gives you a first estimate. Four of those ten may turn out to be indicatively above one thousand euros and six below one hundred. Then you know you should take those four to the appraiser and leave the other six. That saves you hours of expert fees and directs your money to the objects that matter.

The same applies to valuation around a gift, a division among family members, or a divorce. AntiqBot provides the working document for the first conversations. The definitive numbers come later, on a different sheet of paper.

7. Before a visit to an auction house

You are considering submitting something to Bernaerts, Christie's, Sotheby's, Catawiki, or a regional auction house. Before you take that step you want to know whether the object is even auction-worthy. Some auction houses only operate from a certain minimum value, others accept more broadly but then give less attention to lower-segment pieces.

An AntiqBot analysis helps you in two ways. First, you know yourself whether it is worth walking in. Second, and perhaps more importantly, you can tell whether the initial estimate the specialist gives you is reasonable. Specialists at auction houses often work with a lower and an upper bound. If you already have your own idea of the market value, you can judge whether the offered estimate is fair or whether you should ask for a second opinion.

This applies in particular to silver, a category where hallmarks play a major role and where laypeople without preparation easily miss what makes an object worthwhile. Anyone who wants to know more about how we read hallmarks and which periods carry which characteristics can consult our page on silver identification for the basic principles.

8. When facing a doubtful offer

Someone wants to buy something from you. A neighbour, a dealer passing by, a cousin who "knows what those things are worth". The amount offered sounds reasonable, but precisely reasonable enough to make you hesitate. Is this a fair price, or will this buyer walk away with a piece for which they get ten times as much?

This is one of the sharpest moments where AntiqBot adds value. It costs you five minutes and a credit, and you have an independent second impression. Not to distrust the buyer, but to be able to close the transaction honestly. If the analysis shows the offer is reasonable, you know you can sell with peace of mind. If the analysis comes out much higher, you know to ask elsewhere before letting the object leave the house.

The world of private purchases is not always clean. There are dealers who drive through rural areas and ring the doorbells of older people, asking whether there is still "some old junk in the attic". Sometimes that is fair. Sometimes there is a story behind it that you would rather not be part of. A quick check of your own, before you sign or shake hands, costs nothing and gives peace of mind.

9. When clearing an attic, cellar or storage unit

You have set aside a day to empty the attic. Or the cellar. Or the storage unit you rent, where your parents' belongings have been sitting for years. It is a project in itself, and you want structure. What do you keep, what do you give away, what do you throw away, what do you sell?

For that kind of major clear-out, AntiqBot works best as triage. While sorting, you photograph ten to twenty objects you are uncertain about, and you run the analyses calmly in the evening behind a laptop. The next day you know which objects belong in which pile. That is faster, more structured and less exhausting than trying to decide on the spot whether you keep those bronze candlesticks or not.

A practical tip: take one photo per object with a neutral background (a kitchen table, a sheet of paper) and make sure any marks, stamps or signatures are visible on a second photo. The quality of the analysis is directly linked to the quality of the photos.

10. Before you have a painting, sculpture or vase restored

Restoration is one of the most underestimated risks in the antiques world. A wrong restoration can sink the value of an object, sometimes by ninety percent. A nicely painted retouch over an original craquelure can damage authenticity. A polished patina on a bronze sculpture often removes precisely what gives it value. A reglued crack in a vase drops the value dramatically compared to an undamaged example, but an unrestored crack drops it further.

Before you call a restorer, it is wise to know what you actually have. An object indicatively worth two hundred euros need not be restored for four hundred euros. An object indicatively worth two thousand euros must absolutely not end up with the first hobby restorer that comes to mind. AntiqBot helps you make that weighing before you open your wallet.

You also gain insight into what kind of restoration is even sensible. For some objects a skilled conservation increases value, for others "leaving it as it is" is the better choice. Weighing that difference is impossible without first knowing where your object sits on the value scale.

What an AntiqBot analysis actually contains

Many people do not know exactly what they receive after an analysis, and that vagueness makes it harder to judge whether it is worth the effort. So here is, in plain language, what happens after you upload a photo.

The analysis runs through several layers. First the object is assessed visually on form, decoration, material and typical style characteristics. Then any visible marks, stamps, signatures or inscriptions are read and linked to databases of known makers, periods and regions. Next, comparable objects are sought in recent auction results and dealer listings, so that an indicative market value can be supported. Finally the whole is composed into one report with a clear verdict, a value indication, and where applicable a list of points you could verify yourself.

The verdict itself works with five gradations, from "authentic" to "not authentic", with "probably authentic", "uncertain" and "probably not authentic" in between. That gradation exists because the reality of antiques is rarely black and white. A late nineteenth-century Chinese vase carrying a Kangxi mark is almost never simply "real" or simply "fake". It is a later production with a reverence mark, and that deserves an honest naming. We do not compensate red flags with positive arguments. If doubt exists, that doubt appears in the report.

Photographs matter a great deal. A blurred photo with backlight produces a less useful analysis than a sharp photo under daylight with a neutral background. For best results it helps to upload two or three photos: one overview shot, one detail shot of marks or signatures, and possibly one of the underside or back. That is not a requirement, but the difference in analysis depth is noticeable.

What AntiqBot is and is not designed for

An honest positioning belongs here as well. AntiqBot is a tool for the first questions, not for the last questions. That distinction matters for setting the right expectations.

AntiqBot is intended to answer questions like: what is this roughly, from which period does it likely come, what order of magnitude does the market value have, and is it worth investing further in expert fees or time. For these questions you receive quick, affordable and well-supported answers, and for the ten situations above that is exactly what you need.

AntiqBot is not intended as a legal document, not as an insurance valuation, and not as a notarial inventory. For those uses you need a qualified appraiser who is personally liable for their judgement. We do not replace that person, and we do not pretend to. What we do is help you determine which objects are worth such a formal step and which you can set aside without cost.

A second boundary concerns objects that require instruments to be assessed correctly. Gemstones need a refractometer, a loupe and spectroscopic analysis. We do not perform those, and we make no claims about the authenticity of loose gemstones based on photographs alone. For metals, wood, ceramics, porcelain, paintings, prints and African art, photo analysis works well, provided the photos are usable.

A third boundary is provenance. Who made this, who owned it, how did it get here. For objects where these questions matter legally (think of art with a potential wartime history, or cultural objects that may fall under restitution claims) photo analysis is not enough. Archive research is needed there, and that falls outside what an AI tool can deliver.

By naming these boundaries clearly, you get a fairer picture of when AntiqBot is the right answer and when you are better off going directly to a specialist. In most everyday situations, and certainly in the ten described above, a photo and a few minutes are enough to move forward.

Not ten moments, but one principle

If you place these ten situations side by side, you see one thread running through all of them. They are all moments when a decision must be made under uncertainty. Sell or keep. Throw out or preserve. Restore or leave as is. Accept or refuse.

Uncertainty is expensive. Not always in euros, sometimes in regret, sometimes in damaged relationships within a family, sometimes in a lingering "if only I had known". An AntiqBot analysis does not eliminate that uncertainty entirely, but it brings it back to something manageable. You replace "I don't know" with "I have a first impression".

That first impression is not the final destination. For formal valuation, for legal decisions, for insurance policies, you still need a human with a signature. But for the ten situations above, for the working document with which you take your next step, a few minutes and a photo are often all you need.

Getting started

Sign up and get 1 free credit for your first analysis. After that, buy credit packs starting from €0.60 per analysis. There is no subscription, no hidden fees, and your credits remain valid for one year.

For each analysis you receive a structured report with the likely style period, origin indicators, material observations, an indicative market value with grounding, and any points for attention or further investigation. For objects where we see real uncertainty, we say so. Honesty matters more than a flattering outcome.

The ten moments above are not the only situations where AntiqBot is useful. But if you recognise yourself in one of these and you have not yet run an analysis, this is the right moment to take that first photograph.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an analysis take? Usually between one and three minutes, depending on the complexity of the object and the amount of comparative data available. You receive the report directly in your account once it is ready.

Do my credits expire? Credits remain valid for one year after purchase. That is ample for most situations, and at the same time it gives a natural moment to keep your account active.

What if I doubt the outcome? Under each analysis you find a way to give feedback. We read all feedback, and where a second assessment is warranted, that happens. Honesty about our own limits matters more than projecting confidence that is not supported.

Which objects cannot I upload? Gemstones and loose minerals require instrumental analysis and fall outside our scope. For all other categories (porcelain, silver, paintings, furniture, clocks, African art, prints, glass, bronze) you are welcome.

Can I use AntiqBot instead of an auction house? No, and that is not the intention. We are a tool to enter an auction house visit better prepared, or to assess whether such a visit is worthwhile at all. The actual sale, the legal work and the final market realisation remain the domain of auction houses and dealers.