1stDibs takes 40% per sale. eBay destroys provenance detail. WordPress is a 14-step trek for a single piece.

1stDibs takes 40% per sale and owns the buyer relationship — your Victorian marquetry cabinet and its provenance story live on their platform, building their brand authority, not yours

1stDibs is a genuinely curated marketplace that attracts interior designers, decorators, and serious collectors who already understand the difference between estate-fresh condition and a restored piece. The buyer pool is real and the transaction volume is real. But the economics of that marketplace are structured to extract substantial value from every transaction you complete through it. The 40% combined fee on a $3,000 Federalist sideboard — $1,200 going to 1stDibs before you see a dollar — compounds quickly for a dealer who moves 30 to 50 pieces a month across a price range from $400 to $8,000. The provenance story that differentiates your piece from a generic reproduction, the documentation that establishes period-authentic construction methods, the maker's mark research that places the cabinet in a specific regional tradition, the condition notes that explain the patina as desirable surface character rather than damage — all of that context lives on 1stDibs's platform, building 1stDibs's search authority and domain reputation. When a collector on Perplexity or ChatGPT Search asks for 'American Federalist period sideboards with provenance documentation,' 1stDibs's domain collects the indexing credit, not yours. The relationship belongs to 1stDibs's CRM, not your email list. VeloCMS's inventory shop gives that same piece — the full provenance chain, the period documentation, the condition assessment with as-found condition notes, the reserve price, the delivery-zone availability — a permanent indexed home under your own domain, with 0% commission beyond Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30.

eBay's price-race grid reduces a period-authentic Art Deco vanity with hallmark documentation to a thumbnail competing against reproductions on price — provenance detail disappears into listing character limits

eBay's marketplace model is built for price discovery, and price discovery is a hostile environment for antique provenance. A 1920s Art Deco dressing table with verifiable maker's mark, original veneer in excellent as-found condition, documented estate provenance from a single-family collection since original purchase, and period-correct Bakelite hardware is genuinely different from a reproduction that reads as similar in a thumbnail grid. But eBay's listing format — an 80-character title, a grid thumbnail competing against a dozen price-comparable listings, a character-limited description where the full provenance story competes with condition warnings for buyer attention — flattens that difference into a price comparison. The serious collector who wants to understand the Biedermeier construction tradition of a particular regional workshop, who wants to see the original finish beneath the patina rather than a refinished surface, who wants to read the estate-fresh condition notes that explain every mark on the piece as a feature of its history rather than a defect — that buyer is not well-served by eBay's grid. Your provenance research, your period expertise, the knowledge that places a piece in a specific decade and workshop tradition — none of it translates into the eBay listing format at the depth it deserves. A VeloCMS inventory post gives a single piece 3,000 words of provenance context, 20 photographs at full resolution, a condition-grade taxonomy with specific notation for original hardware, replacement elements, and restoration history, and JSON-LD markup that surfaces all of it in structured form for search engines and AI crawlers.

Estate-sale event calendars die in Facebook Events after the sale closes — no searchable archive, no RSVP system, no member-only preview-day access, no provenance trail for pieces that sold

Facebook Events is the de facto estate-sale discovery tool in most metropolitan markets, and it works reasonably well for the moment-in-time awareness problem: getting the announcement in front of local buyers who follow your page or the regional estate-sale discovery groups. But Facebook Events has a short functional lifespan. The event page goes stale the day after the sale closes, the content becomes unfindable to anyone who wasn't already following your page before the sale, and the RSVP mechanism is a soft 'interested' click rather than a structured preview-day booking with contact information and attendance confirmation. There's no mechanism for a member-only preview tier — the hour before public opening where your most engaged regular buyers get first access to newly discovered pieces, where the Biedermeier secretaire and the Victorian silver collection from the estate receive their first assessment by people who understand the difference between original veneer and a later repair. The provenance trail for pieces that sell at the estate sale — the documentation that explains where the mahogany sideboard came from, whose family owned it for 80 years, what condition characteristics are original versus later — doesn't survive the sale. It exists in paper notes, in your memory, and in a closed Facebook Event that no search engine can index. VeloCMS gives estate-sale specialists a permanent calendar with preview-day RSVP capture, member-only first-access announcements, and post-sale provenance archive posts that remain indexed and discoverable long after the furniture has found new homes.

Independent antique dealer — provenance archive with multi-photo piece catalog, period/maker/hallmark schema JSON-LD, condition-grade taxonomy, and inventory shop with reserve-price + member-only first-look at 0% commission

An antique dealer's knowledge is their competitive advantage: the ability to place a piece in a specific regional tradition, to read the construction evidence that distinguishes period-authentic joinery from a later reproduction, to recognize a hallmark that establishes both maker and date of production, to document the patina of genuine age as distinct from artificial antiquing. That knowledge deserves a publishing infrastructure that can hold it with the precision and permanence it deserves. VeloCMS's inventory post type structures each piece as a documented record: the provenance chain from known ownership history to current estate-sale acquisition, the period classification with decade range and regional attribution, the maker's mark or hallmark documentation with photograph of the mark and reference to the assay records or maker's registry, the materials taxonomy (primary wood species, secondary woods, hardware materials, upholstery where applicable), the construction-method notes that establish the joinery tradition, the condition grade with specific notation for original versus restored elements. The inventory shop connects to your Stripe account via BYOK — you set the reserve price, configure delivery zones, and choose whether a piece is available for immediate purchase or inquiry-first. The member-only first-look tier notifies your most engaged buyers 24 hours before a piece goes public — the advantage that keeps your best customers returning.

Estate-sale specialist — event calendar with preview-day RSVP, public and member-only announcements, post-sale provenance archive, and structured estate-sale content that builds long-term search authority

Running estate sales is fundamentally about building trust with two distinct audiences simultaneously: the families who entrust you with the disposal of a lifetime's accumulation, and the buyers who return to your sales knowing your curation standards separate genuine period pieces from estate decor of no particular significance. Both relationships compound over time — the family referral network that fills your calendar with future estate assignments, the buyer network whose attendance creates competitive pricing on your better finds. VeloCMS's estate-sale event post type gives both audiences a professional interface: a public announcement with the estate address, sale dates and hours, preview-day schedule with RSVP capture, and a teaser gallery of highlighted pieces (the Art Deco bedroom suite, the Federalist secretary desk, the Victorian silver service) that builds anticipation before the sale opens. The member-only announcement tier sends preview-day invitations to your registered buyers 48 hours before the public calendar update — the advantage that rewards loyalty without requiring a phone-tree operation. After the sale closes, the post-sale archive documents what sold: provenance notes for significant pieces, realized prices for comparable market reference, and photography of the estate's context that establishes your eye for quality to future consigning families discovering your work through search.

Appraisal services — form-based intake with intake questionnaire, signed-PDF deliverable workflow, member-only valuation library, and structured appraisal content that builds AEO authority for local and specialty markets

Antique appraisal is a credentialed service with specific professional standards — the American Society of Appraisers, the Appraisal Foundation's USPAP standards, the International Society of Appraisers — and the communication of those credentials and methodologies is part of what justifies the professional fee over informal dealer opinion. A VeloCMS appraisal services site gives that credential presentation a proper infrastructure: your professional biography, your credential documentation, your methodology statement explaining the distinction between insurance replacement value, fair market value, and liquidation value, and the educational content that helps prospective clients understand what an appraisal is and isn't before they submit an intake request. The appraisal intake form is a structured questionnaire: item type and period estimate, acquisition source and date, any existing documentation (prior appraisals, auction records, family correspondence with provenance information), purpose of appraisal (insurance, estate settlement, charitable donation, sale planning), preferred format (written narrative, abbreviated certificate, IRS Form 8283 compliant for charitable deductions requiring qualified appraisal), and photographs submitted through the secure upload field. The signed-PDF delivery integrates with your document-signing workflow (DocuSign or Adobe Sign) and delivers the completed appraisal report to the member-authenticated client portal — accessible only to the commissioned client. The member-only valuation library is a post category available only to subscribed clients: quarterly market-trend analyses for specific collecting categories, period-specific price guidance for the categories you specialize in, and educational content about condition grading and its effect on value that positions you as the knowledgeable resource in your specialty.

Independent Antique Shop

Your shop floor changes every week — the Georgian silver that came in Tuesday, the Victorian mahogany bookcase that needs a week of assessment before pricing, the Biedermeier chest with original veneer and the provenance chain that traces it to a Viennese estate. Your inventory deserves documentation that matches your expertise. A VeloCMS inventory site gives every piece a provenance record that outlasts the sale.

Estate-Sale Specialist

Every estate you handle is a one-time event with a permanent reputation implication. The families who refer future estates do so because you handled their family's belongings with expertise and transparency. The buyers who attend every sale do so because your eye for quality period furniture distinguishes your sales from general liquidations. VeloCMS gives both audiences a professional face — calendar, RSVP, preview-day access, post-sale archive — that Facebook Events simply cannot.

Appraisal Services

Your credentials differentiate you from a dealer's informal opinion: ASA, ISA, USPAP compliance, decades of specialty-market expertise. That differentiation needs a professional platform. VeloCMS's appraisal intake, signed-PDF delivery, and member-only valuation library give credentialed appraisers a client experience that matches the authority of the credential — and builds the content marketing that attracts estate attorneys, insurance companies, and serious collectors who need qualified appraisals.