4 great apps that'll help you find out the value of antiques

Published by Finn Hayden

If there is one type of tv show which always seems to be on the telly, it's antiques shows. We're absolutely obsessed with antiques in this country, and we've previously published guides about towns such as Hungerford and Petworth which are famous for having lots of antique shops.

Scouring for antiques can be lots of fun, and part of that fun is trying to figure out the value of items. In recent years, the only way to accurately guess the value of an item would be to have a deep knowledge of antiques, but as with so many things nowadays, technology has evened the playing field a little. There are now apps that you can download which will help you to figure out the value of antiques, so you'll know if you're being ripped off or if you've found a bargain.

There are quite a few apps out there like this, so we thought it would be useful to round up the best apps you can download for checking the value of antiques. Let's get into it:

WorthPoint

We'd say of all the apps that we looked at for this guide, WorthPoint was the most useful for people who want to know the value of antiques at home and when they're in an antique shop. There is so much useful stuff packed into this app that it's hard to know where to start - firstly, the search function is excellent. We used the app to get an idea of what a pair of antique decoy ducks was worth, and as you can see from our screenshot, the app returned more than 79,000 results. This was really useful for us because all we had to do was scroll through the results until we found an image of decoy ducks which looked like ours, and immediately we had a rough idea of what they were worth. On top of this, there's an excellent 'Marks' section which provides you with an extensive breakdown of the different marks which you might find on antiques, and what they mean.

This is really useful information to have, as marks can often tell you more about the age and provenance of an item. On top of all of this, the app is free to download and use, and you don't need an account to use it. Learn more and download it here from the App Store and here from the Google Play Store.

ValueMyStuff

If you're serious about getting an accurate valuation of your antique then you'll definitely want to use ValueMyStuff - this is a paid app and there is no free version, but the quality of the valuation you receive is top notch. All you do is take a photo of your antique and upload it to the app. Once uploaded, it will be sent to a real antiques expert, who will use their expertise to provide an accurate valuation of your object. If you want your valuation within 24 hours then it'll cost a little more, but it's only £25 per credit (1 credit gives you 1 valuation) which is pretty reasonable. Along with your valuation, you'll be sent a Valuation Certificate which you can print out.

It's an impressive app and ideal for anyone who has an antique in their home that they want to know the value of, learn more, and download it here from the App Store.

iHallmarklite

The hallmark of an object will often tell you a lot about how old it is and where it came from, but most importantly it can help you to learn the value of it. With the iHallmarklite app, you can check what certain types of Hallmarks mean and you can use the app to help date and value your item. Within the app, there is an extensive list of hallmark images, including Year Marks, Office Marks, and Commemorative Marks. Once you've matched the hallmark on the item with one of the hallmarks in the app, you'll know much more about your item and it'll help you to have an idea of what it's worth. Learn more and download it here from the App Store and here from the Google Play Store.

1stDibs

Sometimes the best way to get an idea of what an antique is worth is to quickly check a few auctions to see if you can find similar items and check what they are selling for. You could open your web browser on your phone and search for auctions that way, but we find the 1stDibs app to be much easier to use - you just open the app and search for the item that you want to know the value of, and you'll soon find a few auction listings. As you can see from the screenshot, this app showed us far fewer results than the WorthPoint app when we tried to check the value of our antique duck decoys, but we do think the quality of the search results was really good and we still got some useful information from the app. This app is also useful for checking the value of antiques dating from more recent times, such as the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We're also very impressed to see that the app has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 from more than 7000 reviews on the Apple app store. Learn more and download it here from the App Store.

We hope this guide helps you to find an app which will show you the value of your antiques. Let us know if you've tried any of these or if you have any other suggestions for us!

4 great apps that’ll help you find out the value of antiques

WorthPoint

ValueMyStuff

iHallmarklite

1stDibs

Finn H

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