Selling vintage homeware, ceramics and glass online in the UK

Direct means one click publishes the listing and Artifactly takes it down when it sells. Ready-to-List means Artifactly prepares the whole listing, you copy it all in one click or download a CSV, and you put it on the site yourself. Vinterior, for example, is a curated marketplace for vintage and antique furniture and homeware, with its own delivery service.

Sales on eBay and Etsy are checked about every 5 minutes. On a £100 order, a business seller in eBay UK's Antiques category pays £11.65 and Etsy takes £11.18 plus a 0.20 USD listing fee (eBay business fees, Etsy fees, Etsy payment processing, Etsy regulatory fee). eBay sets its rate by category, so check the one your ceramics or glass go in. Private sellers on eBay pay no final value fee (eBay private seller fees).

• Photograph the backstamp, the base of a glass piece, or the label on a lamp, square on and in good light, and include it in the listing.
• Write down exactly what the mark says, including numbers and shape codes, before you decide what it means.
• Use the maker and pattern name only when you can show them. Where you cannot, "attributed to" or "in the style of" says so honestly.
• Describe condition the way collectors check it: chips, cracks, crazing, restoration, worn gilding, and cloudiness or scratches on glass.

Artifactly's AI is Google's Gemini, following antique and vintage instructions written by working dealers that cover ceramics, glass, silver, lighting, and art and prints. It drafts the title, a description with a history and provenance section, category, dimensions and condition notes from your photos and notes. Put the mark in your notes, then check every maker, pattern and date it suggests.

Titles are tight: 80 characters on eBay, 140 on Etsy, and Artifactly shortens rather than rewrites them, so lead with maker, pattern and object. eBay takes up to 24 pictures and some categories require item specifics, which Artifactly flags if missing. Etsy allows 13 tags and 20 photos; Artifactly sends up to 10 photos and 13 tags.

Selling silver too? gov.uk's hallmarking guidance says online retail sites must prominently display explanatory information about hallmarks, as Dealer's Notice A or B.

• Wrap every piece separately, lids included, with extra care round handles, spouts and rims.
• Fill every gap so nothing shifts when you shake the box gently.
• For anything valuable or very thin, box it, then put that box inside a larger one with padding all round.
• Photograph the piece and the packed parcel, so you have a record if there is a claim.
• Check what the courier will pay out for a breakage before you book, not after.

Artifactly's Global Shipment Manager connects you to specialist fragile-item couriers, lets you compare rates, generates packaging labels and packing slips, produces customs declarations and commercial invoices, and sends live tracking updates to buyers, all from the same record as the listing. Confirm the price with the courier before you quote a buyer, and where a site such as Vinterior handles delivery itself, follow its instructions.

Etsy's vintage policy says vintage means at least 20 years old, and Etsy may ask how you sourced and dated an item, and for photos. An estate or garage sale purchase, a relative's ownership, or another seller listing the same item cannot be used as proof. Its reselling page allows only handpicked items such as vintage.

Etsy listings expire after 4 months unless renewed, and auto-renew sold reposts a sold listing and charges another listing fee (Etsy fees), which suits a replaceable set, not a one-off jug. Listings can have variations on up to 3 attributes (Etsy variations).

gov.uk's guidance on Artist's Resale Right, updated on 2 December 2024, says the right covers original works of art including paintings, engravings, sculpture and ceramics, applies from a sale price of £1,000, works on a sliding scale, and is capped at £12,500 per sale. We are deliberately not repeating the percentages or exemptions, because we have not re-checked them. If you sell original ceramics at £1,000 or more, read the gov.uk page first. Artifactly does not work out resale royalties.

A room setting shows scale, which is hard to judge from a measurement alone: how tall a lamp is next to a sofa, how a vase sits on a sideboard. Use it as one image among several; your own photographs still need to show the piece, the mark on the base, and any chips or wear. Clean backgrounds also make a run of small pieces look like one collection.

• The AI drafts title, description, category, dimensions and condition notes, so you are checking rather than writing.
• Bulk edit changes category, status or price for up to 500 products at a time, and bulk AI description regeneration redrafts many descriptions at once.
• Spreadsheet import recognises exports from Sellbrite, eBay, Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Linnworks, Vendoo, Crosslist, Nembol and Veeqo; you can also export to CSV.
• Etsy says you can't bulk upload new listings; Artifactly publishes each product to Etsy from its record with one click.

Watch the plan limits: The Curator holds up to 250 products, The Dealer up to 500, The Showroom is unlimited, and Ready-to-List starts on The Dealer. For matching sets, eBay allows only one fixed-price listing of an identical item at a time, so list them once with a quantity. When one sells, the count goes down on the other sites and the listings stay live.

Vinted and 1stDibs are marked as coming soon in the app. For the wider picture, see antique dealer software, the guide to cross listing between eBay and Etsy, or compare cross-listing tools.

You do not choose a plan until the trial ends, and payment is then taken in the app through Stripe. Full pricing details.

Selling larger pieces as well? See the page for vintage furniture dealers, or browse all seller types.