Frequently asked questions
The short version: you photograph, the Gnome appraises and lists, you approve, things sell. Here's the longer version.
How do the AI appraisals actually work?
You photograph an item — as many angles as you like. The AI examines every photo you took of it (not just the first), identifies what the item is, assesses visible condition, and produces a listing-ready title, a description, and a suggested price. Appraisals run in batches, so a whole afternoon of photographing turns into a review queue, not a research project.
How accurate are the suggested prices?
Suggested prices are guidance grounded in what comparable items sell for — and every appraisal carries a confidence level. When the AI is confident, it says so. When an item is unusual — a rare maker, an odd variant — it tells you that too, instead of inventing certainty. The final price is always your call: you can accept, edit, or send any item back for re-appraisal with one tap.
Which marketplaces can I sell on?
The publishing queue prepares listings for eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp, and Vendoo-managed channels. Marketplace-ready exports work for all of these today; direct API publishing is rolling out platform by platform to early-access members. You choose where each item goes — one marketplace or all of them.
Can strangers figure out my address from my listing photos?
Not from photos that pass through the Gnome. Phone cameras embed hidden metadata in every photo — GPS coordinates, camera model, shooting times. We strip all of it automatically before a photo can appear anywhere public, on every photo, every time. It's not a setting you can forget to turn on.
Do I need to be technical to use this?
If you can take a photo and tap "approve," you're qualified. There are no spreadsheets to maintain and nothing to install beyond visiting the site. The most technical thing you'll do is decide whether $40 sounds right for the lamp.
What happens when something sells?
The item is marked sold, your dashboard updates, and checkout produces an itemized receipt for the buyer — including multi-item purchases rung up as a single transaction on sale day. Every sale is recorded against the item, so you always know what sold, when, and for how much.
What about things that don't sell?
Unsold items stay in your inventory with their photos and appraisals intact — re-list them, reprice them, or archive them when a sale wraps up. Nothing disappears silently, and the dashboard always shows you what's still open.
Is my data sold or used to train AI models?
No. Your photos and item data are used to run your sale — appraising, listing, selling. They are not sold to data brokers and not used to train public AI models. When you close your account, your data goes with you. The full details are in our Privacy Policy.
What does early access cost?
Joining early access is free. Capacity is limited while we onboard members, and early members get advance notice of published pricing plus founding-member terms when general availability arrives. The plan tiers — Household, Estate, Professional — are described on the pricing page.
I run estate sales for clients. Does this handle multiple sales at once?
Yes — that's the Professional plan. Concurrent sales with separated inventories, client-ready receipts, price history and approval audit trails, and operations metrics. Consignor tracking and per-client settlement reports are rolling out to professional early-access members now. See For Professionals for the full pipeline.
Can I cancel or leave early access?
Any time. Export your inventory and sale records first if you want them — they're yours. There's no lock-in and no cancellation process beyond telling us to close the account.
Who is behind Estate Sale Gnome?
Estate Sale Gnome is built by Gnome Ventures, a US company. The platform grew out of running real estate sales — the pipeline sold real items before it had a marketing site. Questions? Talk to us — a person answers.