What was capping it
Thousands of people a month search for things like "silver hallmarks", "silver valuation" or "penny black stamp value". They are holding an object and want to know if it matters. The answers they find are thin, scattered across forums and dealer pages, and rarely lead anywhere. Auction houses want exactly these people as consignors, but they are rarely the ones answering the question, so most of those enquiries never reach a saleroom.
What we built
Valuation Desk is one national site that answers the question properly and then offers the next step.
- Guides and a hallmarks encyclopaedia. Plain English pages on British silver marks, assay offices, date letters, makers, books, stamps and coins, each written to answer one search well.
- A hallmark identifier. Pick the standard mark, town mark, date letter and maker's initials you can see, and the tool reads them back as metal, place and year. It runs in the browser, so nothing is uploaded.
- A scrap silver calculator. Weight and standard in, melt value out, priced from the live LBMA silver benchmark, with what objects of that weight have made at auction next to it. Melt value is the floor, and the page says so.
- A valuation request that goes somewhere. Photos and a short description post straight from the visitor's browser into the partner auction house's own enquiry system, which categorises the item, assigns a valuer, scores the lead and sends the seller an acknowledgement. Nothing is re-typed.
Behind it sits a small admin portal with enquiries, newsletter sign ups, page views and Search Console figures, plus site search, structured data on every page and a Pinterest feed that picks up each new guide automatically. It runs on Astro, Vercel and Supabase.
What changed
The site went from first commit to live in two days, and 26 in-depth guides were published in the first week, with more added each week. A seller can now identify a mark, see what the metal and the object are worth, and ask a specialist in a single visit. The auction house receives each enquiry already in its pipeline, with the photos attached, scored and routed to the right valuer, so its team spends its time valuing rather than chasing details.