Every auctioneer carries a quiet worry: you spend years turning strangers into buyers who answer the phone, and on the wrong platform that list quietly becomes somebody else’s asset. Gavelry is a real, decent tool built by people we respect — this page is just the honest line on where our two bets differ. Ownership first.
Gavelry and Hammerwerks are both modern, honestly-priced tools, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. The difference that actually decides it for your business isn’t a feature checklist — it’s who ends up owning the buyer relationships, and how much of every hammer price you keep.
The table below is drawn from Gavelry’s public information as of 2026. They ship features, so check their current site before you take any row as gospel — where we couldn’t verify something, we say “not advertised” or “ask them,” not “they don’t have it.” We’re not here to run down a decent product.
| Capability | Gavelry | Hammerwerks |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the bidder list | Ask them directly — as of 2026 we couldn’t verify their export or ownership terms | Yours, on your own branded site — export the whole list any day, including the day you leave |
| Commission on the hammer | Not something we can verify — ask them | None. Ever. We never take a percentage of your hammer |
| Lot cataloging | Manual lot entry; no AI drafting advertised as of 2026 | AI drafts title, description, category, condition, and a value range from photos — each with a confidence score; a second AI reviews; you approve every lot |
| When the AI isn’t sure | n/a | Says “I don’t know” on coins, jewelry, art, and thin markets instead of inventing a number |
| No-login capture link | Not advertised as of 2026 | Scoped, revocable link — text it to a helper, no app, no account; kill it when the truck’s unloaded |
| Recall & identifier checks | Not advertised as of 2026 | Every lot checked against NHTSA/CPSC recalls; VIN/ISBN/maker’s-marks/UPC lookups |
| Consignor contracts & settlement | Not advertised as of 2026 | Consignor e-signs a tamper-evident agreement you can prove later; statements settle against that signed contract |
| The books | Not advertised as of 2026 | Reconciliation, trust balance, per-consignor 1099 worksheet, sales-tax report, CSV export |
| Run it from ChatGPT | Not advertised | An MCP server lets ChatGPT operate the catalog and settlement |
| Published pricing | Flat monthly, per their public site as of 2026 — confirm current numbers with them | Tiered: Solo $99, Growth $299, Scale $799/mo; $499 one-time setup, waived with a promo code |
| Time in this category | Longer | Earlier |
Not “better at everything.” These are the specific things we put in writing that we haven’t found in Gavelry’s public product as of 2026.
You spent years turning strangers into buyers who pick up when you call. On a lot of platforms that list quietly becomes their asset, and you’re renting access to your own people. Here it’s the other way around: your bidders live on your own branded site, and you can export the whole list any day — including the day you decide to walk. Nobody holds it hostage.
The gavel falls, and on some setups a slice of that number is gone before it reaches you or your consignor. We don’t take a percentage of the hammer — not on your best lot, not ever. You pay a flat monthly tier and the sale is yours. Then settlement runs against the contract your consignor actually signed, so the commission math nobody disputes six weeks later is already on paper.
It’s nine at night before a Saturday sale and you’re still typing lot descriptions next to a cold plate of dinner. Shoot the photos instead. The AI drafts the title, description, category, condition, and a value range — each with a confidence score — a second AI checks it, and you approve every lot. When it hits a coin, a ring, or a thin market it can’t call, it says “I don’t know” instead of inventing a price that burns your credibility at the podium.
No. It’s a real, decent product built by a team we respect. We made a different bet — own-your-list, no commission on the hammer, AI-first cataloging, and a founder who picks up the phone — not a claim that they’re bad. If we trash-talked them here, you shouldn’t trust the rest of this page either.
They probably will — most auction software will within a couple of years. The draft itself is maybe a third of it. The part that’s hard to copy is the whole workflow around it: the no-login capture link, the confidence score on every field, the second AI that reviews, the honest “I don’t know,” the recall checks, and the settle-against-the-signed-contract books. That’s what we’re betting on.
You take it with you. Full export, any day, no call to a retention team. Your bidders sit on your own branded site the whole time — the point is that you never have to wonder whose asset they are.
Three tiers, no commission on the hammer ever. Solo is $99/mo for up to 200 lots and no AI credits. Growth is $299/mo for 1,000 lots and 500 AI credits a month. Scale is $799/mo for 5,000 lots and 3,000 credits. Go over your lot count and it’s 50 cents a lot — no surprise renegotiation. Manual cataloging is unlimited on every tier; AI credits only meter the AI features. Bidders and users are unlimited. There’s a $499 one-time setup we’ll waive with a promo code, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and full data export whenever you want it.
No — and neither does Gavelry. HiBid and Proxibid have registered-bidder pools neither of us can match, and we’re not going to pretend we can. Reach is their game. Ours is the cataloging workflow and the fact that the audience you do build is yours to keep.
If catalog time is your bottleneck and you’re tired of wondering whose list it really is, book a call and we’ll run the capture-to-draft flow on your own lots. If you run one simple sale a month and a flat number suits you, Gavelry may be the cheaper fit — go with them, and come back if you outgrow it. Watch the 90-second demo or book a call.
30-day money-back. Cancel anytime. Full data export any time — it was always yours.
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