NextLot has run white-label auction sites for years, and it does that job well. This page is about the parts you only feel later — whether the list, the books, and the price are really yours.
Credit where it’s due: NextLot solved the branded-platform problem a long time ago, and if that’s all you need, it’s a fine answer. The trouble usually isn’t the bidding page. It’s the Sunday night before the sale, the argument about the commission six weeks later, and the quiet worry about what you’d actually keep if you left. That’s the ground Hammerwerks stands on.
You know the scramble — kitchen table, cold coffee, typing a title, a description, a category, and a condition line for every lot before the catalog goes live. Hammerwerks drafts all of that from your phone photos, each field with a confidence score, and a second AI checks the first. You still approve every lot. On coins, jewelry, art, or a market with no comps, it says it doesn’t know and hands you an opening bid instead of inventing a value. Most platforms we’ve seen, as of 2026, still have you type every field.
Every number on that bidder list is a night you spent earning it. Here’s the fear worth saying out loud: on a lot of software you can see your list but leaving with it is somebody else’s decision. On Hammerwerks it’s a CSV export, any day you want — no phone call, no “let me check with the team.” Your domain, your payment account, your people. If you ever go, you go with all of it.
“Call us for pricing” means the number depends on who’s asking. Ours is on the site: Solo $99, Growth $299, Scale $799 a month, one-time $499 setup that a promo code waives. We never take a percentage of your hammer. As of 2026 we couldn’t find NextLot’s pricing published anywhere — that may suit you fine, but you’ll be having the money conversation before you see a screen.
NextLot publishes very little, so the middle column is public information as of 2026, hedged wherever we couldn’t confirm it. If you run on NextLot and something here is wrong or stale, tell me on a call and I’ll fix it — I’d rather lose fair than win on bad intel.
| What matters | NextLot | Hammerwerks |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs you | No published pricing we could find, as of 2026 | Solo $99 / Growth $299 / Scale $799 a month, on the site |
| Cut of the hammer | Fee model not published, as of 2026 | None — no commission on hammer prices, ever |
| Cataloging a lot | Type the fields, as far as we’ve seen (2026) | Photos → AI draft with confidence scores → second AI review → you approve every lot |
| When the AI isn’t sure | n/a — no AI cataloging we’ve found | Says “no estimate” on coins, jewelry, art, thin markets — won’t invent a number |
| Recall & identifier checks | Not that we’ve found | NHTSA/CPSC recalls, plus VIN / ISBN / UPC / maker’s-mark lookups |
| No-login helper capture link | Not that we’ve found | Scoped, revocable link — no account for the helper photographing lots |
| Consignment agreement | Not that we’ve found published | Consignor e-signs, you countersign — tamper-evident and provable |
| Settlement & books | Not that we’ve found published | Settle against the signed contract; won’t pay a lot before its buyer’s money is in; reconciled trust balance; 1099 & sales-tax worksheets; CSV out |
| Own & export your bidder list | White-label on your domain (2026); CSV export per public info | Yours — full CSV export, any day, no ask |
| Run it from ChatGPT | Not that we’ve found | MCP server — work the back office by talking to ChatGPT |
| Registered-bidder reach | Your own audience (white-label) | Your own audience — we don’t run a marketplace pool either |
No, and anyone who promises that is selling. Hammerwerks drafts each lot from your photos and a second AI reviews the draft, but you approve every lot. It saves the typing, not the deciding. On coins, jewelry, art, or a thin market with no comps, it can’t reliably judge grade or authenticity, so it says “no estimate, opening bid $X” instead of inventing a number. AI cataloging runs on monthly credits — Solo has none, Growth 500, Scale 3,000 — and typing lots in by hand is unlimited on every tier.
No — and reach isn’t our story. The big registered-bidder pools belong to HiBid and Proxibid, not to us and not to any white-label platform. On your own domain your reach is the audience you bring. Where we earn our keep is the workflow: the cataloging hours, the price you can see, and a list that stays yours — not raw reach.
Your bidder list exports as CSV, your custom domain re-points to us, your payment account stays yours. The honest catch, and it’s true of any move, not a knock on NextLot: historical bid timestamps often live inside a vendor’s database and may not travel. Most operators never need them; if you do, I’ll tell you up front what comes across and what doesn’t. Figure a couple of weekends, not zero.
Statements settle against the contract the consignor actually signed, at that seller’s commission rate. A lot’s money won’t release before its buyer has paid, and a partial settles on the funds already collected. You get a reconciled trust balance, a 1099 worksheet per consignor, a sales-tax remittance report, and CSV export. Two honest limits: you pay a consignor by check or electronically and it records the payment — it doesn’t print and mail the check — and the books export as CSV, not a live QuickBooks or Xero sync.
Because “call us” is a tell, and auctioneers can smell it. Solo $99, Growth $299, Scale $799 a month; lots above your tier are 50 cents each; setup is a one-time $499 that a promo code waives; 30-day money-back; no cut of your hammer. You can see the price before you ever talk to me.
Book a call and bring your NextLot invoice — we’ll do an honest side-by-side. Or watch the 90-second demo first and see a photo turn into a drafted lot.
30-day money-back. Cancel anytime. Full data export, any day, whether you stay or go.
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