At 2,000 lots a week, which is about 8,667 lots a month, Gavelist costs about $580 a month on its Enterprise plan: $250 for the first 5,000 lots plus $0.09 for each of the other 3,667, with 0% of auction sales. The same volume on Gavelist's Pay as You Go rate of $0.15 a lot is about $1,300 a month. On describing time, Gavelist publishes one measured figure: most sales of up to 500 lots finish describing in under 10 minutes once describing starts.
By Ben Cope, founder of Gavelist. Prices are from Gavelist's pricing page as of November 2026. Every number below shows its arithmetic, so you can redo it with your own volume.
What 2,000 lots a week costs on each Gavelist plan
A year has 52 weeks, so 2,000 lots a week is 104,000 lots a year, or about 8,667 lots in an average month (2,000 × 52 ÷ 12). Gavelist's subscription plans include a block of lots each month. Above that block, Gavelist bills $0.09 a lot on all three subscription plans.
| Gavelist plan | Monthly price | Lots included | Lots over the plan | Monthly total at 8,667 lots |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as You Go | $0 | 0 | 8,667 at $0.15 | about $1,300 |
| Auctioneer | $79 | 1,000 | 7,667 at $0.09 | about $769 |
| Pro | $160 | 2,500 | 6,167 at $0.09 | about $715 |
| Enterprise | $250 | 5,000 | 3,667 at $0.09 | about $580 |
At this volume Enterprise is the lowest-cost Gavelist plan, at about 6.7 cents a lot all-in ($580 ÷ 8,667). Above 3,500 lots a month, Enterprise costs less than Pro with overage ($160 + 1,000 × $0.09 = $250).
Short months and long months
Gavelist counts lots per billing month, so a month with four sale weeks costs less than a month with five.
| Sale weeks in the month | Lots | Gavelist Enterprise | Gavelist Pay as You Go |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 weeks | 8,000 | $250 + 3,000 × $0.09 = $520 | $1,200 |
| Average month | about 8,667 | about $580 | about $1,300 |
| 5 weeks | 10,000 | $250 + 5,000 × $0.09 = $700 | $1,500 |
If you run more than 2,000 a week, the same arithmetic holds. At 2,500 lots a week (about 10,833 a month), Gavelist Enterprise is about $775 a month. At 3,000 a week (13,000 a month), it is $970.
Add-ons are a separate, optional line
Gavelist's description price covers the title, description, condition notes and a value tier with a low and high estimate for each lot. Two add-ons are off until you turn them on, and Gavelist bills them only on lots where they are delivered:
- Market comps: $0.15 a lot. These are current marketplace listings, so eBay results are asking prices, not sold prices.
- Product photos: $0.15 per lot, charged only when you accept the suggested photo.
- Both on the same lot: $0.25.
If you turned comps on for every lot at 8,667 lots a month, that would add about $1,300 to the Gavelist bill. Gavelist also lets you turn the add-ons on for individual lots instead of a whole sale.
How long 2,000 lots a week takes
There are three blocks of time in a high-volume week: photography, describing, and your review before export.
Photography and sorting stay with you. Gavelist does not take the photos. It keeps your photos in camera-roll order, groups them into lots automatically when the filenames carry lot numbers, and otherwise gives you a conveyor-belt screen to split the stream into lots.
Describing is the part Gavelist measures. Most sales of up to 500 lots finish describing in under 10 minutes once describing starts. That figure comes from Gavelist production jobs from August 16 to October 15, 2026. Gavelist has not published a describing time for single sales larger than 500 lots, because too few have been measured. If your 2,000 lots arrive as several sales, Gavelist describes each sale as its own job.
Review is yours to time. Gavelist reads every photo in a lot together, flags lots it cannot identify for review instead of guessing, and names metals and stones only when a hallmark or certification is readable. How much editing you do is the variable that matters most. According to Gavelist production data, 88% of lots across Gavelist clients shipped with no client edit to the AI title or description (96% including Gavelist's largest client), through September 2026.
For comparison, by hand. There is no public industry figure for manual cataloging speed. Gavelist's working range for full-scope cataloging by hand (preparing the item, writing the title and description, photos, upload) is 8 to 15 lots an hour. At that rate, 2,000 lots a week is 133 to 250 hours of cataloging every week (2,000 ÷ 15 and 2,000 ÷ 8). Multiply those hours by what an hour costs you, and set that against about $580 a month on Gavelist Enterprise.
A real high-volume example
According to Gavelist production data, one five-person estate auction team cataloged 10,235 lots from 38,542 photos across 37 completed jobs in its first six weeks on Gavelist (jobs created March 20 to May 2, 2026). The largest single job was 944 lots. The full numbers are in the 10,235-lot case study, and the high-volume auction houses page covers the same pricing in a table.
What a 2,000-lot week needs from a cataloging tool
- No lot limit per sale. Gavelist has no lot limit per sale, so a 900-lot estate goes through as one job.
- Every photo read together. Backstamps, maker's marks and damage are often on the second or third photo. Gavelist reads every photo in the lot in one pass.
- Export files for the platforms you sell on. Gavelist exports ready-made files for HiBid (through Auction Flex 360), LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid, BidWrangler, AuctionNinja and Auction Flex 360, an import workbook for Auctioneer Software, an eBay drafts CSV, and a generic CSV for AuctionZip, AuctionMethod, Wavebid and any other spreadsheet-import platform. Every export is a file you download and import into your platform.
- No cut of the sale. Gavelist takes 0% of auction sales on every plan, so the bill depends on lot count, not hammer prices.
Try it on one of your sales first
Gavelist's free trial is 100 lots, no card, 30 days from your first describe, and it includes comps on 10 lots and product photos on 10 lots. Run one real sale through it, time your own review, and you will have the one number this page cannot give you: how long your review pass takes. Start the free trial or estimate your monthly cost.
FAQ
How much does it cost to catalog 2,000 lots a week? On Gavelist's Enterprise plan, about $580 a month: $250 for 5,000 lots plus $0.09 for each of the other 3,667 lots in an average 8,667-lot month, with 0% of sales.
Is pay-as-you-go cheaper at high volume? No. At 8,667 lots a month, Gavelist's Pay as You Go rate of $0.15 a lot comes to about $1,300, against about $580 on Gavelist Enterprise. Pay as You Go costs less than Gavelist's Auctioneer plan only below about 527 lots a month.
How long does it take to describe 2,000 lots with Gavelist? Gavelist describes each sale as its own job, and most sales of up to 500 lots finish describing in under 10 minutes once describing starts. Gavelist has not published a time for single sales over 500 lots. Photography and your review time are not included in that figure.
What does a high-volume auction house pay in overage on Gavelist? Gavelist bills $0.09 for each lot over a subscription plan's included lots, on the Auctioneer, Pro and Enterprise plans. At 8,667 lots a month on Enterprise, that is 3,667 lots, or about $330.
Does Gavelist take a percentage of auction sales? No. Gavelist takes 0% of auction sales on every plan and bills only per lot described, plus any add-ons you turn on.
Can I test Gavelist before committing a 2,000-lot week? Yes. Gavelist's free trial is 100 lots, no card, 30 days from your first describe.
Sources
- Gavelist, "Pricing" (plan prices, included lots, $0.09 overage, add-on prices, free trial), gavelist.com/pricing, November 2026.
- Gavelist production data: describing time for sales of up to 500 lots, jobs from August 16 to October 15, 2026.
- Gavelist production data: export edits through September 22, 2026.
- Gavelist production data: one high-volume estate auction house, jobs created March 20 to May 2, 2026.