Estate Sale Software That Catalogs the Whole House
You photograph 800 items in a packed estate. Gavelist's multi-photo AI writes every description, reads every maker's mark, and flags every chip — so you can go live in hours, not days.
Estate Sales Are a Cataloging Nightmare
Gavelist is AI-powered estate sale software that turns photos into auction-ready catalog descriptions in about 10 minutes for a 1,000-lot estate using 8 concurrent AI workers. Upload up to 5,000 photos, and the system generates professional lot descriptions with maker identification, condition notes, and value estimates — then exports import files for HiBid, LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid, BidWrangler, AuctionNinja, eBay Seller Hub, and any CSV-import platform at $0.15 per lot.
Estate sale software helps auctioneers photograph, catalog, and list hundreds of items from a single property — a process that traditionally takes days of manual work. According to the 2024 EstateSales.net Industry Survey, 55% of estate sale businesses now treat estate sales as their primary source of income, and most of that work still starts with a house full of objects. You walk into a three-bedroom house packed floor to ceiling. The family wants everything sold by Friday. You've got 3 to 5 days to photograph, catalog, and list 200 to 800 items — furniture, jewelry, china sets, tools, artwork, boxes of things you haven't even opened yet.
So you start shooting. Room by room, shelf by shelf, you burn through 2,000 to 4,000 photos. Then the real work begins: sitting at your laptop writing descriptions one lot at a time. What's the maker on that pottery? Is this sterling or plate? What pattern is this china? You're Googling backstamps, squinting at hallmarks, and typing the same condition notes over and over. Full-scope manual cataloging runs about 8 to 15 lots per hour — according to Sound Auction Service in Washington state, buying it as a service costs $3.00 per lot. A 400-lot estate eats 27 to 50 hours of desk work.
The client is asking for updates. The auction date is locked in. And you're still on lot 147. A tool that reads only one photo per item produces a sentence that wouldn't pass as a yard sale listing, let alone a professional auction catalog.
Walk Through the House. Let AI Do the Desk Work.
Gavelist, AI-powered cataloging software for auctioneers, is built for the way estate liquidators actually work. You photograph the house. You upload the photos. Gavelist does everything that used to chain you to a desk — identifying items, reading maker's marks, noting condition, and writing complete catalog descriptions.
Unlike single-photo tools, Gavelist examines every photo attached to every lot. The front of the painting, the signature in the corner, the gallery label on the back, the close-up of the frame damage — it all gets analyzed together. That's the difference between “oil painting, landscape” and “Hudson River School oil on canvas, unsigned, period gilt frame with minor losses to gesso at corners, 24 x 36 inches sight size.”
Gavelist also learns how you write. Set up a voice profile and every description matches your style — your terminology, your formatting, your level of detail. The catalog reads like your team wrote it, because the AI was trained on your voice.
Gavelist, a platform-independent AI cataloging tool for estate auctioneers, starts at $0.15 per lot with no monthly minimum. The Auctioneer plan at $79 per month covers 1,000 lots — enough for most estate sale operators running 2–4 sales per month. Every plan includes the same multi-photo AI, 18 category models, value estimation, and exports for 10 named platforms plus a universal CSV/XLS.
House to Catalog in Four Steps
Upload the Walkthrough
Drag in every photo from the estate — 3,000 shots straight from your camera or phone. Gavelist handles bulk uploads and keeps everything organized by the order you shot it.
Sort Into Lots
Pre-numbered your files by lot? Gavelist detects assignments from filenames automatically. Didn't? The conveyor belt interface lets you drag, split, and merge lots with keyboard shortcuts — faster than any spreadsheet.
AI Writes the Catalog
Hit describe and Gavelist's AI examines every photo in each lot — backstamps, hallmarks, signatures, labels, and condition details. It writes complete catalog descriptions in your voice. A 1,000-lot estate processes in about 10 minutes with 8 concurrent AI workers.
Export & Go Live
Download a ready-made import file for HiBid, LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid, BidWrangler, or AuctionNinja, an eBay Seller Hub bulk-listing file, or a universal CSV/XLS. Titles, descriptions, and photos, ready for bidders.
Built for Estate Sale Professionals
Every feature was built to handle the volume and variety of a real estate liquidation.
Fall estate season: what a busy month costs
Fall is when estate calendars stack up, and cataloging is where the time goes. At the full-scope manual rate of about 8 to 15 lots per hour, the hours below are desk time before a single bid. The Gavelist column is the software cost for the same lots on Gavelist's published plans, with 0% of your sales; the Gavelist description pass itself runs 1,000+ lots in about 10 minutes.
| Month of sales | Manual desk time | Gavelist cost |
|---|---|---|
| One 400-lot estate | 27 to 50 hours | $60 pay-as-you-go |
| Two 400-lot estates plus a 200-lot sale (1,000 lots) | 67 to 125 hours | $79 Auctioneer plan |
| Five 500-lot estates (2,500 lots) | 167 to 313 hours | $160 Pro plan |
- Shoot the marks: undersides, backstamps, hallmarks and labels are what put a maker in the title.
- Group low-value strays into box lots at the house, not at the desk.
- Upload the whole sale in one batch; Gavelist reads every photo attached to a lot together.
In September 2026 alone, 97.7% of 11,040 lots exported through Gavelist went out with no client edit to the AI title or description. 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.
Pricing That Scales With Your Volume
Whether you run one estate a month or five a week, every plan includes the same specialist-grade AI.
No monthly commitment
- $0.15 per lot — pay only when you use it
- Multi-photo AI — every angle analyzed
- Voice profile — AI matches your style
- All export formats included
- No monthly commitment
$0.08/lot included
- Up to 1,000 lots per month
- Multi-photo AI — every angle analyzed
- Voice profile — AI matches your style
- All export formats included
- Review queue with smart flagging
- Direct access to the founder
$0.06/lot included
- Up to 2,500 lots per month
- Everything in Auctioneer
- Advanced voice profile tools
Need more lots? Just $0.09 per additional lot — automatically metered.
Trusted by Professional Auctioneers
From independent auctioneers running monthly estate sales to regional houses cataloging thousands of lots each week — Gavelist handles the busywork so you can focus on selling.
“Every client has direct access to me — not a support queue. If you're running your first auction with Gavelist, call me and I'll walk you through it.”
— Ben, Founder of Gavelist (412) 580-7398
Catalog Your Next Estate in Minutes, Not Days
Try Gavelist, AI-powered cataloging software for auctioneers, free on your next estate sale — or call Ben directly. No demo request forms. No sales calls. Just a tool that works.