Understanding how items are classified, vetted, and approved before they are listed on the UK's largest antiques marketplace.
The classification of antiques can be a complex subject. As stated in the UK Trading Standards' Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, "there is no uniformly accepted definition of the term antique."
Because of this ambiguity, we have implemented our own strict standards to protect our buyers. To determine whether an item qualifies as an antique on our platform, we utilize a comprehensive Dateline Policy. This policy is a strict conglomeration of the same accepted datelines used to vet items for entry into prestigious, 'real-life' physical antique fairs across the UK.
When an item is uploaded, the date of manufacture is initially declared by the respective antique dealer. Before the item goes live on Sellingantiques.co.uk, this declared date is manually checked against our required dateline categories.
If the item falls within the acceptable margin of its given dateline, it is approved, published to the website, and officially accompanied by an Antique Declaration Stamp. This visual badge signifies to visitors that the piece has been formally classified as an antique under our platform's guidelines.
Sellingantiques is proud to be curated and operated by real human beings, rather than automated systems. While this ensures a much higher standard of overall quality, it also means there may be rare occasions where an item that falls outside of our website norms is mistakenly approved. We actively monitor our listings and encourage visitors to report any items they believe fall outside our strict criteria.
