Purpose-Built for UK Antique Dealers
Antique shop inventory management software that tracks provenance, period, condition, and margins. Manage your stock across shops, fairs, and online channels from one place. Built by a former UK dealer who ran a shop, a fair pitch, and an online listing off the same overloaded spreadsheet.
Inventory
6 items
Art Deco Diamond Ring
JWL-2026-0089
Cartier Tank Watch
WCH-2026-0034
Georgian Silver Candelabra
ANT-2026-0056
Hermès Birkin 25
HBG-2026-0012
Edwardian Sapphire Pendant
JWL-2026-0091
Rolex Datejust 1601
WCH-2026-0035
One house clearance can bring in a vanload of pieces in an afternoon, each with its own history, its own condition report, and its own VAT position. Software built for reordering the same product week after week has nowhere to put any of that, so the detail ends up spread across a spreadsheet, a notebook, and whatever you can still remember.
Every antique piece needs its history documented — who owned it, where it came from, and its journey through dealers, estates, and auctions. Generic software has no fields for this. Spreadsheets can track it, but linking provenance to contacts and purchases across hundreds of items is a nightmare.
Most antique stock comes from private sellers, house clearances, and estate sales, making the Margin Scheme essential. But tracking which items qualify, calculating VAT at 1/6 of the margin, and generating HMRC-compliant records requires precision that manual methods cannot guarantee.
A shop, the fairs circuit, Shopify, and before long eBay. With one of everything, each channel has to be corrected by hand as soon as a piece moves, and the piece you just sold may already be sitting on a stand two counties away.
Taking stock to fairs means knowing exactly what is where. Which pieces are at the shop, which are at this weekend's fair, and which are listed online? Without a system that tracks locations, you end up with handwritten lists and guesswork.
Four answers to the four problems above, in the order a piece actually moves through your books.
Create custom fields to record where every antique came from, who you bought it from, and the chain of ownership. Every purchase links to your contact database, giving buyers the confidence they expect when purchasing pieces with history.
GemJam records the VAT status of a purchase at the point you enter it, then works out Margin Scheme VAT when the piece sells. Your stock book and your VAT return draw on the same figures, so neither needs rekeying.
Put a piece on Shopify without leaving GemJam. Record the sale, wherever it happened, and your stock and your connected Shopify listing move together. Sell somewhere GemJam is not connected to and you update that listing yourself. eBay integration is in development.
Track which items are at your shop, which are at a fair, and which are listed online. Record sales from any location on your phone and your inventory updates everywhere instantly.
PUR-2026-0042
Hatton Garden Estates · 15 Feb 2026
Subtotal
£8,250.00
VAT
£0.00
Margin Scheme
Total
£8,250.00
Line Items
Art Deco Diamond Ring, c.1925
JWL-2026-0089
£3,450.00
AvailableVictorian Pearl Brooch
JWL-2026-0090
£1,800.00
SoldCartier Tank Watch, 1970s
WCH-2026-0034
£3,000.00
AvailableA dining table and a mourning ring have almost nothing in common on paper, yet both need recording properly. Build a template per item type and each one asks for the fields that piece actually has.
Add custom fields for chain of ownership, acquisition source, and historical context — whatever your stock requires. Every purchase links to your contact database for a complete audit trail from purchase to sale.
Create template fields for period and era — Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, mid-century modern, or whatever categories suit your stock. Filter your inventory by era to find exactly what a customer is looking for.
Add condition fields to your item templates — from mint to heavily restored. Accurate condition information is critical for pricing, customer expectations, and reducing returns.
Include restoration fields in your templates — what was done, when, and by whom. Buyers of antiques expect transparency about repairs and restorations, and accurate records protect both you and the customer.
House clearances, estate sales, and private sellers rarely come with a VAT invoice, which is exactly what the Margin Scheme exists for: VAT on the profit margin rather than the full selling price. GemJam applies it as you trade.
Each purchase assessed for eligibility as you enter it, on the goods and how you came by them
VAT calculated at 1/6 (16.67%) of the margin on each eligible piece
Stock Book, VAT Return Report, and dual invoices in the formats HMRC asks for
Xero-compatible export, ready to forward to Dext
Spreadsheets, generic stock control, SeekUnique, GemJam: where they actually diverge.
| Feature | GemJam | Spreadsheets | Generic Inventory | SeekUnique |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provenance tracking | Yes | Manual columns | No | Unclear |
| Period and era categorisation | Yes | Manual columns | No | Yes |
| VAT Margin Scheme | Yes | Manual formulas | No | Yes |
| Multi-channel (Shopify; eBay coming soon) | Yes | No | Varies | SeekUnique-hosted sites only |
| Photo management | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Accounting export (Xero/Dext) | Yes | No | Varies | Built-in |
| Cloud-based (any device) | Yes | Yes | Varies | Desktop + optional hosting |
| Unique item management | Yes | Limited | Bulk-focused | Yes |
The questions dealers ask us before they move their stock book across.
GemJam lets you create custom item templates with exactly the fields you need for your stock. An antique table needs different details from an antique brooch, so you define the fields that matter — provenance, period, condition, materials, maker, dimensions, restoration history, and anything else. Each item type gets its own template, so nothing is missing and nothing is wasted.
GemJam’s custom templates let you add provenance fields tailored to your stock — chain of ownership, acquisition source, historical context, or whatever details matter for your items. Every purchase is linked to your contact database, so you can trace who you bought from, when, and at what price. This gives buyers the confidence they expect when purchasing antiques with history.
GemJam records the VAT treatment on every purchase. Two things decide whether a piece can go on the scheme: it has to be goods the scheme covers, and you have to have bought it without VAT being charged on the purchase. A private individual, an estate sale, or a non-VAT-registered seller is the common route in, not the deciding factor on its own. When a scheme piece sells, GemJam calculates VAT at 1/6 of the profit margin rather than the full selling price. It generates HMRC-compliant reports including the Stock Book, VAT Return Report, and dual invoice formats.
Yes, by three routes: pull your stock from Shopify, upload a CSV or Excel sheet, or enter pieces one at a time. Every piece lands as its own record carrying photos, purchase history, and whatever custom fields your templates define: provenance, condition, period, or anything else. The import itself is quick. How long the whole job takes depends on how much tidying your existing records need.
Yes. GemJam supports multiple locations, so you can track which items are at your shop, which are at a fair, and which are listed online. When you sell at a fair, record the sale on your phone and your inventory updates everywhere instantly. No more double-selling or losing track of stock across venues.
SeekUnique and similar tools were built years ago and have a legacy feel. GemJam is a modern cloud-based SaaS platform that works on any device with no software to install. It includes Shopify integration for multi-channel selling (eBay coming soon), automatic VAT Margin Scheme calculations, and accounting exports to Xero and Dext. It was built by a former UK dealer who understands the specific challenges of managing unique inventory.
Provenance, condition, period, and margin recorded against the piece itself, wherever it happens to be that week. Join the waiting list for early access.