Support

How do I appraise something?

1. Open Magpie and point the camera at the object.
2. Take up to four photographs with the round button. They appear in a row above it.
3. If there is a price on the ticket, type it in the Ticket box. You can leave it empty.
4. Tap Appraise.

The answer usually takes 15 to 30 seconds. It shows what the object probably is, what the same thing recently sold for, and, if you typed a ticket price, whether to buy it. Each appraisal uses one credit.

At the bottom of the answer, tap Yes or No to tell us whether it was right. That is how Magpie gets better.

How many photos, and which?

Up to four. One is enough for something obvious, but more helps:

• the front, filling the frame;
• the back or base, where makers put their marks;
• a close photo of any mark, label, signature, hallmark or serial number;
• any damage, because a chip or a crack changes the value.

Magpie reads the text in your photographs on the phone itself. A maker’s name, a hallmark or a book’s ISBN is the strongest clue there is, and you will see what was read appear above the photographs.

You can also choose photographs from your library with the button on the left. Good light matters more than anything else. Use the torch button on a dim shelf.

Where do the prices come from?

From things that actually sold on eBay in recent months. Not from what sellers are asking, which is nearly always higher.

When prices have been converted from another currency, the answer says “converted” beside the site’s name. If one site has too few sales of the thing, Magpie also looks at a second eBay site and says which it used.

Magpie does not trust the search blindly. A search for a maker’s name returns all sorts, so it reads each sold listing, sets aside the ones that are plainly a different object, and tells you how many it kept.

If no sales are found at all, the answer says so and gives a wider, less confident estimate from general knowledge.

Magpie is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by eBay. eBay is a trade mark of eBay Inc.

Which eBay site depends on your market:

Why is it a range?

Because that is the truth. The same kind of object sells for different prices depending on its condition, its size, who was looking that week and how well it was listed. A single number would hide all of that.

So the answer shows:

• the range it would realistically sell for;
• the most likely figure, marked on the bar;
• every sale Magpie found, as a dot on the same line;
• your ticket price, as an arrow, so you can see at a glance whether it sits below the range.

A narrow range with many dots inside it is strong evidence. A wide range with few dots means be careful.

What do the confidence rings mean?

There are two rings, each out of 100.

• Identity is how sure Magpie is about what the object is. A clear maker’s mark pushes it up. A shape with no mark keeps it down.
• Value is how far to trust the range. Many sales of the same thing push it up. Few sales, or sales of things that only roughly match, keep it down.

A ring is green at 60 or more, amber from 35 to 59, and grey below that.

The tile beside them shows how many sold listings Magpie judged to be the same kind of object, out of how many the search found. “18 of 20 sold” is solid. “2 of 20” means most of what was found was something else.

Open Why under the answer for the reasoning, the things to check with the object in your hand, and the caveats.

What do BUY, MAYBE and PASS mean?

They appear only when you type the ticket price before you tap Appraise.

• BUY: the ticket is clearly below what the object sells for, with room left after the costs of selling it on.
• MAYBE: it is marginal. There may be a little in it, or none.
• PASS: the ticket is at or above what it sells for.

The verdict allows for selling costs, which take roughly 15 to 20 percent of a sale once fees and postage are paid. One line under the verdict says why.

If you are buying to keep rather than to sell, read the range instead. A PASS on something you love at a fair price is still a fair price.

Is the value a guarantee?

No. It is an estimate, made from photographs and from what similar things recently sold for.

Magpie cannot handle the object. It cannot confirm that something is genuine, see a repair under the glaze, or know that a part has been replaced. It can also be wrong about what the object is, which is why every answer carries a confidence and a list of things to check.

Use it to inform a decision, not to make it for you. For anything valuable, or anything you need valued for insurance, probate or sale, ask a qualified valuer.

Which countries and currencies does it work in?

Magpie starts in the market that matches your phone’s region. To change it, tap the cog, then Market. The market sets the currency and whose sold prices are used.

The language is separate. The app follows your phone’s language when it is one of those in the language menu at the top of this page, and the answer is written in that language whichever market you are in. So you can read French answers in pounds in Manchester.

Does it work offline?

No. An appraisal needs a connection, because the identification and the sold prices come from our servers.

In a shop with a weak signal, Magpie waits for the connection rather than giving up. If an appraisal fails, no credit is taken, and the photographs are kept so you can try again.

Your past appraisals, with their photographs, are stored on your phone and open without a connection.

What happens to my photos?

Nothing leaves your phone until you tap Appraise.

Then the photographs are sent to our server and on to the AI service that identifies the object. They are used for that appraisal and not stored on our servers. The AI service does not use them to train its models.

What we keep is the answer: what the object was identified as, the prices found, and whether you said it was right.

The photographs themselves stay on your phone, with the appraisal, until you delete it. Swipe an appraisal in the list to remove it.

The privacy policy has the detail.

How do credits work and what do they cost?

One credit is one appraisal.

• Your first three are free when you sign in.
• After that, buy a bundle in the app: 10 credits or 50 credits. The app shows the price in your currency.
• Credits never expire, and there is no subscription. Nothing renews.
• No credit is taken when an appraisal fails or when Magpie cannot look at the photograph.

The number beside the sparkle at the top of the camera screen is how many you have left. Tap it to buy more.

Credits belong to your account, not your phone. Sign in the same way on a new phone and they are there. An Apple sign-in and a Google sign-in are separate accounts, each with its own credits.

Can I get a refund?

Purchases are made through Apple on iPhone and through Google Play on Android, so they handle refunds. On iPhone, go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, and choose the purchase. On Android, find the purchase in Google Play’s order history. When a purchase is refunded, the credits it bought are removed from your account.

If an appraisal was plainly wrong, or a credit was taken and no answer came, write to us at [email protected]. Tell us roughly when, and we will look at it and put it right.

Your legal rights as a consumer are not affected by any of this.

How do I delete my account?

In the app, tap the cog, scroll to Data and tap Delete account and all appraisals.

This removes your account, every appraisal we hold for it, and any credits you have left. It also removes the appraisals and photographs stored on that phone. It cannot be undone, and unused credits are not refunded.

If you signed in with Apple, deleting also stops Magpie using your Apple ID. If you signed in with Google, you can remove Magpie from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com, under Security.

If you cannot use the app, email us from the address you signed in with and we will delete the account for you.

How do I contact you?

Email [email protected], or in the app tap the cog and then Contact support, which starts an email with your app version already in it.

Most questions are answered within minutes, and anything that needs a person reaches one within a working day. It helps to say what you photographed and what Magpie said.

For anything about your personal data, write to [email protected].