AI Staging
A phone photo goes in; a gallery-ready lot comes out. Backgrounds lifted, frames squared, every piece set on the same signature stage.
Photo → listing
Commerce that runs deep.
Whaleworx builds shops that see, listen, appraise and sell. Phone photos become staged listings, a spoken story becomes a polished description, and AI sets the value before the auction opens. Built in Chicago on WooCommerce and Square.
● Live from the hold
Lot 218
Airstream Postcard, “The Great Pyramid at El Gizeh, Egypt, 1960”
Lot 208
Grenadiers in Bearskins, Red Facings
Lot 167
Still Life with Brass Ewer, Gilt Frame
Lot 183
Owl Trade Card, “Be-Owl’d”
Lot 193
Tory Burch Logo Slide Sandals, Tan
Lot 207
Fusiliers with Pink Facings, Drum and Eagle Standard
Lot
The Dock’s Fish House Whale Sign
Lot 215
Airstream Postcard, “Unstoppable in Oaxaca, Mexico, 1957”
Lot 192
Marc Jacobs Pink Pebbled Leather Saddle Crossbody
Lot 166
Aluminum Film Reel
Lot 174
CTA Bus 448 Crash Photograph, Framed
Lot 195
Orange Field with a Green Ring
Lot 181
Owl Trade Card, “How Owl’d Are You?”
Lot 188
Red Wooden Sign Letter “E”
Lot 205
Floral Still Life in a Carved Gilt Frame
Lot 180
Horn Gramophone, Columbia Viva-tonal Badge
Lot 209
Blue Coats with a White Eagle Standard
Lot 187
Hobo Clown with a Daisy Hat
01 · The EngineSix instruments,
Six instruments,
one vessel.
Every Whaleworx shop runs on the same intelligent core. It does the tedious parts of selling one-of-a-kind things, so the people can do the fun parts: finding them, and telling their stories.
The Deckhand
An AI appraiser that reads the photos, the size, the signature and the owner's story, then posts a likely resale range on every lot.
Auto-appraisalCaptain's Log
Ring the bell and talk. Keep your exact words or let the crew tidy them; the particulars fill in and the piece is re-valued.
Voice → copyLive Auctions
Hidden max bids, soft close, secret reserves, pay links and sound. Auction-house mechanics on your own domain, with your own customers.
Proxy biddingConsignment
Sellers upload from their phone. The engine stages it, drafts it, prices it and lists it; everyone gets their split when it sells.
Seller portalAsk the Deckhand
An on-site assistant that knows every lot, every rule and every pickup time, in the shop's own voice, around the clock.
AI concierge02 · How a lot surfacesFrom the basement
From the basement
to the block.
Four soundings take a piece from a phone in a storage unit to a live auction anyone can bid on. Most of it happens while you are hauling the next one.
10 ft · Snap
Shoot it
A few phone photos, any background, any light.
2−40 ft · Stage
Stage it
Cut out, squared up and set on the house stage.
3−200 ft · Sound
Value it
Particulars filled, story logged, range appraised.
4Surface · Sell
Auction it
On the block with a seven-day clock and a soft close.
03 · The AI helpersOne set of helpers,
One set of helpers,
tuned to every shop.
The appraiser, the writer and the concierge run on the same engine in every vessel. Each shop sets its own dials: the voice they write in, the market they price against, whether buyers see the estimates, and how the auctions run. All of it lives in the shop's settings. No code. They suggest; the shopkeeper decides.
House voiceHow the crew writes listings, replies and notes
Moby-Dick × Chicago loading dockCrew nameWhat the appraiser and assistant go by
The DeckhandMarket guidancePlain-English notes the appraiser prices against
“Sold as-is from a Chicago resale dock. Lean toward realistic resale, not gallery retail.”Show estimates to buyersThe “What's it worth?” panel on each product
Appraise on first viewOne AI call per piece, then cached
Per-lot overrideHand-set or hide any estimate, any time
Every lotSelling modeAuctions, fixed price, or both
Auction · $10 open · 7-day clockConciergeOn-site assistant that knows every lot and rule
Ask the Deckhand
Real lot · live now
What the Deckhand read
Lot 051 · Two Discs in a Gilt Frame
Photos36 × 48 inArtist: Charlie BurnsAcrylic, carved gilt frameOwner's storyShop's market notes
$400–$800likely resale · confidence: medium
“Its size at 36 x 48 inches gives it a solid presence, and the dynamic abstract composition is eye-catching.”
04 · Captain's LogSay it once.
Say it once.
Sell it honestly.
Walk the floor product by product, ring the bell and describe each piece the way you'd tell a friend. Keep every word exactly as you said it, or let the crew tidy the ums. Either way, buyers hear it from the person who found it.
- 1
Ring the bell
Right on the product, on your phone or laptop. Next lot is one tap away.
- 2
It writes down what you said
Fast transcription, primed with the shop's name and city so local names come out right.
- 3
Your words, or a light polish
Keep my exact words uses no AI at all. Polish trims filler and fixes grammar, and is told never to add a fact you didn't say.
- 4
Particulars and value update
Maker, size and materials fill in from what you said, and the appraiser takes a fresh sounding.
- 5
A signed note on the listing
“From the Captain's Log” sits on the product page, in your voice, next to the photos.
Why it mattersBuyers of one-of-a-kind things are buying the story as much as the object. A real person's own words, unpolished if you like, is the strongest trust signal a small shop has.
Captain's LogLOT 214 · 12 OF 129
Ring the bell and talkTap to hear how it works
Your words
From the Captain's LogVerbatim
— In the seller's own words
Materials · BrassEra · 1960s (seller's guess)Re-valued · $60–120
05 · ThemesYour thrift store.
Your thrift store.
Your character.
Weird Whaleworx is one personality: Moby-Dick by way of a Chicago loading dock. Every shop on the engine gets its own look, its own type, its own name for the crew and its own way of talking to buyers. Here is the same lamp, with the same facts, in five example shops.
WEIRD WHALEWORXThe HoldAuctionsSell
Lot 214
Brass Gooseneck Lamp
A 1960s brass gooseneck, freshly rewired, bending wherever you point her. A little patina on the hull, plenty of light left in the lantern.
Deckhand's soundings$60–120
Place a bid
Thrift & resaleVintage & mid-centuryEstate salesAntiquesArt & studio salesRecords & mediaToys & collectiblesBooks & ephemeraSalvage & industrialYour weird thing →
06 · PulseFeel the tide
Feel the tide
from the wheelhouse.
Every shop on the engine gets a live read of its own waters, right where the shopkeeper already works: the top of the WordPress dashboard. Who came aboard, what they circled, how long they lingered and where they sailed in from. No other tab, no report to dig for.
Pulse counts the shop's own visits with no cookies and no outside script, then folds in Google Analytics for sources, cities and devices. The shopkeeper and anyone who edits the site are never counted, and bots are thrown back, so the numbers are people.
- Six numbers, one glance: visitors, page views, lot views, time per visit, time on a lot and pages per visit, each against the last stretch.
- Any stretch of water: today, 7, 30 or 90 days, or any dates you choose.
- Aboard now: a live count that refreshes every minute.
- Lots they're circling: the pieces drawing the most people, with time spent and bids.
- The tide this week: an optional panel on the shop floor that shows buyers what the crowd is circling. It stays quiet on a slow week.
Whaleworx Pulse
3 aboard nowWho's aboard, and what they're looking at
Today7 days30 days90 daysCustom
Visitors186▲ 24% vs prior
Lot views301▲ 37% vs prior
Time per visit3m 04s▲ 15% vs prior
Traffic, day by day
Last 7 daysLots they're circling
By visitorsLot 180 · Horn Gramophone38Lot 174 · CTA Bus 448 Photo29
Lot 179 · Moss Bunny21Whaleworx counts · no cookiesGoogle Analytics · connected
Monday morning
What to feature
Lots everyone circles but nobody bids on want a better photo, a story or a nudge.
"38 looked at the gramophone. It leads the newsletter."
Before the estate sale
What to haul in
Categories by visitors show where the current is running before you spend a Saturday digging.
"Paintings pull three times what glass does. Hunt for art."
Before you post
Where to call out
Sources and cities from Google Analytics show which channel is actually sending people, and from where.
"Facebook sent four times what Instagram did. Post there first."
Any evening
When to ring the bell
Busiest hour, time on page and the live count show when buyers are present, so you launch while they're aboard.
"Three aboard and it's 8 pm. Open the Friday lot tonight."
Live in the first vessel. The real panel on the Weird Whaleworx dashboard: the whale sign and the Airstream postcards are this week's most-circled lots.
The tide this week, on the shop floor. Buyers see what the crowd is circling, written in the shop's own voice.
07 · The FleetShops under
Shops under
the whale.
Whaleworx is the umbrella. Each vessel is its own shop with its own voice and its own catalogue, running on the shared engine.
Live · Auctions open
Weird Whaleworx
Weird things for good folks.
Art, oddities, toy armies and curiosities hauled up from Chicago estate sales, alleys and attics, every one a live auction from a South Loop loading dock. 171 lots in the hold right now.
Dive into the hold+
Next vessel
Your shop, your character.
A thrift store, an estate, a studio, a record bin? We launch new shops on the Whaleworx engine, each with its own theme and voice.
Talk to XBLU171one-of-a-kind lots live in the first vessel
100%of lots AI-staged and AI-appraised
1brass bell to dictate a whole listing
Livepulse of every visitor, right on the dashboard
7 dayauction clock with a five-minute soft close
08 · Powered by
The builders · Chicago
Built on solid decks.
One Chicago crew, two proven platforms. Here's who keeps the ship afloat.
The builders · Chicago
Developers. Chicago dudes.
XBLU is the dev shop that designed, coded and launched Whaleworx: the brand, the store, the auctions and the AI crew. We're right here in Chicago, and we keep her running.
Square PaymentsSuper secure. Plays nice with everything.
Card details are tokenized and never touch the store's servers. Square connects with CRMs, point of sale, accounting, shipping and hundreds of other business apps, so checkout fits whatever system you already run.
WooCommerce Store engineThe fast way to sell online.
One of the best shopping carts going for businesses that want to get on the market quickly. Open source on WordPress, endlessly extendable, and the catalogue, orders and customers stay yours.
Weird things.
Smart ships.
Bid on something strange today, or bring us the collection that deserves a shop of its own.