Market & strategy
How much does one hour of catalog reading cost you?
An hour of catalog reading costs you nothing if you pass on everything you scan. It costs you thousands to tens of thousands of euros the moment you bid on a piece without running the coherence checks, the category-specific red flags, the Discipline Ceiling calculation, and the comparable-price verification. The cost is invisible until you pay for a problem you could have seen.
The Method's take
The Method treats every catalog as a minefield where 70–80% of lots carry disqualifying risk that description language conceals. We run the six-gate scan: risk tier from attribution wording, category checklist against photos, intra-catalog saturation, price logic vs. recent results, timing/fashion flags, and the Discipline Ceiling with transparent cost formula. The output is a classification—fight / assess / full price / risky / absolute no—and the exact questions to ask before you wire money.
The math
A mid-tier lot at €8,000 that looked like a bargain but carried a restorations undisclosed defect, a provenance gap, or a timing trap (bought after the record) can lock €10,000–12,000 total for years or sell at 50% loss: €5,000–6,000 gone. Three mistakes and you are down €15,000–18,000. The 24-hour pass is €100; the annual pass €3,800. One avoided error pays for fifty days of access. The cost is not the hour—it is bidding blind.
One question answered here saved you a mistake. The engine answers yours — the exact object, the exact number.
Ask the engine — 24h pass €100