One good piece: photograph it, and we make an offer

A wardrobe sold at £1 a kilo is the right answer for most of what is in it. It is the wrong answer for the one piece in the bag that should sell for £40, or for £150. Until now the only way to tell us about that piece was to email photos and wait.

The piece check does it in a couple of minutes. Create a free account, photograph the piece with its labels and any mark or flaw, and Mint gives a cautious estimate of what it is likely to sell for. Then one of three things happens:

• Likely to sell for £15 to £40. We offer to buy it for half of the estimate, up to £20, and pay within five working days of it arriving as described.
• Likely to sell for more than £40. We offer to sell it for you. We photograph it, list it, answer buyers and post it, and you keep 50% to 70% of the sale price. It stays yours until it sells.
• Likely to sell for under £15. We tell you it is not worth the postage, before you post anything.

The estimate is cautious on purpose, and one of us checks every offer before it is confirmed, usually within a working day. You then post the piece to us by a tracked service, at your own cost. If it is not as described we send a revised offer, or return it. Nothing is agreed until you accept, and you are not committed to anything by asking.

It is open to anyone in the UK, and a free account comes with five checks. Clearing out a whole wardrobe instead? That is still a collection, or a drop off in Luton.