Who the heck are we and why should you care?

Hi there! I’m Chris Hartpence (Velociryx on the web). I built this site for my wife Jennifer. She runs a vintage Ebay store and sells a lot of pottery, glassware, and jewelry.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but most of that stuff has “Maker’s Marks” on it, and here’s the thing: There’s no single database that lives out on the web where all the world’s Makers Marks have been collected. Instead, what you find are tons of little databases, each telling part of the story.

That’s frustrating because it means that if you’re in the business, then finding out which artisan made what mark is super time consuming, and it really matters, because if you can identify the Maker’s Mark, then you can charge more. Sometimes, a LOT more.

So – I started fiddling around with the code and I built her a tool to automate the process. It worked! It was a huge time-saver and we very quickly realized that this thing could help everybody who deals in similar items. So I worked on it some more, gave it an actual interface that didn’t strongly resemble the south end of a north-bound horse, added some customizations and improvements, and now, here we are.

It’s by no means finished. I am a relentless tinkerer, and I’m always on the lookout for new databases to add to our search parameters, and new ways to make the system better, faster and more reliable, so you’re not just getting this thing in its present form. You’re getting me in a funny hat (bonus points if you recognize the hat!), lurking behind the scenes, making improvements.

And that, in a nutshell, is how this website came to be!