Product Update

Is Value My Stuff Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Value My Stuff from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Value My Stuff today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 16 January 20266 min read

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Value My Stuff pitched an online antique valuation service, the kind of business that turns a very specific, very old-fashioned skill, appraising fine art and antiques, into something you can access from a laptop. It has had one of the more eventful ownership histories of any Dragons' Den company, changing hands more than once, but it is still trading today. The short answer is yes.

The short answer

Value My Stuff is still in business. The service is live today under the name ValueMyStuff, offering paid online valuations from a network of specialist experts, and it runs its own website rather than selling through a marketplace like Amazon, which makes sense for a service business rather than a physical product.

It has also been through a genuinely complicated corporate journey since the Dragons' Den appearance, including a sale, an insolvency, a buyback by the original founder, and a later sale to a new owner. That the service kept operating through all of that is itself notable.

The pitch in the Den

Value My Stuff appeared in Series 8, Episode 8, in the business services category, pitching an online antique valuation service where customers could get an item professionally appraised by qualified experts without needing to visit an auction house in person.

The founder asked for 100,000 pounds in exchange for 40 percent of the company, a substantial equity stake for a service business that needed to build both a technology platform and a trusted network of expert valuers to make the model work.

The deal that got done

Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis backed the business jointly, putting up the full 100,000 pounds asked at the full 40 percent equity on the table.

That combination made sense on paper. Paphitis brought sharp instincts for consumer-facing services and margin discipline, while Meaden's operational rigour suited a business that depended on getting process and trust right, since online antique valuation lives or dies on customers believing the appraisal they are paying for is genuinely expert.

A winding ownership history

Value My Stuff was bought by the German auction technology company Auctionata in 2015. When Auctionata went insolvent in 2017, the ValueMyStuff assets were sold off as a going concern rather than being wound down, and founder Patrick van der Vorst bought them back that same year rather than let the service disappear.

He later sold the business again in October 2018, this time to the Swedish art and antiques search group Barneby's, which continues to own and run it today. That is three changes of ownership since the Dragons' Den appearance, and the service has survived every one of them.

Where things stand now

Here is the recap. Value My Stuff pitched in Series 8, asked for 100,000 pounds for 40 percent, and got exactly that from Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis.

Today the service is active under Barneby's ownership, still offering paid online valuations from a network of specialist experts. If you came here wondering whether Value My Stuff survived its own insolvency scare and multiple changes of hands, it did, and the business you can use today traces directly back to the one pitched in the Den.

What the insolvency scare says about the business

The Auctionata collapse in 2017 is the closest Value My Stuff came to disappearing entirely, since the company was swept up as an asset of a failing parent rather than failing on its own terms. What matters is that founder Patrick van der Vorst thought the underlying business was worth buying back rather than letting it be liquidated with the rest of Auctionata's assets.

That decision, and the subsequent sale to a specialist buyer in Barneby's rather than a distressed fire sale, points to a service with real, ongoing demand behind it. Online antique valuation is a durable niche need, and the platform has now outlasted the ambitious German parent company that once owned it.

Where to buy Value My Stuff

Still selling as of 16 January 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Value My Stuff deal breakdown and term sheet →