Guidelines
How CanvasCircle works in practice. The platform is always free for collectors to buy and sell, no transaction fees, no listing fees, no membership fees. The sections below cover how to buy safely, how to sell successfully, and the trust systems that make both work.
Buying Guidelines
- Look for the Ownership Verified badge. A gradient-colored ✓ means a CanvasCircle admin reviewed a video of the seller physically holding that exact piece. Confirms physical possession only, not authenticity, condition, or provenance, but it eliminates the most common scam pattern.
- Ask the seller to send you their verification video directly (via email or Facebook Messenger) and review it yourself. Confirm the handwritten card shows the correct @handle, the date is recent, and the artwork matches the listing photos. Sellers are told to lead with this video.
- Request a longer, more detailed video with today's date if you need one, no length cap when sent directly. Ask the seller to show the back of the canvas, signature, edition number, and any condition issues.
- If a seller refuses or stalls when you ask for the video, walk away and report them to the CanvasCircle team.
- Check the seller's References. Each is a clickable @handle linking to an Established Member who actively agreed to vouch, message them and ask how their transaction with this seller went. References are two-party consent, much stronger than written testimonials the seller controls.
- Use PayPal or Venmo goods & services with any new seller who doesn't yet have References or a track record you can verify.
Selling Guidelines
A short checklist for getting a listing ready to go live and ready for buyers to engage with. The deeper trust-and-status systems, Ownership Verification, Sales References, and Established Member status, each get their own section below.
Who can list: CanvasCircle is for collectors selling pieces from their own personal collections. Not permitted on this platform: artists selling their own work, dealers / galleries / agents, and consigners (anyone listing art owned by someone else). The seller of record must be the legal owner. Listings that fall outside this scope will be removed and the account may be suspended.
What qualifies as fine art: a listing must fit one of two categories:
- Original artwork, hand-created by the artist (painting, drawing, sculpture, photograph, mixed media). One-of-a-kind by definition. Includes pieces where the artist has done significant hand-embellishment over a base.
- Limited edition prints, numbered in the standard format (#34/150, AP, HC, PP, etc.) and hand-signed by the artist. The edition number is required, without it, the piece isn't a limited edition in the art-market sense.
Not allowed on the platform:
- Open-edition prints (no edition number, mass-produced)
- Posters, postcards, photographic reproductions of artworks
- Mass-market home decor (HomeGoods, Wayfair, IKEA, Target, etc.)
- Hand-customized retail items (a retail poster you painted on)
- AI-generated art (Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, etc.)
- NFTs and purely digital works
- Antiques or collectibles that aren't fine art (furniture, ceramics, even if "artisan-made")
Edge cases, estate-signed, hand-embellished editions, vintage pieces
Estate-signed prints: allowed. Some artists' estates sign and number prints after the artist's death (with the estate's stamp or signature). Disclose "estate-signed" in your listing description.
Hand-embellished editions: allowed. Some artists (Mr. Brainwash, KAWS, etc.) release HC or AP pieces where they hand-paint over a print base. As long as the piece is still properly numbered and signed by the artist, it qualifies as a limited edition.
Vintage or older works without modern numbering: pre-1970 prints don't always follow the modern X/N format. Admin reviews these case-by-case, if the work is hand-signed and historically documented (auction records, gallery provenance, etc.), it's eligible. If it looks like a mid-century catalog reproduction, it's not.
CanvasCircle's admin reviews every new listing against this definition. Listings that don't fit will be rejected with a note pointing back to this section. Once the market, i.e. actual buyers and the platform's Established Member network, knows what to expect here, that consistency is what makes the catalog worth browsing.
- One clear front-view photo of the artwork, ideally without glare. No stock or copyright images.
- Fill in the basics: artist name, artwork title, medium (oil, giclée on canvas, etc.), artwork size, framed size, and a short description.
- Price it to sell. Research recent sales on eBay and similar platforms first. Asking-at-or-above current gallery retail rarely moves.
- Have paperwork photos ready (COA, appraisal, edition documentation) to send to interested buyers on request.
- Verify your listing. Required on every sale listing until you're an Established Member, see the Ownership Verification section below.
- Open to trade? Check the "Open to trade offers" box on your listing and (optionally) describe what you're hunting for. Your card will show an ⇄ Trade pill so buyers know they can reach out with a trade proposal in addition to or instead of cash.
- Set up PayPal and Venmo. Use goods-and-services payments for proper buyer / seller protections. The small fee is worth it.
- Power tip, Build Facebook Sales Post. When you have multiple listings to share, use the in-portal Sales Post builder to auto-generate post text + collage images for any Facebook collector group. Saves a ton of formatting time, especially if you post to multiple groups. See the full feature breakdown on About →
When a transaction goes sideways: CanvasCircle doesn't mediate buyer-seller disputes, your recourse for transactional issues is PayPal G&S, Venmo G&S, or your payment provider's protections. We do enforce account-level violations (banned credentials, falsified verification, pattern of misrepresentation, harassment, etc.). The full breakdown of what we will and won't act on, plus how to report and how to appeal, lives on the Dispute Policy page.
Shipping Guidelines
- Always fully insure for the total purchase price.
- Under $10,000: UPS via pirateship.com has the best rates and can fully insure the sale price (Pirate Ship's built-in insurance caps at $10,000 per package).
- Over $10,000: Pirate Ship's $10K insurance ceiling means higher-value pieces need a different path. Options include UPS or FedEx declared-value coverage purchased directly through the carrier (each typically covers up to ~$50,000 per package), a specialty fine-art shipper (Crozier, Atelier 4, FedEx Custom Critical Art Transport, or another art-handling specialist), or a standalone fine-art insurance rider through a collectibles insurance provider. Note that Shippo's built-in XCover insurance applies a 25% deductible to artwork claims, which makes it unsuitable for high-value pieces. Discuss the shipping path with the seller before paying.
- Pack properly. Park West art boxes are ideal (proper spacing + styrofoam corners). U-Haul / Lowe's / Home Depot TV boxes work too. Use bubble wrap, peanuts, or styrofoam, never place packing material directly on the canvas (the weight can sag it onto the stretcher bars).
- Photograph + video the packaging before sealing the box. Insurance claims for shipping damage require this, improperly packaged claims get denied.
- If the piece arrives damaged: the buyer photographs the packaging and damage immediately, keeps everything (do not toss packaging or move the art), and may need a third-party non-repair letter (Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or another framer can provide).
- Require signature on delivery for expensive pieces. Reduces weather and theft risk.
Ownership Verification
A short video of the seller holding the artwork with a handwritten card showing their @handle + today's date, reviewed by the admin. Approved listings get the Ownership Verified badge, a gradient ✓ that signals to buyers the seller actually has the piece.
- Required on every sale listing until you're an Established Member. Non-Established sellers must submit a verification video with each sale listing they post; admin can't approve a sale listing without one. Every video also counts toward the 4-verified-listing criterion for Established Member status, so the work is investment, not friction.
- "In Search Of" requests are exempt, they're buyer requests, not sale listings.
- Established Members bypass. Once you're Established, your sale listings publish without per-listing video. You can still verify any listing whenever you want, verified listings get the badge and show in the catalog's Verified filter.
- Save your video locally. CanvasCircle deletes the bytes ~24 hours after review for privacy. Keep your original so you can send it to interested buyers directly (this is also the recommended way to open a buyer conversation, lead with the video).
- Editing artist, title, category, or primary image auto-revokes the badge. The video shows the listing as it was when filmed; changing those four fields means it no longer matches. Price, description, dimensions, condition, status, and shipping edits are safe. Submit a fresh video to restore.
Why verify every listing, full retention + revocation policy, how to use the video with buyers
Why verify every listing: verified listings cut buyer hesitation before the first message, qualify for the catalog's Verified filter, and compound a public trust signal on your seller page (which shows a running count of your verified listings).
Lead with the video when a buyer reaches out. Your first reply should attach (or cloud-link) the short verification video you submitted to CanvasCircle. After that, continue normally, negotiate price, send COA / appraisal, share extra photos. If the buyer wants a longer, more detailed video with today's date, record one and send it directly (no length cap when you send it yourself).
Retention: the video is stored privately and only the reviewing admin sees it via a short-lived signed URL. After review, the bytes are deleted within ~24 hours. CanvasCircle retains only a SHA-256 fingerprint of the file (to detect reused videos across listings) plus audit metadata (status, timestamps, reviewer, optional rejection note).
Manual revocation by admin. The badge can be revoked for rule violations or buyer complaints, for example, if a buyer reports that you refused to send them the verification video when asked.
Full policy: Terms of Use § 5 Ownership Verification · Privacy Policy.
The badge confirms physical possession only, not authenticity, condition, or provenance. Submitting falsified, AI-generated, or reused videos will result in revocation, listing removal, and may result in your account being banned.
Sales References
References are public vouches from Established Members who actively agreed to stand behind you. They appear by display name and @handle on every one of your listings and on your seller page. Two-party consent, much stronger than written testimonials.
- Who can vouch: only Established Members. You don't need to be Established yourself to ask someone to vouch for you.
- Cap: up to 5 active outgoing reference requests (pending + accepted combined). No cap on how many sellers you may agree to vouch for.
- How to request: My Account → Profile → Sales References → "Request a reference." Enter the @handle, send, wait for them to accept.
- Only request from members you've actually transacted with. Coordinated mutual references between related accounts can result in suspension or banning of all involved accounts.
Why References matter more than you'd think + etiquette + full policy link
The Ownership Verified badge answers "do you have the piece?", References answer the bigger question: "are you someone I can transact with safely?" For high-value pieces, References are often what gets a buyer past the wire-transfer hesitation.
References compound. As you transact with more members and request / accept references in both directions, the web of vouches grows and benefits everyone in it.
When someone accepts being your reference, treat it as a real commitment, they've put their reputation alongside yours. If you ever end up in a dispute, your References may get pinged by the buyer, so transact honestly.
Full policy: Terms of Use § 5 (Sales References subsection).
Established Members
Established Member status is the platform's highest trust tier. Two paths in, same badge and same privileges either way.
Path 1, Auto-promotion when you meet both criteria at the same time:
- 4 or more active sale listings with the Ownership Verified badge
- 3 or more accepted Sales References from other Established Members
No application, no waiting period, your account is flipped automatically and you'll see a welcome banner on your dashboard.
Path 2, Direct admin promotion, at the admin's sole discretion. Common for the platform's initial seed cohort and for collectors with strong reputations elsewhere in the art community. Same status, same badge, there is no second-class tier.
What it unlocks:
- Listing edits go live without per-change admin review
- The 10-sale-listing cap is lifted (non-Established Members are capped at 10 active sale listings; ISO posts are uncapped for everyone)
- Other sellers can request you as a Sales Reference
- Public Established Member badge on your listings and seller page (signed-in viewers)
- Inclusion in the catalog's Established Members filter
- Bypass the per-listing video verification requirement
Track your progress at My Account → Profile. If you're not yet Established, a "Path to Established Member" block shows your counts.
The admin retains discretion to revoke Established status manually at any time for rule violations or deceptive conduct, see Terms of Use for the full policy.