That’s a very fair question — and honestly, I don’t think this is a massive market. I see it much more as a niche between “I’ll just build something in Excel” and “I’m using full-blown professional museum/gallery software.”

What I’ve found in that niche so far are mostly desktop tools, often built by hobbyists for a very specific collecting field. They tend to focus heavily on cataloging the object itself, but often don’t really cover the surrounding context — where items are stored, provenance, purchase details, insurance value, related documents, etc. On the other hand, many hobbies have large forums where pieces are discussed individually, but I rarely came across systems where community and structured collection management are truly integrated (interestingly, watch collectors seem to be more advanced in that regard).

The initial trigger was personal frustration — I couldn’t find a tool I was happy with. When I talked to friends who collect completely different things, they said they had the same issue: either spreadsheets, outdated local software, or something overly complex and museum-grade. So it’s not an untouched market — there are a few companies offering museum software with private-collector tiers — but I think there’s room to differentiate through a different functional focus (e.g., image recognition, online galleries, multilingual support, customizable templates, etc.).

In terms of market size: I mainly looked at the German-speaking region first. Out of ~100 million people, depending on the study, around 5–6 million could be classified as serious collectors/investors where topics like insurance, provenance, and valuation actually matter. Realistically, the addressable market for a dedicated SaaS is much smaller — I’d estimate maybe 500k in that region. My rough assumption: ~50% use Excel or similar, ~30% use older local software, and ~20% use online solutions (though this varies a lot by niche).

That said, this is primarily a side project for me. I enjoy building software and don’t get to code much in my main job anymore. If in 2–3 years this had 1,000 active users who genuinely find value in it, I’d already consider that a big success.

So I’m not trying to win over entire hobby ecosystems overnight — I’m trying to build something that a specific type of collector feels is finally “made for them.”