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Use cases
Five reasons to give an object its own record
Each one is a different answer to the same question: who needs to know what this thing is, and when. The setup notes are the short version of what we would tell you on a call.
The limited edition
Fifty pieces, and every number true
A run is only limited if somebody could tell. Written on a swing tag by hand, "7 of 50" is a claim; in a register, it is a fact anybody holding the piece can check, including the buyer of number 51 who is about to find out there isn't one.
- Set the edition size on the line when you mint, and numbers are assigned as identifiers are created
- Numbering continues across runs for the same variant, so a restock does not produce a second No. 1
- A run that would take the edition past its size is refused, rather than quietly allowed and dealt with later
- The number prints on the certificate, sourced from the register rather than typed into a template
Decide the edition size before you mint. Not before you print: before you mint. Two certificates both claiming No. 1 of 10 would both resolve, and nothing in the register could tell them apart afterwards. The guide covers the awkward cases, including returns and a second colourway.
The resale market
Your pieces are being sold by people you have never met
A second-hand buyer has a photograph, a price and a stranger's word. What they want is to know the object is the object. The card travels with it and answers on your behalf, years after you last touched it.
- The lookup returns the item's identity, so a mismatch between the piece in front of the buyer and the record is obvious
- A code that was never issued is reported as not in the register, plainly
- A piece reported lost or stolen says so on the lookup, which is the one thing a resale buyer most needs and most rarely gets
- The page is on your storefront, so a buyer who has never heard of you lands on your brand rather than on a verification service's
Be honest about the ceiling. This helps against a fake carrying a copied code, which resolves to the wrong object. It does nothing about a fake with no card at all, and a buyer who does not know to look for a card is not helped by any of it. What actually works against copies is a longer conversation.
Warranty and repair
An item comes back and you need to know what it is
No receipt, no order number, a customer who bought it from somebody else, and a piece that looks like four other pieces you have made. The code on the card tells you which one it is and when you made it.
- Scan the card, or type the code, and the record gives you the product, the variant and the made-on date
- The event history says when it was minted, when it was printed, and when it was marked sold
- Nothing about the customer is involved, so this does not become a data-protection question
- Works for pieces that never went through your own checkout, including wholesale and gifts
Print the code as text as well as a QR. The print sheet does this by default and it is the reason: a card that has been through a washing machine, or a phone with no signal in your workshop, still leaves somebody able to read four characters at a time into a keyboard.
Made to order
Every piece is slightly different and you will forget
Commissioned work, one-offs, small batches that vary by hide or by kiln. The differences are the value, and six months later they exist only in your memory and a folder of phone photographs.
- One identifier per object, minted against the product it belongs to, with its own made-on date
- The item's own page in the admin carries its record and its full history
- The certificate renders from that record, so it describes the actual object rather than the product listing
- The photograph on the record comes from the product in Shopify, so it is the picture you already keep current
Do not record what you are not sure of. On a product page an imprecise material line is a copy problem. On a certificate it is a false statement about the thing being certified, and it is the kind of thing that gets read back to you. Leave a field blank rather than guessing at it.
Inside the workshop
Knowing which of the batch is which
The least glamorous reason and often the first real one. Shopify counts variants, not objects: forty units of one variant are forty identical rows in an inventory table. If the objects are not identical, that table is already lying to you.
- Each object has an identifier from the moment it is minted, before it is boxed or listed
- Status tracks the individual piece rather than the stock level
- Deleting an unprinted run costs nothing, so minting early is safe
- The register is in your Shopify admin, so it is searchable from where you already work
You may not need an app for this. If the only reader of the numbers is you, a spreadsheet and a marker pen genuinely does the job, and it does it for nothing. This becomes worth paying for at the point somebody outside your workshop needs to read the record. The four ways to number items on Shopify starts with the free ones.
Further reading
The longer version of the problems this page solves, written for the problem instead of for the product, including the places where the answer is not this app.
Numbering a limited edition run
How to number 1 of 50 so the numbers stay true across restocks, returns and a second colourway, and why the edition size is the hard part, not the number.
ReadWhen your product is copied
What actually works against counterfeits of a small brand's product, in the order worth trying, and the honest ceiling on what any of it really achieves.
ReadCertificates of authenticity, and what they are actually worth
A printed certificate proves nothing a photocopier cannot reproduce. What to put on one anyway, what to leave off, and what has to sit behind it to count.
ReadWant a register for what you make?
Tell us what you make and how many of it. We will tell you honestly whether this helps, including if the answer is that a spreadsheet and a good photograph would do.