Fractional ownership is the process by which you can own part of an extraordinary item that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to own in its entirety.

At Showpiece, we split ownership into a fixed number of Pieces and your level of ownership corresponds to how many of these Pieces you hold. E.g., if an item was split into 100,000 pieces and you purchased 10,000 of these pieces, you would own 10% of the underlying item.

Yes.

Using Showpiece, you become a true beneficial owner of the underlying physical item. Following a purchase of your pieces you will receive the documentation that enshrines your legal rights under English Law.

View an example Terms of Purchase here

At Showpiece you will be able to build a collection of the world’s most extraordinary and culturally significant items. We believe this is the future of collecting and are building a digital experience we hope you’ll love.

Both the physical and digital benefits of ownership will vary from item to item but will always include the economic rights and voting rights over the future of each item. Showpiece and our partners will also provide secure custody and insurance of each item.

Only those over the age of 18 can purchase pieces of a Showpiece. We know this isn’t ideal and apologise for any disappointment caused. A potential solution is for an adult to purchase the fraction(s) in their own name and then once the intended beneficiary reaches the age of 18, they can write to us, and we can transfer the ownership.

Once you have pieces in your collection, you can list them for sale on the marketplace to other users at a price of your choice.

We have built a dedicated gifting experience which enables you to generate a gift code that can be shared with the intended recipient. Upon redemption of the code, the recipient will have full beneficial ownership and all related documentation.

The safety and security of the offering is our number one priority. There are several elements that ensure trust in our offering:

Security of the Showpiece: Showpieces are securely stored by either Showpiece or one of our expert partners. For example, the One Cent Magenta stamp is safely secured in Stanley Gibbon’s vault on the Strand, London.

Legal Security: By using a trust structure, the beneficial rights of those purchasing pieces of the stamp are governed by recognised and widely used elements of English Law. We have invested a lot of time into getting this right. At Showpiece we really are offering true ownership of these extraordinary items.

Digital Security: All transactions and ownership data will be recorded and stored using Amazon’s Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB). This is an immutable solution meaning that a log is maintained containing all previous changes to the database and not just the current state is stored. Cryptographic verification is used to guarantee the veracity of this log.

Following the purchase of a Showpiece you will receive legal documentation declaring your beneficial ownership, as well as a digital certificate indicating the number of pieces you hold. Both will be available for you to print.

In future, we plan to add an ‘Owners Only Shop’ where owners of a particular Showpiece will be able to purchase physical products that are exclusive to its owners. Current plans include items such as a high-quality printed certificate and a framed proof of ownership display that can be placed on your wall.

We plan to add support for cryptocurrency payments soon. Make sure you are signed up to our email communications to find out when this becomes available.

Our intention is to hold and protect collectibles indefinitely for the enjoyment of our community of Collectors, rather than to sell the collectibles. If in the future a third party did offer to buy one of the collectibles, the community of Collectors would decide if the item should be sold (see further “What if a buyout offer is made on the underlying item?” below). We therefore cannot guarantee that collectibles will never be sold.

If an offer is made to purchase the whole underlying Showpiece, all owners will receive a vote for each fraction they hold. If over 60% of the pieces voted are in favour of selling, we will sell the underlying item and distribute the net proceeds to owners’ pro-rata according to the number of pieces they hold.

Showpiece will take a de-listing fee in such an event.

If you make a purchase in aggregate of over £10,000 GBP (approximately $13,700 USD or €11,800 EUR) you may be required to provide proof of identity due to Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. If this applies to you, there are two options available:

1. Prior to your purchase, send us a copy of official government documentation such as a passport or driving license as well as additional piece of identification showing your address (e.g., utility bill or bank statement). Please send the relevant documents to kyc@showpiece.com.

2. Complete your purchase first, and your requested pieces will be reserved for you until we receive the documentation required. We will request this by email and upon receiving the documents from you the transaction will be approved, and ownership records updated.

If we, or Stanley Gibbons, already know who you are, we may be able to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process without requiring you to send any documentation. If you have any questions please email us at info@showpiece.com.

Please use the live chat in the bottom-right hand corner of your screen or email us at hello@showpiece.com. We would love to hear from you.

You can also write to us at: Showpiece Technologies Limited, 64-66 Glentham Road, Barnes, London, SW13 9JJ.

We want to participate alongside our collectors. Showpiece and/or our partners may maintain an economic interest in any of the items listed on the Showpiece platform.

You can buy pieces as a gift at checkout. Go to buy pieces as normal, and tick the gift checkbox at checkout. Put in the recipients name, and we’ll generate an invite code and invitation card you can give to them as a gift! They simply need to go to showpiece.com and look for ‘redeem’.

Unfortunately, we’re not accepting further purchases from US based customers. We want to ensure we always place our collector’s experience above all else and believe that at the minute this means taking our US site offline for new users and revising our offering. Once this process is complete and we relaunch the platform effectively we will be sure to provide an update. In the meantime, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.If you are an existing customer based in the USA we will continue to honour existing commitments. However, for the time being you will be unable to make further purchases on the platform. Please contact us at hello@showpiece.com if you wish to learn more about these changes.