How do you manage/track and keep a handle on your collection

[markf31]

In my younger days, and days of the baseball card bubble of the Early 1990's I had bought and used the Card Collector software to document my collection and I was a regular subscriber to their quarterly price and data updates as I collected current issues and needed to stay current on all the new sets.

As I have recently revived my interest in the hobby after 20 years and now collect vintage and pre-war cards, I no longer have a need for the Card Collector software and I have been slowly pulling together an excel spreadsheet as my vintage collection has started to grow.

How do you track your collection? How extensive is your database and what kind of information do you track?

Would enjoy hearing your thoughts and ideas!

[t206blogcom]

Excel spreadsheets. I mainly collect T206, so I have the players name, back, where I got the card or from whom, price paid, and grade (for graded cards) or description of card if raw. I have similar spreadsheets for my W512s, 34 Goudeys and T210s.

[Scott T]

I have a master spreadsheet for all of my sets on Excel. I wish there was something else, but I ahven't been able to find anything that encompasses the breadth of pre-war cards.

[kcohen]

I don't. It's a disorganized mess. One advantage though is the occasional pleasure of rummaging through the cards and finding one that I didn't remember I had.

[jcmtiger]

The only way I was able to organize my collection was to start selling off a little at a time. And limit my collection to a small group of cards.

Joe

[brob28]

Excel spreadsheets & a big closet with a safe in it. I just use the spreadsheets for set building and to make sure I don't buy a card I already have, yep, I've done that twice now.

[steve B]

Spreadsheets or nothing. Well, almost nothing. The prewar all fits in one box although it's getting a bit crowded.

T206 I'm using the superset spreadsheet with the info removed as a checklist. The rest just get a basic grid with a capital H if I have a nice one and a lowercase h for when I have a beater.

The other stuff is mostly in order and boxed but there's a lot that's disorganized. Some of the boxed modern stuff has the list of what's needed either inside the box on a slip of paper, or written inside the lid. Spreadsheets eventually for everything, but it takes a while to go through everything and get them done. And I haven't figured out a good way to handle most variations.

Steve B

[frankbmd]

Things to Consider when creating your Spreadsheet(s) or Data Base

Number of Acquisition
Date of Acquisition
Name and Pose
Type
Team
Images (may dropped into spreadsheet cells on my Mac)*
Number in Set (if applicable)
Back Type (if applicable)
Grading Co. (if applicable)
Grade (Given or Raw Estimate)
Serial No of Graded card
Variation or subset
HOF
Southern Leagues
Cost
Duplicates (Y/N)
Keepers
Traders with Value
Storage Location
Need List
Date of Sale
Price

All of the above categories may be sorted
Alphabetical
By Type
By Team
By grade
By Back
By Cost
By Type
By Storage Location
etc, etc, etc
Various sorts can be restored if a numerical index column is created for each sort

*Images slow down file manipulation and I use them only on my storage spreadsheet.

Having said all this, I maintain multiple spreadsheets which although cumbersome allows me to answer questions I have and/or find cards more quickly, without sorting and unsorting continually. Data entry in 10-12 different locations does require more time though. Consistent columns of basic info facilitates copying and pasting to multiple spreadsheets

If you have boxes and closets full of cards and want to start this process, set aside a couple of months.

It is nice to know what you have, where it is and what it is worth.

[jefferyepayne]

I'm still using spreadsheets as well. The system is a bit clunky but since I can download these sheets to my phone, they can go with me electronically to shows, I don't need to carry paper around anymore.

I'd love it if there was a really nice software package out there to use but haven't found one that does what I need / want. I've considered trying to build one but that seems like a lot of effort just for myself and I don't think there is a large enough market out there to try and sell such a package.

jeff

[aquarius31]

Like other posters, I also use an excel spreadsheet. I initially only collected T206's and had used an excellent spreadsheet which could be sorted by player/pose/grade/back (don't recall the original source). Since my interests have expanded to primarily 19th century, I've built on the original T206 spreadsheet to include everything in my collection.

About a year ago, I took inventory of everything (very time consuming but worth it) including condition, price paid, observations etc. And when I do purchase a new item I immediately update the spreadsheet and add pictures to photobucket so I don't need to go back afterwards. I've also sold 95% of my cards post 1950's so that has helped make the collection much more manageable. I keep the spreadsheet on my computer as well as a USB stick.

[nolemmings]

You may want to try a card collector database put out by PrimaSoft. You have to design the fields you want and input the data yourself, like Excel, but it does have an import feature and prints nice reports. I use it to track m101s. Here's a screen snip (excuse the colors--its customizable):

The highlighted image on the left corresponds to the record on the right--in this case a Hughie Jennings card I just won from Clean Sweep. There are tabs on the right pane that include the scans/screenshots. Here is what the same record looks like on tab 2 (backscan is on tab3)--note I dragged the little red bar on the bottom to resize--nearly everything about this program is customizable:


Edited to add you can barely see the resize bar on my first screencapture and not on my second, but it is more prominent in the program display.

[ibuysportsephemera]

I have been using this program for years...although it is designed for antiques it is easily adaptable for all collections.


http://www.tinkerware.com/

Currently I have 12,000 items inventoried and you can export to a csv file to transfer to excel. I print labels for each item and this works great as well.

PM if you have any questions.

Jeff

[Danny Smith]

I keep spreadsheets on my ipad. Very easy and convenient.

[kmac32]

Have lists of what I have. Pretty well have my vintage prewar memorized.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by kcohen

I don't. It's a disorganized mess. One advantage though is the occasional pleasure of rummaging through the cards and finding one that I didn't remember I had.

Hi Ken - I'm in your boat, unfortunately! But, the downside, as Bill Roberts mentioned earlier, is acquiring duplicates unintentionally, which I have done more than once! I no longer say "one of these days I'm going to create Excel spreadsheets" - rather, I now say "one of these years ..."!!
Best,
Val

[benderbroeth]

Originally Posted by kcohen

I don't. It's a disorganized mess. One advantage though is the occasional pleasure of rummaging through the cards and finding one that I didn't remember I had.

this has been working for me for years!!!

[SetBuilder]

I use an abacus and a typewriter.

[Vegas-guy]

All mine are graded so I use the SGC set registry..

[Brian Van Horn]

I scan the cards, title the scans and put the cards in the bank.

[tbob]

You guys are amazing, keeping track of every card you bought, who you bought it from and how much and when you paid. Incredible!
I have no clue. I have a list of every graded card I have, set name, player name, color variations if any, grade. Period. The ungraded cards are in sets and I just have, for instance, "T207 set complete." Period.

[smtjoy]

I use VCP my collection (a few thousand cards), I even enter my raw cards and just make a note that they are raw and guessing the grade. Its great because each group/set value is updated as cards are sold so my values change every day. It will also download into excel which is another bonus. Here is how it looks online-

This is a listing of groups and as you can see how many cards are listed inside, the *cost is the price of cards that have previous sales and the current value of them-


This is a listing inside a group of each card and value-


Been a huge help to my collection.

[HoofHearted]

I used Excel spreadsheets, too. It proved invaluable as I worked to complete my '62 Topps baseball set. It helped to keep track of the costs (including postage, grading of raw cards, etc.). Now that I may need to sell it, I have at least a reasonable idea of what I'd like to get for it.

As I was putting the set together I also used VCP to keep track of the cards I needed and any auctions that were going for the cards I needed. I tried to start an inventory of what I had but liked the spreadsheets better. At one point I thought about what would happen if VCP disappeared -- I'd lose all that work!

I'm now keeping my Senators/Twins collection in a spreadsheet to track what I have, the cost, etc. Very handy!

[FrankWakefield]

Mentally, poorly, and incompetently, that's how.


Recently, I've started chasing an odd set of cards, I have about 3 dozen of them, and I have a ways to go. They're all in a stack beside my desk pc. And this works well. If I see a card from the set listed on eBay, I shuffle through my stack to see if it's in there. Not a perfect system, because I could bid on a card of a player having already bought one of his cards a few days earlier but not yet having arrived.... but it works fairly well. No system is foolproof, not even the spreadsheet stuff. All it takes is some delay in entering whether you've bought a certain card, or whether it's arrived. Then you can buy a card twice or overlook one.

First time through on the white border cards, I used photocopies of pages of an old Beckett catalog. That worked fairly well, I penciled in when I got one. Eventually started adding acquisition date. I numbered the 400th one, and started adding a number for each one thereafter, so I had a running count of how many different fronts I had. I carried that list to a few shows years ago, and would get odd looks.

[Bocabirdman]

I, too, use spreadsheets. My problem is not tracking my collection. My problem is that my collection has expanded to the point that it has outgrown any and all space I allot for it. Thankfully, I keep dupes to a minimum but since I was re-bitten by this hobby two years ago, my collection is getting crazy big. My ID here is my eBay ID. I am sure some of you vendors know me. I am tackling Topps from 51-69. Bowman from 48-55, Red Hearts and Red Man Tobacco, 60 Leaf and 63 Fleer. I took a T-206 detour and have 104 in T-206 top loaders. Lately, I have been hitting Pre War stuff. DoublePlays, Play Balls and Exhibit cards were first. Now I have the Strip Card bug. I also have a few Goudey and a couple Matchbooks, Oh did I mention my blankets?
I had a collection of some note thirty years ago when I had a whole bunch more space. I sold it to finance the 1980's (Anybody that was there knows of what I speak). A couple years ago I stumbled on to a few card blogs and came into some money that I could play with. The wife is cool with it except for the ever-expanding overflow. Also the scraps of bubble wrap, used toploaders and everything else we accumulate is a regal pain in the butt...Wow that's the most I have typed in years.

[tachyonbb]

A couple of years ago, I moved my spreadsheets to google docs. Now my modest collection is available on my iPhone and iPad without any fuss.

I don't recommend google spreadsheets for any real scientific work but it does a great job with simple tasks like a collection.

[t206blogcom]

I put my spreadsheets on Dropbox so I too can access them from my phone or any computer with an Internet connection.

[autograf]

Like 99.9% of the rest........excel spreadsheets for the checklists/etc..........I go into ebay ended auctions and just copy and paste the stuff I've won into a spreadsheet and it works great for all the ebay stuff I win. Other stuff like from B/S/T and auction houses, I try to save invoices when I have 'em but don't do a 100% job on that.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by t206blogcom

I put my spreadsheets on Dropbox so I too can access them from my phone or any computer with an Internet connection.

Any cloud service also serves as backup, if you're a bad driver of have one.

[Matthew H]

Smtjoy, that's awesome! I'll have to try that out

[WhiteWhaleCards]

I too have been using spreadsheets to track my collection for years. I’ve always thought there has to be a better way to track and manage a collection than spreadsheets, so about a year ago I decided to build one.

In mid-July I will release a Web site called White Whale Cards, which will be a vintage baseball card social network. I have built a number of features into the site including being able to easily make a checklist of which cards you own, upload photos of these cards, make a list of the cards on your want list, and share all of this with the community. My hope is to replace the need for excel spreadsheets, Photobucket/Picassa, and other cumbersome tools and instead connect card collectors in the way Facebook has connected people.

I am currently looking for a few beta testers to test an early version of the site over the next two weeks. This would entail using the site to checklist which cards you own, uploading pictures of your collection and then giving us feedback on how well it works and how we can make it easier. If you are interested in beta testing for the site, please PM me.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[jcmtiger]

This was the easiest way for me. Most cards have been sold.

Collecting Old Judge Detroit though.


Joe

[danmckee]

Once again it looks like I am in the minority on this board. I don't know what I have after I complete sets. Ugh!

I do know what I need to complete sets by my tiny want list that is hand written on a piece of white cardboard.

What a worthless dinosaur I am!

[Runscott]

I have a very detailed Numbers spreadsheet (like Excel) for my Mac. I plan to import it into a database at some point - maybe MS Access with a Visual Basic app surrounding it. I've done this in the past for other projects and it worked well.

[Preece1]

Keep it under 30 cards like I do

[rustywilly]

Keep it under 30 cards like I do

Hello Patrick - Someday, I'd really like to help you reduce inventory to a more manageable level. There's a few I'd love to own.
Best,
Mark