I am sure this has been discussed before but software options seem to change like the wind. I have been collecting non sports cards for nearly 17 years (not including my childhood adventures) and have built an inventory of over 1200 autograph cards. Plus there are many base and insert sets of which most are in notebooks or boxes.

Much of this collecting was done while I was in some form of occupational or personal transition so taking the time to seriously document it has always remained on the back burner.

I have seen some products specifically for sports cards but the sites do not discuss how customizable they are. I have some ideas concerning a website, does anyone use their inventory software database for any sort of web development? Although not as important, are there ways to download Beckett's price information into a product?

What do you use? What do you think about it?

I have been struggling with that since way back in my sports card days when I began accumulating in-person autograph cards. This was prior to the certified autograph card as a premium hit in sets.

Well, I shouldn't say struggled, but I thought about it once in a while as I looked at the stacked binders containing signatures I kept forgetting about. Wouldn't it be great to actually keep an inventory? Wouldn't some product software be able to help me out? Couldn't I make my own Excel spreadsheet to keep track?

The answers are . . . YES, NO and YES, BUT ITS TOO FAR GONE.

I looked into product software long ago when my interest was in sports cards. The stuff never worked right, cost too much and needed to be constantly updated with every new set. I'm sure all those companies went out of business since then and once that happens it ends the updates and makes the software obsolete. I am not aware of any software that was ever available for non-sport cards.

I don't know how much you could create yourself if you are an IT guy, but anyone can set up an Excel spreadsheet to track inventory. It would be perfect if you could import a download from an online price guide database, but I kind of think that it won't be easy to do and its probable too much information anyway.

If your collection is still manageable, establishing a line by line Excel spreadsheet without pricing for only the important individual cards is the best way to go. You can do another one for general base cards, inserts and parallel sets.

If you have already been overwhelmed it is tough to get up the energy or the time to do it by hand as you open books. I keep saying I am going to start cataloging at least the non-sport certified autographs. I never do.

I started a flat Excel spreadsheet but then decided I should check out options before dumping all of that work into it.

I am an IT guy but not a database guy. I have enough base knowledge to develop something but it would require a ton of google searching and tutorial watching. Especially when it comes to implementing the changes and output reporting that I want. Also I would like something that handles images.

At least for base and insert sets there really is no reason to list individual cards. I am pretty sure that most of what I have is complete. As you know, Non Sport stuff tends not to vary in value based on a particular card.

I might be better off reverse engineering a template that can be downloaded but for now the search continues.

I can't say I have been "overwhelmed" with it, I just tend to find better things to do.

Hmmm, now that I have moved my search from cards specific to inventory control, there does seem to be some more affordable options out there.

Will let you know what I find out.

I like https://nonsportrealm.com/

It's kept pretty much up to date. Its free, and for a small donation, you can export your collection to Excel

I think Beckett has a Non-Sports Inventory option as well, but think you need to pay and it always seemed a bit hard to navigate

My issue is that I don't take the time to add my cards as I get them, and then have to go back and add things, and then get frustrated because of the time it takes

Ever since I first started collecting cards I have maintained my own home grown excel data base.

It was largely created from a sheer 'need to know' basis so that I knew what I had and what I needed.

This was all very well in the old days (I've been collecting for over 20 years) and I always did annual audits of my collection' data.

And then one year I missed.

The next year I found that the sheer numbers overwhelmed me and it became almost impossible to document over 900 sets of cards along with all inserts etc.

Today I just record a list of those cards that I am looking for and just record in the master list that I am no longer looking for that card.
It ain't a perfect system but at least I have got some idea of what I am still looking for.

I think PrimaSoft's sports card collector is going to work for what I need. It's pretty easy to modify the fields for nonsports terminology and the records host a front and back image. There is even room for Personal or IMDB highlights for each signer.

There is also a database template for CD collections which I have about 200 autographed CDs.

Unfortunately, it is not free but its not crazy expensive either.

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
I like https://nonsportrealm.com/

It's kept pretty much up to date. Its free, and for a small donation, you can export your collection to Excel

Is there actual buying and selling on Nonsportrealm or are all the sales links back to eBay?

I also found that most of the sets I've been collecting aren't listed: Orphan Black, Clerks, recent Pop Century, recent Game of Thrones.

Yes, but if you are putting your collection inventory in someone else's database you are at their mercy for access, free or paid, and it may just stop working or disappear some day.

Its great to have all the images and everything, but to me the only thing card tracking software really needs is to be able to supply the checklists for the titles/products you have and a way to mark what you have and what you need that can be kept on your PC.

It sounds simple, but I think you have to do the worksheets/checklists yourself to get it.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Yes, but if you are putting your collection inventory in someone else's database you are at their mercy for access, free or paid, and it may just stop working or disappear some day.

Yeah, any online service puts also puts limits on your access and customization controls. It is a lot of work not to run it from a secure base that you control.

A checklist of needs is the last thing I want the software to do. A pen and paper works just fine for that.

What about using Microsoft's Access programme. Surely that's meant for databases that the user defines the set up for themselves.

I have used so many different things too, to keep track of my collection. Starting with a small paper notebook, back in the early 80's.
I still have a CD rom of collecting software called 123 Collect. The only issue I had with it, was when I printed it out I did not like the order of the columns. And it could not be changed. I also used Lotus, and later excel. And I had the same issue with image size.

What i did was have one large folder with the excel file.. then lots of folders within for the full size images by set. Then I hyperlinked them to the file location of the image.
It was a minor compromise to be able to use excel. I was able to click on the link (That took almost no memory) and see the full image.
Then I would put a low res thumbnail size image in the file for most sets.. and I could hyper link the image too if needed.
I could add values and totals in excel.. use lots of tabs for sorting and print just what I needed. And the excel file size was around 5-9 mb total.
It worked great for the years I used it.

Now I only use web tools for everything. In addition to Flickr, (I have over 25,000 photos on line of everything from my life.)
I use FREE google sites to create and arrange everything how I want it to look for my collecting.
I also have several google private websites, for my music collection. This is handy. What is also available, but I don't use it, is google docs.
These can be embedded into a google site and look amazing. and since you can update on mobile too, everything will always be updated.
I'm pretty sure you can transfer data from excel to google doc, but I realize that could be a little buggy.

I can see how many of the online sites can be a better method of streamlining into a web presence and I am pretty certain that I am going to end up there. Are you running anything public at the moment?

Excel and Access are fine but it puts me having to define everything and then change as I go along and figure out new fields I need.

Given that this will be my base of inventory, I am looking for something more local, something I can control while forcing me to document with images and data of the signature owner. I think the Prima Soft solution is going to work for me at the moment although the UI does seem a bit dated. It has plenty of fields for custom identification and the DB function seems very basic so I shouldn't run into too many conversion problems if needed later. If I do, at least I will have both high res and reduced images already cataloged and saved.

Fortunately with what I would like to display I am only looking at an inventory of probably 2000 items. Not sure what I would do 25000. ;-P

Like many, I started out in sports cards and the big Beckett annual. I collected a particular player, so I had handwritten lists in a notebook and would highlight them when I had them in my possession.

As my collection grew, and I wanted to keep track of base cards, not to mention my growing non-sports cards, I created an Access database that worked well for a long time.

I eventually started to do some web development that tied into my collection, so I converted it to a MySQL database.

The roughest part is getting checklists into a format that I could use to easily import it into MySQL. Some regexp (not my strength by any means) and tons of find-and-replaces, and it is in a format I can use to import.

Advantages? I own all the format, storage, extraction, and presentation. Disadvantages? The checklisting portion is all manual in the sense that I have to go find a checklist and massage it into a format that easily goes into my database.

My interfaces have evolved over time and, since it's all under my control, I can work on it as I have the time and knowledge (I learn a lot on the fly).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: weasel-king,

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
I can see how many of the online sites can be a better method of streamlining into a web presence and I am pretty certain that I am going to end up there. Are you running anything public at the moment?

Excel and Access are fine but it puts me having to define everything and then change as I go along and figure out new fields I need.

Given that this will be my base of inventory, I am looking for something more local, something I can control while forcing me to document with images and data of the signature owner. I think the Prima Soft solution is going to work for me at the moment although the UI does seem a bit dated. It has plenty of fields for custom identification and the DB function seems very basic so I shouldn't run into too many conversion problems if needed later. If I do, at least I will have both high res and reduced images already cataloged and saved.

Fortunately with what I would like to display I am only looking at an inventory of probably 2000 items. Not sure what I would do 25000. ;-P

Hi...

Here's the web site I made for my trading card collection.. I plan to add more cards to it in the future.. Right now it's all Xena.
Xena's Card Cave
I hope you find a solution for organizing.

Getting back into collecting after 5+ years aways. Despite culling my collection I'm now re-inventorying from scratch as I have no clue what do or don't have and what I still need.

I'm going with the tried and tested Excel and then exporting it to a personal blog. I'm more likely to check into a site than dig out an old spreadsheet.

Great to read the suggestions here. Happy collecting.

I have been using Comic Collector from Collectorz for years. Because it is designed for comics, it stores multiple images. All fields are configurable (I have Set instead of something standard for example), easy to have status for whether you own etc. Best for me, it can export to various formats and I use it to populate my website with trade lists.