Collection App

[inaheap]

Anybody got an app they use to keep track of figures in their collection?

[TheCanadiandrome]

oh man how sweet that would be

[IMJ]

I use an excel sheet for all of my collecting and inventory. It's been in development and improvement and revision many, many years now. Does the trick very nicely.

Some of the new comic collecting software is pretty nice, but I'm so vested in my spreadsheet and the formulas and functionality I've played with for years that I'm not apt to change.

[ToSte]

Look up an app called Gemr

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by ToSte

Look up an app called Gemr

Hm... This is the first I've heard of this. I checked out the website and it looks pretty interesting. Do you use it? If you do, can you talk about it a bit?

-would you say this is a catalog website first, or a marketplace first?
-do you know what GoCollect and GPAAnalysis are? Does this site have active market valuation like those do?

I dunno... what else can you say about that site? I'm going to read a little on it, but I think some commentary from someone knowledgeable would be cool....

[mikey see]

I use an app called... Toy Collector. It's not fancy and lacks a lot of detail but it gets the job done if all you want to do is track what figures you do and don't have. It supports a TON of lines, which is very nice, and updates pretty regularly for current lines. You can leave a note on each entry which is very handy because I like to nerd out sometimes and record how much I've paid for a particular figure. Unfortunately that's also the only way to note what accessories you have/are missing as the app does not go into that much detail. You CAN mark a figure complete though, which is nice.

I also am a lover of Excel spreadsheets and have one going for GI Joe, Kenner Star Wars, Battle Beasts, and TMNT. That's how I track accessories and such. It has been especially helpful for ARAH GI Joe as it's not unusual for some of those figures to have 3-5 accessories.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by mikey see

I use an app called... Toy Collector. It's not fancy and lacks a lot of detail but it gets the job done if all you want to do is track what figures you do and don't have. It supports a TON of lines, which is very nice, and updates pretty regularly for current lines. You can leave a note on each entry which is very handy because I like to nerd out sometimes and record how much I've paid for a particular figure. Unfortunately that's also the only way to note what accessories you have/are missing as the app does not go into that much detail. You CAN mark a figure complete though, which is nice.

I also am a lover of Excel spreadsheets and have one going for GI Joe, Kenner Star Wars, Battle Beasts, and TMNT. That's how I track accessories and such. It has been especially helpful for ARAH GI Joe as it's not unusual for some of those figures to have 3-5 accessories.

Do you use an auto populate from a drop down cell for accessories in excel, or do you just list them out in a cell and delete from a "needs" column as you get an accessory?

My sheet was, for a while as sophisticated as it could be with drop down choices and so on, but I found it was easier to simply delete a "needs" cell after I got an accessory and just never have that cell taking up data ever again after that.

I also searched for "Toy Collector" in the GP Store to check it out, but got nothing with that specific name. But I think I could really get into that GemR site that another poster mentioned above. I reg'd last night and made two test albums for fun.... For anyone who doesn't know, it looks like it's basically Facebook but for collections.

[mikey see]

Screen Shot 2019-10-25 at 10.36.35 AM.jpg

Originally Posted by IMJ

Do you use an auto populate from a drop down cell for accessories in excel, or do you just list them out in a cell and delete from a "needs" column as you get an accessory?

My sheet was, for a while as sophisticated as it could be with drop down choices and so on, but I found it was easier to simply delete a "needs" cell after I got an accessory and just never have that cell taking up data ever again after that.

I also searched for "Toy Collector" in the GP Store to check it out, but got nothing with that specific name. I'm also slowly all-in on that GemR site - reg'd last night and made two test albums for fun.... For anyone who doesn't know, it looks like it's basically Facebook but for collections.

I don't get too fancy. I've got a sheet for each year and then the figures broken apart by subset (if applicable). Then I just list everything that came with the figure. If I've got it, I make that cell green. If I own it but it's damaged I turn it red and make a note in the NOTES column. If the figure is complete I make the whole line green. I find it EXTREMELY satisfying slowly changing all of the boxes green. I really nerd out on this stuff... making a spreadsheet turns up my collecting impulses as high as they can go. I just have to make all the boxes green.

For that reason I usually don't make spreadsheets!

Edit: yikes, that screenshot is tiny. You get the idea though.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by mikey see

Attachment 12480

I don't get too fancy. I've got a sheet for each year and then the figures broken apart by subset (if applicable). Then I just list everything that came with the figure.

Very cool...

Originally Posted by mikey see

I find it EXTREMELY satisfying slowly changing all of the boxes green.

Originally Posted by mikey see

I really nerd out on this stuff... making a spreadsheet turns up my collecting impulses as high as they can go. I just have to make all the boxes green.

I know exactly what you mean. If I dive into a spreadsheet on a collection it's usually an indicator that I'm going in guns blazing...

Your spreadsheet looks great. Mine is similar, maybe the only difference is that I don't use color coding as much; and the sheets are geared towards cost/investment tracking first and accessory/completeness tracking as an important, but secondary functionality.

If you ever want to talk formula use or dashboard creation, let me know and I'm happy to get you started in that direction too. I've created spreadsheets for collectors in the past, both in private and at conventions and people love cost tracking. But cost tracking is a blessing and a curse - a blessing when you need to know how much you are in for, and a curse when you see how much you are in for.

[mikey see]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I know exactly what you mean. If I dive into a spreadsheet on a collection it's usually an indicator that I'm going in guns blazing...

Your spreadsheet looks great. Mine is similar, maybe the only difference is that I don't use color coding as much; and the sheets are geared towards cost/investment tracking first and accessory/completeness tracking as an important, but secondary functionality.

If you ever want to talk formula use or dashboard creation, let me know and I'm happy to get you started in that direction too. I've created spreadsheets for collectors in the past, both in private and at conventions and people love cost tracking. But cost tracking is a blessing and a curse - a blessing when you need to know how much you are in for, and a curse when you see how much you are in for.

I track buying/selling in simple text documents. I started doing it back in 2005 or so when I got heavy into Nintendo NES collecting. I didn't have access to Excel at the time so I just kept it extremely simple: one column for what I bought, another for how much I sold each item for. It's all totaled at the bottom. If I've satisfied the cost I put an asterisk by the main entry. Very rough and simple. I've done it that way for so long... I'm too old to change, haha. But thanks for the offer! If I still bought and sold as much as I used to I'd probably upgrade my approach but I'm too busy to do it much anymore.

Note: for anyone that collects NES, that top entry in the screenshot is insane, especially considering every one of those games was boxed, most with instructions.

[IMJ]

I think it's neat that you've tracked your game collection too. NES collecting has gone way beyond a "revival" nowadays. It's a bonafide investment with people buying graded, sealed games the way that 50's baseball cards were huge in the 80's and 90's. But 90's baseball cards don't hold a candle to sealed NES games.

[mikey see]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I think it's neat that you've tracked your game collection too. NES collecting has gone way beyond a "revival" nowadays. It's a bonafide investment with people buying graded, sealed games the way that 50's baseball cards were huge in the 80's and 90's. But 90's baseball cards don't hold a candle to sealed NES games.

Yep, the hobby has gotten out of control. I collected the most hardcore from about 2004-2008 (at least for retro stuff). I took a break until I got the bug again around 2014. When I saw how much stuff was going for I threw up in my mouth a little bit. On the one hand, all of the stuff I already had had skyrocketed in value. On the other hand, I was really kicking myself for not grabbing some of the rarer NES games when I had a chance. I'd always had the goal of completing the NES set but I think I'll forever be about 200 games short. Oh well.

I fully expect the bubble to pop before too long, though. Prices on loose stuff has already started to drop a bit. I suppose it's possible that sealed games will continue to rise but some of the money being spent right now is pure gamble. People are spending six figures on games that have no record of selling for that much. They're trying to create the market values by setting a baseline. It's nuts.