Collection Tracking Software Opinions?

will-411

will-411

Verified Trader,
Joined
Apr 4, 2004
Messages
4,515
Reaction score
11
Location
Orangeville, ON
Hey guys,

After years of buying a box or two here and there, I've realized I have a ton of inserts, rc's etc. that I'd like to move on. One of the avenues is to of course provide trade/ buy lists here on the site and elsewhere... however, I've got about 5000 cards to go through, and while they are now (mostly) sorted, my fingers scream out at the thought of typing all of the card info out. So I was wondering what you guys use.

I'd prefer something that has a built in database, and an easy user interface. Cost is important, but saving me hours of typing out scrub rookie names has value to it.

I have tried the trial version of the Beckett on-line organizer and I just found it way too clunky to try and add cards to my collection. Perhaps I'm not doing it right, so if you have any feedback on that, I'm willing to listen too.

Thanks,

Cory
 
One thing you could start with is approximating. That is, list the top cards you have and for the rest, mention the sets you have cards from. Then, over time, proceed forward with typing more and more of the exact traders you have.

Like:
2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1/2: Tons of inserts, ask. Maybe 30 Young Guns.
just as an example.
 
will-411 said:
Hey guys,

After years of buying a box or two here and there, I've realized I have a ton of inserts, rc's etc. that I'd like to move on. One of the avenues is to of course provide trade/ buy lists here on the site and elsewhere... however, I've got about 5000 cards to go through, and while they are now (mostly) sorted, my fingers scream out at the thought of typing all of the card info out. So I was wondering what you guys use.

I'd prefer something that has a built in database, and an easy user interface. Cost is important, but saving me hours of typing out scrub rookie names has value to it.

I have tried the trial version of the Beckett on-line organizer and I just found it way too clunky to try and add cards to my collection. Perhaps I'm not doing it right, so if you have any feedback on that, I'm willing to listen too.

Thanks,

Cory
Click to expand...

I used Excel for all my traders. Gets easier once more and more get added since it will start auto completing stuff for you. Not really sure if there are any easy to use programs like you're asking for though.
 
I use Google Sheets which is pretty much a free version of excel. Like stated above, it gets easier once you get some cards entered and you pretty much only have to enter player names. Even then it starts to auto complete.

If I have a lot of cards from a certain set, I will copy a checklist from a place like cardboard connection, use Edit Pad (notepad) to get it into the format I want, then paste the player names as needed.
 
I would go with what the other guys are saying and go with excel or similar program.

beckett's organize is horribly bad now compared to what it used to be. Plus they have a crap ton of glitches in it that they pretty much refuse to fix. If it were free I would use it, but in its current state, I wouldn't pay for using it.

Sports card forum has a built in inventory manager. I havent used it in a while, but I think it has built in functions for trading/selling and stuff, I think.
I found it a tad bit tedious to use. Really no short cuts if you are adding a large volume of cards, also a bit slow for me. But, its free, and decent.
 
I'm not sure if it's around anymore, but I've been using a program called The Card Collector for 20 years. I bought it all the way back in 1996. It's really easy to use. You open a set via dropdown boxes and then can enter in quantity and price of each card. Here are a couple of screenshots. The program also lets you create custom reports - "Cards needed to complete the set", "All cards of specific player or team", etc.

They offer monthly updates to the database, but I found these to be very pricey (I think $50 a month?). Nevertheless, once you get used to the program, it's quick and easy to enter in a new set yourself. You'd really only need the monthly update if you collect *everything*.

I've tried to find the company online, but I'm afraid they may not exist anymore. (Looks like they recently had a feud with Beckett over their pricing updates) But you may be able to find a copy of the software on eBay or Amazon or someplace.

Updates: I found version 6.0 on Amazon. Mine is version 7.0, and I believe ended around the 2011-12 season, so it doesn't have any sets after that I haven't added manually. So version 6.0 would be going back even further.

And I guess Beckett won that lawsuit and really tried to rub it in, because I found the old company's website in an e-mail correspondence with them, and it actually redirects to Beckett.com.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
I have to agree with the suggestions of using excel. That's what I use and I like it because you can customize it any way you like and its easy to cut and paste when you are putting together a Wantlist. Another thing I do (not sure if anyone else does this) is, I add pictures to it. So If I see the card ive been looking for on ebay or Worthpoint, I can copy the picture and put it into my Wantlist where I have the card line-item'ed. After a while you will have a database of pictures of the cards you want.

Sorry I know your post was about Inventory and not Wantlists, but I think the message is still the same.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks guys... sounds like there may be a lot of typing in my future... :)

I like the idea of using the checklists off of Cardboard Connection as a starting point though to save some time and will probably go that route with Excel as the base.

Thanks,

Cory
 
I just used beckett and typed the players last name and the card number. Then after adding them all in to organize I copy and pasted it into excel and I maintain it
 
Looking for a good hockey card database

I'm looking for a way to easily organize all my cards as well as have a list of all I have. I know it's a pretty big task, which is why I'm asking for help on here. I've seen a few options so far, nothing that has REALLY stood out. Being accessible to others would be a plus.
 
Phil,
Having been down this road there are really only two options you have, and neither is perfect but I do prefer the one over the other. Your first option is to use the Beckett Online catalog and put all the cards in there. The search works pretty well right now and the nice thing is you get their pricing as well. Down side is, there are limits and their pricing is well, not always up to date. So if you are looking for something to manage "inventory" I would go that route.
Now, if you are looking for something that has a more collector focus and a bigger catalog that you can help expand, I would suggest the Sports Card Forum one. They allow collectors to submit requests to change the catalog when something is missing or incorrect. That feature I like the most because Beckett again is limited in the cards they put in their catalog. Now the downside is that their is no pricing, but you can actually set the price for something. So if a card sells for $10 and Beckett says it is $100, your choice you set it. The part I like about the SCF catalog is their is a sync feature for want lists, and also a download function. So you can always pull your entire collection into a very usable file and keep it safe.
As you can see I like SCF more but mostly because I built my own site for my Lemieux collection and use this to help me find other cards I need. So it comes down to what you really want it for. I went the route of going way over board and built my own, host it on a machine in my closet, but hey I can do that. I can also get to it via the web but it is not public (yet).

So good luck!! Any questions just give me a PM.

Thanks
Thad
 
Here is a link to my Phaneuf checklist (mostly up to date)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...zzYCbrRAX0v8qyWcLQ7sCSJQqWA/edit?usp=drivesdk


I like Google docs because it is accessible on multiple platforms, phone, computer, tablet, and I can send a link to people and they don't need excel to open it.

This is probably my 3rd or 4th iteration of a player collection spreadsheet. It's a lot of manual work up front adding items, but you control what and how you are displaying it I have a few tweaks I want to make when I get around to updating my other player PC checklists.

I would also like to get a more easily readable checklist for my 15-16 Champs master set that will be similar.

There are a few websites I used to get the lists. HI is good for brand new products with Gomaz's posts. There was one good site I found for older sets that I can't think of off the top of my head.
 
The responses in this thread might help you out.

I'm still using The Card Collector, but as I mentioned, it's not really for sale anymore outside of finding it on Amazon or eBay. Post #7 links to some software options. Maybe give a couple of them a try and see if you like them. If you do find one that you really like, let the forum know!
 
I always suggest the SCF Inventory - I've been using it for years and it is great. If you've got a lot of cards for a single set there is a function where you can just click all the numbers you have and it will add them. Adding pics is another great feature, helpful for showing off your PC or those bigger cards.
 
I had starting using tradingcarddb.com - it was good for managing want lists for set building, but if trying to put together wantlist/tradelists across many sets/inserts/parallels, etc. it gets time consuming.

It also produces nice .pdf wantlist/tradelists, but cannot export them to excel or copy them cleanly to post in the forums.
 
For free I don't think you can beat SCF. Tons of work has been put into it, covers a lot of sets, and should have extract capabilities (into .csv format if I remember correctly).
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
389,509
Messages
2,233,202
Members
4,147
Latest member
Robbyhav
Back
Top