What You Use For Your Inventories ?excel Of Db Programs ?

I was qurious about what others use for Stamp collection Inventories.
I use Excel spreadsheet.

tikithindi

Excel is sufficient for my needs.

Windows explorer.
Best database on the planet.

I think Excel is perfect for keeping an inventory, especially for insurance purposes.

For organising a large collection, keeping detailed scans, notes, want lists, lots of specialised stamp data, and lots of ready made reports, I like both StampCAT and EZStamp.

Reprinting from an earlier post.

Prior to acquiring Stamp software, to computerize my inventory I developed Excel spreadsheets with the following features:

Separate spreadsheets (tabs) for each country. I have mine in two physical files, but they will vary according to the physical characteristics of the inventory and the ability to consolidate them.

Summary data: the First Tab in a file contains a summary of values for all countries, (I also identify the name of the 'collection' in the summary, which ties to album, etc. ) I also plug in the values from the COTS software for supported countries in order to get a full valuation of the inventory.


Values are linked from the summary to the country spreadsheets so they change automatically with updates. A grand total for all countries is also calculated. I have tabs for approximately 250 countries, with the bulk being in US, Germany, New Zealand, and British Commonwealth, including Australia, and Canada. For many countries, I have less than $50.00 worth.

Detail data:
I enter stamp attributes necessary to identify it, without having to resort to the Catalog.
(Scott#, Year, Illustration #, Subject, color and denomination. I chose not to keep Perf or WM's.) My COTS stamp software also identifies 'location' which is implied, in the Calculated summaries of total costs for singles, for blocks, and for totals of singles and blocks.

Calcs for blocks vary; a) individual stamp price * No. in the block)
b) fixed price per block
c) For US blocks, Zip Block Value, Plate Block value, and remainder.
Calculations for plateblocks are embedded in the cell formulae.

Quantity; both of number of singles and Plate blocks
Comments; both in the ID data and before the price section.
Price info; both of Singles and Plate Blocks.

Prior to each Group Classification (Regular Issue, Semi-Postal, Air Post, ) source of the data
is identified; specifically Year of Scott Catalog, Volume, Starting Page of the section, and summary calculation of total for that section . I find this invaluable in trying to review the source of previously entered data. Where data is cumbersome, 'Rhodesia' for example, includes 'Northern Rhodesia,' 'Southern Rhodesia' and 'Rhodesia.' I include all in the same spreadsheet, but it's personal preference. I find the same issue with 'Palestine.'

Some customization may be necessary: US vs. foreign; For U.S., I like to calculate the book value of the single and block issues. Since I have purchasing info for only two countries (US and New Zealand,) I haven't included a provision to enter purchase price and resulting profit/loss calculations.

Let me also say that documenting the value also works well with albums, by preceding the data with a page number.

My preference is Excel fine tuned for my needs.

My preference is Excel fine tuned for my needs.

My preference is Excel fine tuned for my needs.

My preference is Excel fine tuned for my needs.

Inventories....spreadsheet.....Excel....StampCAT and EZStamp.


Man you guys are serious collectors.

I used to draw a line under the number in the catalogue of
what I had.
I gave it up years ago, too complicated.

Yes, we even post in quadruplicate.

I use StampManage. Lots of nice features, and good up-to-date values for the areas of interest to me. Plus, if you upload some of your own pictures, they give you a free update for the following year.

I'd say it all depends on what you want your inventory to do.

I maintain mine to value my collection, and aid my heir & successor when she has to peddle my collection around the auction houses. I use Excel spreadsheets to track all items valued in Gibbons at £10 or more year by year. That cut-off point should exclude items not worth bothering about, from a valuation viewpoint.

As I have lists for every catalogue year since 2002, and some years before that, this method also has the interesting side benefit of showing up trends in pricing. So it shows me, for example, that this little Cochin stamp



has gone from £3.50 in 2004 to £11 this year. It doesn't really matter what multiple of catalogue value you apply: it's still tripled over 10 years. Very useful information to have

Hi

I use WORD files. I have Inventory files and a Valuation file. This system is a carry over from a mainframe system I wrote in the 1980's. My inventory is maintained by VBA (Visual Basic For Applications) programs that I have written.

Jerry B

Yes Indeedee,
My inventory consists of images, excel databases, notes, receipts of purchase, value trends in my desired areas, books, CDRoms, *.pdf's
Anything you care to name.

I have over 1,000,000 stamp images, and I can (generally)
retrieve my desired stamp, in under 4 minutes.
If I know the country, well, that drops to fractions of a second.

Yep, Windows explorer will do me.

No coding..look no hands.