Why Majority Collector Use Spread Sheet ?

If you want to be inspired and see what you can do with a database, check out what PostmasterGS has done:

http://www.germanstamps.net/index.p...tabase_demo/

Postmaster did a great job with that. Not to beat a dead horse or rehash old threads, but that's right along the lines of what I wish Scott and other catalog publishers would do. Whereas today I buy 1-2 year old used copies of Scott Catalogs, I'd be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee to Scott to access a database like that, assuming it had much of the same functionality.

In my perfect world, I would use something like Stampmanage, so I can create a want list with catalog values. But I would want it to have a companion app on portable devices so that I could sync data back and forth. Plus I need the desktop app to work on something besides Windows.

I don't think the stamp collecting world is that technically savvy yet.

Does anybody find value in being able to upload your own Excel spreadsheet into a "stamp cloud" website that you could then access using the Internet and a smart phone, tablet/iPad, or laptop?

I've contemplated building such a site to host people's own spreadsheets.

I am not sure what you mean. How does the site you want to build differ from Dropbox, OneDrive, or any of the other myriad of free online services where people can put their spreadsheets or other docs?

I think that while it is a noble idea, it is rife with issues:

1. Liability. If someone uploads a collection spreadsheet that contains costing information and your service is compromised and the information stolen, that is a nightmare waiting to happen.

2. Resistance/caution. As a collector, I would never upload my collection data to someone else's service. Not only do I not know how secure it is, but I don't know what THEY might do with my data.

As owsi15797 mentions, just get a membership to a cloud storage service, and make sure it is secure and ideally the data encrypted.

I don't want to create an inventory list from scratch.
Does anyone use the available commercial stamp software apps for inventory tracking?
I understand several software products include the stamp image built in to these apps. But do any of these off the shelf products provide a reasonable approach for cataloging collections?
I'd like to know if such software tools can be useful in searching for specific "haves" or "missing" issues?

I am consolidating my US collection into a new set of hingeless albums, so I see cataloging as a natural next step.

Dan

I use StampManage by Liberty Street.
I have used any number of software inventory programs. I even had one once that I wrote in Tandy 4K basic. I have tried Excel sheets, dbase and Access. The reasons I settled on StampMange
all relate to my admitted laziness. You can enter as much or as little information as you want/need for your collection. There are 4 input screens, each containing more "advanced" info.

What I really like are two things: One there is a space to enter "other catalog number", it is a free-form text box (This is in addition to Scott (default) and dedicated spaces for Gibbons and Michel numbers. (StampManage has licensed Scott numbers). Since my magor interest is First Day covers, I really like the option of adding up to 4 of your own scans, either by import or direct scanning.

The images supplied are of single stamps and are sometimes REALLY bad. The good news is you can edit the properties of the stamp and replace the supplied image.

The reports section is quite large and offers lots of variations as well as an editor so you can change any or the supplied reports or create your own.

The drawback is that you are ALONE. Customer service just does not exist. However, the program itself is pretty intuitive and the website offers some video tutorials that are helpful too. The report editor has a rather steep learning curve, but they do provide a good PDF manual accessed from the main program.
I was up and running quickly. Data input goes rather quickly (it helps to be familiar with the Scott system).

Before settling on StampManage, I downloaded as many free trials of inventory programs as I could. I tried each one with an eye to what I really wanted/needed (Planty numbers, my own scans, entering as little info as necessary) and settled on this one.

This got a little long, but I hopes it helps.