How Do You List/Organize Your Collection?

I want to list/organize my current collection and I was wondering how the other people here organize or list their collection.
I was thinking making a mySQL database with my stamps but I'm not sure which collums to include (so other people also understand it).
I was thinking about the following collums: (ID), catalog nr, value, good copy.
Is there an oblivious collumn I'm missing?

Thanks

Unmounted/mint/unused/used column?

Consider scanning your stamp, name the image with catalogue number,
you have it forever.
By default, the image will show what you have, what you are missing, the type of postmarks exist on that era, the state of your example, and so on.

It takes about 4 minutes to scan 40 stamps on a reasonable scanner.

Uruguay example.

@GeoffHa Thanks, that is one of the oblivious collums I forgot

@rod222 I do scan some of my stamps already and place them on my personal webpage, so I know which ones I have when I go to an exchange (you can see it here if you are interested: http://postzegels.vincentvriends.be...en/index.php)
But this way is not managable for all countries. Is the example you showed a webpage or made by another program? The way it's organized looks clean and easy to use.

But indeed it is, Vincent.
I have every country in the world.

Anyone who has grown up with Microsoft explorer, will know the simple basic
hierarchy, of images, in folders, inside folders, inside folders.

PS: I could not see any images from your link?




Not at all, just my scans, organised by an image program

Although I do not use it, you can try the FREE ifranview program,
I recommended this to a colleague a week ago, and he likes it.

I use ACDSee Version 3.5, which is fabulous but no longer available anywhere. (I'd happily pay $50 for a new copy )

Vincent,
aha! found your Belgie - Puntstempels Fabulous work Sir !

Courteous critique:
If you had used a scanned based image database,
you could have displayed all the Pmk numbers on your stamps, in one image
for ease of use, not necessitating a "click on here" for every example.

rod222,

The Puntstempels database is still a work in progress ;)
It is based on a mySQL database so I can still modify it on my site. I don't have many of those stamps but I'm still in the process of scanning them all and then maybe I will change the code so I can see a little thumbnail which I can click to see a bigger one (like the precancels)...

I trynmy best to get all my stamps organized on my site but it's not that easy for me to create php and a good database (I'm q network and security engineer so my php/mySQL knowlage is school level)

PS: you can see images if you click on a state on the link, I don't have a whole lot of precancels so not every state has images in it

I collect U.S. stamps and plate blocks. I list all of my stamps in Excel workbooks - one each for plate blocks, US singles, and Canal Zone singles.

Each workbook has multiple spreadsheets - one sheet for each album volume (i.e. there are 5 albums of commemorative plate blocks).

Here are two examples. This also gives me a current inventory and catalogue value of my album(s) for insurance purposes. YMMV.




As others have suggested, I also scan selected album pages to document the presence and condition of stamps with high Scott catalogue values. Whenever I leave town, I place the original pages in my safe deposit box for added insurance. I carry a copy of my inventory files with me on a thumb drive when traveling and leave a duplicate in the SD box. For example:

vincentvriends,

When I started collecting, I too used a mySQL database. to track my collection. You can see a video demo of a version of it here.



In the end, however, I went away from that because I switched to a Mac and couldn't run Access anymore, and I decided to put my collection on a website that's visible from anywhere.

My website uses Wordpress, so it's still built on mySQL. That makes it easily searchable and allows me to generate lists of what I have and what I'm missing. Feel free to check it out -- the link's in my signature line.

Here's my setup for inventory.

I assign each stamp or item a unique inventory control number, part of which is the Scott catalog number. The entry and the image have the same numbers.

I don't do anything fancy and I keep separate image files and a separate spread sheet file. It's much faster to navigate that way for me.

I break the image files down into smaller groups. Scott 1-293, 294-547, etc. I just go to the folder which has the set of images I'm looking for and pull them up.

Here are some screenshots of my setup:

I use Stamp Manage. It has Scott numbers and images for a large number of stamps however the Scott numbers are not complete for many countries and images vary widely. It uses Microsoft Access and everything is open meaning nothing is locked so you cannot use it outside the program. That is you could take the database files and create your own GUI. It can export data in any number of formats.

I use Scott catalogues and use an Excel spreadsheet. Create columns that best help you identify the stamp: catalogue number, description, denomination, color, quantity, condition, value, etc. I use tabs for identifying countries.