How often do you take inventory of your collection?

[fcgamer | 4,723]

I'm sure we all keep detailed spreadsheets, databases, lists, or whatever detailing our collection, where we got it, how much we paid, etc.

Every once in awhile though, something I know I have will turn up missing, or similarly, I'll find that I gave something that I failed to actually input into my collection list. So then I might consider taking an inventory.

I'll generally take an inventory of my collection once a year tops. Currently sorting through my collection now for an inventory, anyone want to guess how many games I've got?

[a3quit4s | 4,097]

I just recently had to do this with NES because I found a double that wasn’t accounted for. It makes sense that when you do this to alphabetize the games as well. I probably wouldn’t do this for my entire inventory but for systems I’m focusing on which I have more than 100 games for every year or so makes sense. 
 

Pulling 500 games off the shelf, accounting for them, alphabetizing, and putting them back actually did take as long as I would have expected 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

3 hours ago, fcgamer said:

I'm sure we all keep detailed spreadsheets, databases, lists, or whatever detailing our collection, where we got it, how much we paid, etc.

I'm quite sure not all of us do that

 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I only inventory older stuff like NES. Eventually I'll have everything I own on shelves and that will pretty much solve the problem, but until then I just let my lists exist in the ether.

[drxandy | 3,225]

I started taking a tally this January for the first time, and plan to keep up with it. It's probably a good idea for insurance purposes to have a full inventory anyway.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

I segregate items from my storage boxes until I add them into my collection log.

I do inventory once-in-a-while which averages to be about once every couple months.

One day I’ll take my stuff out of storage boxes and build a cabinet with doors to keep my collection safe, I don’t want *this* to happen again.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

@ThePhleo What happened?!?

Lol, so many times my cat has chewed on my boxes, leaving little puncture marks hahaha.

[The Count | 527]

I used to update my collection tool on NA as soon as I acquired something. Is there any specific software outside of a Google spreadsheet that someone recommends?

[doner24 | 1,195]

I used to use NA, but migrated it to my own spreadsheet on Google Sheets. I update it as soon as I get something else in the collection and also update my collection tool on GameValueNow. 

[Gloves | 11,777]

I don't. When a new game comes in I add it to my Backloggery. When I sell a game, I remove it.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

I keep my stuff organized and alphabetized on shelves and under glass, so it's basically pre-inventoried all the time.  When  I get a new item for a library I collect, it gets slotted where it belongs, so I've never had a "where did that game go?' moment.  However, if I was forced to put my stuff in storage or in boxes in closets like some people have to or like to do, then I would definitely keep a spreadsheet or some sort of document on my computer to account for it all.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

I store all my stuff haphazardly in bins and large cardboard boxes on top of said bins.

It's like a pleasant surprise every time I go digging for something!

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

5 hours ago, fcgamer said:

@ThePhleo What happened?!?

Lol, so many times my cat has chewed on my boxes, leaving little puncture marks hahaha.

My youngest son is autistic and likes to rip boxes...so my collection is in “the cold room” in storage boxes until things get better.

Thankfully it was a Sachen generic and it contributed to me discovering that Sachen printed other games labels underneath! They probably printed entire sets of labels all at once and snipped whatever they needed at the time.

[DefaultGen | 5,403]

I'm going through the second major re-inventory in 15 years and moving to a new database system. As I go I'm trying to document every known variant of all the games I have so I don't have to re-do all the variants in the future again too much, and I'm also documenting all my box contents. Needless to say it's taking god damn forever.

But man, sitting down and just opening up my boxes, and checking out the contents and putting them into lists. That feels like a hobby man. There's more to life than hitting BIN more on Ebay. Enjoy this stuff!

Edited November 22, 2020 by DefaultGen

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

2 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

I'm going through the second major re-inventory in 15 years and moving to a new database system. As I go I'm trying to document every known variant of all the games I have so I don't have to re-do all the variants in the future again too much, and I'm also documenting all my box contents. Needless to say it's taking god damn forever.

But man, sitting down and just opening up my boxes, and checking out the contents and putting them into lists. That feels like a hobby man. There's more to life than hitting BIN more on Ebay. Enjoy this stuff!

List....making....technique. NOW!

👁👁

The data must be free...the data wants liberty.

[DefaultGen | 5,403]

Just now, ThePhleo said:

List....making....technique. NOW!

👁👁

The data must be free...the data wants liberty.

I use Notion, it's like a wiki platform that has a pretty good database. It is pretty horrible for things like exporting data, sharing data, or running statistics. Not as fast or powerful as Excel or a real database if you want to query data, but you can tag and filter which is mainly what I want. Personally I like the way it organizes information though, where I can put sort of nested wiki pages and infinite numbers of pictures directly into my database, which I like much better than trying to cram this info into a row of Google Sheets. I've basically moved on from mainly trying to catalog collection statistics to trying to cram as much information as possible into my database.

If you click a row, it brings up the "page" for that row. I have a Variants template I add, which adds a table to this page where I can fill out variant info and add pictures.

Then if we're going fully inception I can have even more pages within this page, like the Canada Ozisoft hybrid variant which needs more information and has some text I copy pasted from somewhere.

This all looks very fancy but I've basically only done Genesis so far

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

@DefaultGen That seems nothing like nested folders and text files with no particular structure. Pfft.

(ok I’m jealous)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,525]

I have a spreadsheet I've kept up-to-date for 15 years.

But auditing my collection?  Never.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

[doner24 | 1,195]

20 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I have a spreadsheet I've kept up-to-date for 15 years.

But auditing my collection?  Never.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

I audited my complete NES and SNES collections over the last year because I finally added all of the extras outside of game specific posters and reg cards. I added all of the warning sheets, Nintendo Power ads, etc that I had been keeping loose in a couple big boxes, trying for the correct version based on a couple lists I found and years of release. It was actually a lot of fun, I set up a table in my game room, threw on a record and poured a nice beer. Took quite awhile to do. 

[Brickman | 3,983]

I use the vgcollect website which seems to cover everything I need like purchase date, price, what you have in your box and any notes. It is also open to the community to submit new items or update current items with missing information.

Every 6 months I just export the data to excel and do an audit to make sure I don't have any doubles or missing items.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,525]

2 minutes ago, doner24 said:

I audited my complete NES and SNES collections over the last year because I finally added all of the extras outside of game specific posters and reg cards. I added all of the warning sheets, Nintendo Power ads, etc that I had been keeping loose in a couple big boxes, trying for the correct version based on a couple lists I found and years of release. It was actually a lot of fun, I set up a table in my game room, threw on a record and poured a nice beer. Took quite awhile to do. 

Well you just wait until the new missus surprises you with a pair of twins 

[fcgamer | 4,723]

@DefaultGen You're giving me really, really bad ideas, but I think I might look into something like you're doing...

[OptOut | 8,884]

I just scribble out the games I already got, so I can see what I still need:

If I scribble yellow it means I only got the cart. It's a PERFECT system!

[fcgamer | 4,723]

@OptOut When I was collecting Famicom carts I did something similar

[jonebone | 1,307]

I've never inventoried, but I've always kept up with my list. I know its only 99.9% accurate because I sometimes forget to delete a sold item, but good enough. If you have a set you don't forget that part at least.