Card Collecting Software

[WoobieZarz]

Just a small update, I have the ability to import an xls (or xlsx) document. Just need to write the code to save it.

Also need to work on importing additional checklists over the top of one (so an update).

There DOES need to be a specific format of said checklists tho... watch this space.

 

[WoobieZarz]

Just great! So I've spent a few hours on this, and have it working really well for importing a checklist, and today I jump on to Beckett Online to grab me a checklist, and they've changed their freakin format!

Seriously, what's with that!

Instead of the previous:
DESCRIPTION | NUMBER | PLAYERS | BV LOW | BV HIGH
or
2004-05 Finest Refractors Gold | 175 | Devin Harris | N/A | $100.00

They now have this:
DESCRIPTION | PRINT RUN | BECKETT VALUE
2004-05 Finest Refractors Gold #175 Devin Harris AU | 12 | $100.00


I can certainly tweak my app to accommodate their new format, but as I said, what about the others who've been using an old format, they're going to have a shitload of work cut out for themselves to import a checklist.

 

[Cobretti]

haha I gave up on beckett ever since they closed my organiser. It was nice sharing with people what you had.

NOW I jsut stick with god old EXCEL. it works on anything, PC, mac, mobile phone. PIVOTS MAN PIVOTS HAHA

 

[WoobieZarz]

Yeah totally!! I guess I'm just trying to cover the process for if someone didnt have a checklist, and wanted one, they'd go to Beckett for that, then they'd be able to import it to my app.

Problem is, not all checklists are the same


Question for you Dominik, if 5 new products are released and they have 10 cards in each product, where would you go to obtain that information to add to your already used spreadsheet?

 

[WoobieZarz]

^ update. I have worked a way around my slight dilemma, where now I won't worry about including "BV LOW", and instead will include a "Print Run" field, and with the help of some crafty Excel tools, I've tweaked my checklist spreadsheet back to normal!!

Now to make some code changes, and import it again to see how it looks. Might even stick up a screen shot later to show you folks.

 

[Cobretti]

Yeah totally!! I guess I'm just trying to cover the process for if someone didnt have a checklist, and wanted one, they'd go to Beckett for that, then they'd be able to import it to my app.

Problem is, not all checklists are the same


Question for you Dominik, if 5 new products are released and they have 10 cards in each product, where would you go to obtain that information to add to your already used spreadsheet?

either beckett (with limited access) or google to see what other sites have. Then I would copy and paste to excel and manually edit myself.

 

[WoobieZarz]

Beauty, thanks Dom!!

I wasnt sure how people do this, this day in age. Sometimes one person's description is different to another, but I guess if card companies release the right info (checklists), then we're all good, hey!!

Cheers bud!

 

[Brian Lee]

I came up with my checklist of cards by going through hours and hours of manual input with Beckett.com open, as well as adding the occasional card that is not listed. It is a daily process for me, I keep track of the cards prices on ebay as well as the new cards coming out. But with most of my PC players retired, that task is a lot easier now... just Jeremy Lin and Yi Jianlian still active.

 

[911_Turbo]

Just wanted to throw up some screenshots of my Excel checklist. Just wondering how others are sorting their PC through Excel, would like to see some screenshots as well

Pretty simple method on mine. 1 sheet per year, then a totals sheet at the end.

Each sheet is divided into Base, Parallels, Inserts, Graded, GU/Patch, Auto and Other. Rows are counted at the top next to each heading to save manual counting. Bit of a pain when a new year is started, however is easy to maintain once you have a few cards down for the year.

Any ideas/criticism is welcome, just wondering if it can be made easier/less muddled perhaps?

 

[Cobretti]

SUMMARY PAGE

EACH TAB IS A YEARLY RELEASE OF FLEER

FILTERED TO SHOW COMPLETED SETS

 

[Brian Lee]

I have the following tabs for my spreadsheet:

Shaq, Yao, Yi, Asian Players, Gold & RC, Spiderman, Gundam, Medallions, Wantlist

Within each of the player tabs, I break up the cards into the following sections:

Draft Picks (Classic, Assets, Press Pass etc)
Oddball (promos, stickers, magnets etc)
Year by Year (like 1992-93, 1993-94 and so on...)

Then each of the section has the following columns:

Brand (Fleer, UD, Skybox etc)
Set Type (Base, RC, parallel, insert, insert parallel, promo etc)
Set Name (name of the set, this field is empty for base cards, unless it is part of a subset)
Number (card number and serial numbering if available, e.g. PM2 (002/100))
Odds (listed odds for the insert)
Price (listed Beckett high column value)
Status (possible values: coming, move, fix, damaged, fleer auction etc)
Position (album page number/page position or TOPLOADER, e.g. 1 1 means page 1 position 1 on a 9 pocket)
Note (extra comments like new position to move the card to, additional status like Not In Album
This last column is color coded to indicate if the card has a scan loaded onto photobucket, also a value to indicate if the card is a Jersey (J), Autograph (A), Patch (P) etc

At the bottom of each section there is a mini summary. This feeds into a main summary at the bottom of the tab. I keep stats of how many cards are not in album, on their way to me, damaged etc.

My Wantlist tab has exactly the same columns minus Status, Position, Note. But there is a column that records the lowest price I have seen a particular card sold for.

 

[Cobretti]

very flash.

Lucky I dont really collect all the cards from a player myself, so for me a simple fleer list is fine.

If I ever do decide to collect every card of a player I may copy you haha.

 

[WoobieZarz]

At the moment, I've got a spreadsheet from Beckett which I customised pretty well:

Which I then import into my app:

I've not worked in it for a while, hence the dodgey menus, etc. But the idea is there.

I've got code there to activate that'll show me % complete, and also I'll look at adding in card types (RC, AU, GU, etc), which will be able to be filtered on too.

 

[Cobretti]

THe one question I have for you is, how do you keep the BV upto date? To me that is a hassel hence why I never bothered putting in a price point.

 

[Brian Lee]

THe one question I have for you is, how do you keep the BV upto date? To me that is a hassel hence why I never bothered putting in a price point.

For me, it is a manual process, but since I have an on-going subscription of the Beckett, I only go through all the changes from the previous issue. It is actually a fun process as I sit there and watch my entire collection's total value go up and down. Being my hobby, I don't find it time consuming as I really enjoy doing it.

 

[tangent]

These guys make reasonable products:

http://www.collectorz.com/


I use their game collector to catelogue my games. I knwo in there you can create custom fields etc.. So guessing you you wanted to spend a lot of time you could make it a card collecting thing. I'm too lazy, excel is good enough for me haha.

I use their book software and their comic software. Since I already had it, I also use their comic software as my card software (just a separate file). Minimal changes required, just some field name changes. There's a lot of extra fields that I don't need, but it allows me to have card details, values, images, status (eg for sale, wanted) etc and is easy to export in different formats for my website.

 

[WoobieZarz]

THe one question I have for you is, how do you keep the BV upto date? To me that is a hassel hence why I never bothered putting in a price point.

I havent figured out a way to keep it up to date yet, other than of course, manual updates one by one... ouch!!

A value could also be something that doesnt change too. I mean it could be a value that you have with your insurance company, etc.

 

[Cobretti]

I havent figured out a way to keep it up to date yet, other than of course, manual updates one by one... ouch!!

A value could also be something that doesnt change too. I mean it could be a value that you have with your insurance company, etc.

hehe I tired using winsockets to read the values to IRC (wanted to create a script for people to lookup card with prices), BUT it would fial authentication, even though I provided the login details for my account back in the day.

 

[WoobieZarz]

Those credentials still work?

I guess it's knowing their (Beckett) fileds and field names too.