Keeping an Inventory

VGimlet

How do you keep track of what decks you have?

If you use a computer inventory database, did you make it yourself, or use a pre-built program?

This is probably more for those of us with larger collections, but still, if you have a few more valuble decks you may still want to keep track of them, how much they are worth, etc..

I was thinking about how other people did it, because I just re-did my inventory. My original was in the back of an old tarot journal, and I was running out of room. Now it's in a nice, fresh journal with room for several more years. ( I discovered a few missing titles along the way, too...)

I have thought about a computer database, but my skills for data-base building are pretty 1990.
I keep track of how much I paid, when I bought it, was it new or used, and if it's now collectible or not. etc.

There is a note in the front for my heirs, that this will change in the 60 or so years until I die since I plan to live to about 110, LOL, so they should check current prices. Since sometimes today's loser deck is tomorrow's treasure...

Even if I do go to a computer inventory (with multiple back-ups) I'd probably still keep up a hard copy journal, for the sake of redundancy.

But I was curious, what do others do?
 

Le Fanu

Totally disorganized.

I write every new deck I receive in a small notebook. No order whatsoever. Simply the order I buy them in. Multiple copies are listed thus; eg "Pewter Bohemian Gothic X 3"

Oracles are listed in the back of the notebook. I add new decks to my profile here so it is always up to date. I have no record of how much I paid but I keep all receipts so if I really, really wanted to know I could go in my receipt box and spend a whole day looking for it (and it would be the one receipt which I didn't keep etc etc)

I find the whole idea of spreadsheets a bit boring. My deck list doesn't really need to be in any order. I tell my partner "if I die tomorrow, send this notebook to someone on the forum and they'll help you out! :D

When I order a new deck I write it in my diary and if it is a paypal transfer I write the amount, and I often write where I ordered it from, eg "Thursday 10th November ordered Joie de Vivre, Book Depository" then a few days later "Joie de Vivre arrived" etc.

But really, grids and spreadsheets are not my thing.
 

WolfyJames

Well, in my case I use bookTome to manage my books (I have around 700 books) and my decks. It's a well done app. Alas the dev has ceased working on it and has even deleted the website. There were two versions of his app on this website, the installation one and portable one, which I'm using. You can still find his app, the installation one, at other websites like Softpedia ( http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Diary-Organizers-Calendar/bookTome.shtml ) or Softonic ( http://booktome.en.softonic.com/ ).

One of the reasons given to abandon the project was that Amazon, would, once again, change their codes make it near impossible to import infos from Amazon, which was possible before the change ( http://booktome.shanemca.com/ ).
 

Bhavana

I don't care for the ultra organized grids/spreadsheets method either. I like doing things by hand.

I keep a list - name of deck, current value, in or out of print, what i paid, where I got it. Everything in a journal type book with Klimt's "the kiss" on the front. Not too neat....and I also have my want list in the back. Main reason for doing this is so that if anything happens to me, my family will know what do do with all of it. If I live as long as I'd like to, I'd someday like to just turn over my whole collection to another younger collector that I know will love and appreciate most of it. Hopefully that will be a family member, but who knows!
 

Debra

At the beginning I didn't track how much I paid. Later I made a deliberate decision to forget about recording prices. I don't want to think about tarot as an economic investment.

Then later I tried to reconstruct the cost by looking at old e-mails from ebay and paypal.

Then I went back to forgetting about it.

So now what I have is the list on my profile.
 

Carla

I don't keep track of how much I paid. I have a chronological list here on my profile. I've taken to adding notes when I get cards in a trade, but I didn't do that at first, and so I've forgotten some of the decks I used to own, I think!
 

NorthernTigress

For the longest time, the only "inventory" I kept was the one here in my AT profile. Then, while I was packing up to move, I wrote down all my decks and which one was in which bag.

I don't pay attention to where I got a deck from, nor it's financial worth. I do have a list of which decks I gave away in past Trade Trains (Gone but not Forgotten) but, ironically, I never kept track of which decks I *got* on trains.

And I don't think I will ever, ever understand the concept of having multiple copies of the same deck. The closest I have to this phenomenon is the Special and Mass Market versions of the Tarot of Dreams. Which are different enough to need both.
 

Alta

I keep my decks listed in an Excel spreadsheet. I just list the titles and their location (I have several storage containers) but not what I paid or when I acquired them. The good thing about this is that the spreadsheet has that handy Find feature and I can quickly locate any deck.
 

gregory

Access database. (with a backup in Excel in case Office ever falls over, which I always fear, from Microsoft...)

Fields: Catalogue number (I have a catalogue with scans of a couple of cards from each deck), where stored, name, artist, limited etc status, publisher, country, date, no of cards, where bought, when bought, how much for, a few notes about the deck.

I am a geek :|
 

jackdaw*

Spreadsheet in Excel, with deck title and any relevant details about edition (ie, Albano Waite, miniature US Games, Le Veritable Tarot de Marseille, 2nd printing), date received, from where, how much paid or what traded for, any other notes. And another column for when, where and how much I might have sent it on to a new home.

Because I have done so much trading and selling and reacquiring over the years that it gets confusing.