Collection software

You are considering a sledgehammer to crack a nut,
Just use images and use Windows explorer as the database.

Your way will end up spending more time typing and less on stamp collecting,

A flat file database of 30,000 records is sufficient for any collection
if you must have a database.



"Don Levey" wrote in message
...
It occurred to me that I might want to consider some sort of software
solution to keeping track of my collection. I have seen a few packages
out there ranging from $20 to $300, but:
1) Being relatively new to this,
2) Being a Linux user, and
3) Being a glutton for punishment,
I thought I might develop my own solution.

However, since I *am* relatively new to philately (at least since about
1978 or so), I am not sure of the sort of things I'll want to include.
I know that at least part of this will be determined by my plans for the
collection, but I am ignorant of much of this. So far, I was thinking of:

Year of issue
Scott Catalog number
Denomination
Subject/title
Status and condition (mint/used, excellent/good/fair/poor)
Perf
Type (single, part of an attached set, etc)
Special (notes, plate block, etc)

It might be nice to add an image of the stamp in the collection, as well
as date added to collection. Unless I'm missing something, this should
be relatively easy to knock out. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,
-Don Levey

On Aug 31, 2:37*pm, Don Levey wrote:
It occurred to me that I might want to consider some sort of software
solution to keeping track of my collection. *[snip]
I thought I might develop my own solution.

[snip] So far, I was thinking of:

Year of issue
Scott Catalog number
Denomination
Subject/title
Status and condition (mint/used, excellent/good/fair/poor)
Perf
Type (single, part of an attached set, etc)
Special (notes, plate block, etc)

It might be nice to add an image of the stamp in the collection, as well
as date added to collection. *Unless I'm missing something, this should
be relatively easy to knock out. *Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,
*-Don Levey

Don--some thoughts from one who has maintained an inventory of
"valuable" stamps for close to forty years. You should keep whatever
data you want, but here is what has worked for me. Note that this is
not a total inventory of the collection. I eventually decided that
keeping a current inventory of everything created too much work and a
hobby should be fun.

Year of issue--catalog number will define this for you unless you want the year for some other reason
Catalog number--Scott or other; I use separate columns for country (such as France), section (such as Office in Egypt), Type (such as B, C, J, P, etc.), and four-digit catalog number.
Denomination--catalog number will define this for you unless you want it for some other reason
Subject/title--catalog number will define this for you unless you want it for some other reason. If you are a topical/thematic collector this is worthwhile info
Status and condition (mint/used, excellent/good/fair/poor)--see Value below
Perf--catalog number will define this for you unless you want it for some other reason
Type (single, part of an attached set, etc)--I have a column for "Comments" which could include this information as needed.
Special (notes, plate block, etc))--I have a column for "Comments" which could include this information as needed.

What you've not listed is Value. Rather than inventory the entire
collection, I track only items than catalog at or above a specific
value, ADJUSTED FOR CONDITION. Currently I use $5 as the miinimum,
but if starting over, I might well choose $10 as it would cut down the
work considerably while still giving a start for my heirs and assigns
to use in negotiating with future dealers. (Separate topic: my
guidance to the family is that an offer of 20% of the total for all $5-
and-higher material is probably more than fair.)

Another column in my list is M/U/C for mint, used, or on-cover. You
have a similar column but added "condition" to the list. Using m, u,
or c makes the column narrow, with condition going into a general
"Comments" column.

The "Comments" column gets notes about condition adjustments, such as
0.2 centering, 0.3 margins, 0.1 stain, etc.

Thus a full seven column entry might be:
German States Baden LJ 0003 m $12.50 1/2,
margins

Using Times New Roman 11 point, the seven columns fit across an 8.5"
wide sheet.

Images and links would be a nice touch but is more work than I want to
put in, especially as I have the stamps and covers themselves, with
images of many of them for archival reasons.

Stan

On 9/1/2010 03:30, rod allan wrote:
You are considering a sledgehammer to crack a nut,
Just use images and use Windows explorer as the database.

Your way will end up spending more time typing and less on stamp collecting,

A flat file database of 30,000 records is sufficient for any collection
if you must have a database.

Rod,
Using Windows Explorer isn't an option for me, if for no other reason
than I'm not running Windows. My Linux distribution does have several
graphical file managers available, though, so I take your point.

Unfortunately, such a solution doesn't give me anything that looking in
the books wouldn't show me in the first place. What I'm looking for is
the ability to bring information about the collection to places where
the collection isn't - for example, to a friend's house, to a show, to
work. I could, for example, run a report showing which commemoratives I
have from 1950-59, and bring that to a show so that if I choose to
purchase something I don't duplicate. By enabling remote access via a
web interface, I have the ability to review what I have (and don't have)
from my desk at work, and can place an order with a vendor based upon
the information. Likewise, I can agree to swap one or more stamps with
someone else without having to scroll through an Explorer window.

Using a flat file would certainly work. However, I want some sort of
DBMS on top of it, to provide me with the flexibility of access I'm
looking for. I could, of course, accomplish something similar with a
stack of index cards, but I don't like writer's cramp. :-)

Thanks for your feedback,
-Don

On 9/1/2010 07:39, Victor Manta wrote:
"rod allan" wrote in message
...
You are considering a sledgehammer to crack a nut,
Just use images and use Windows explorer as the database.

Your way will end up spending more time typing and less on stamp
collecting,

A flat file database of 30,000 records is sufficient for any collection
if you must have a database.

That Rod is still among us is surely good news :-)

Now how could somebody use Windows Explorer as a database is a mystery,
at least to me.

Personally I still use the old MS Access but MySQL seems to be an
excellent solution for a knowledgeable Linux user.

Victor,
MS-Access would certainly cover most if not all of the things I'm
looking for (and would be easier to create a front end, at that). What
I may do, in the end, is create a local front end connecting to the
database for home use and data entry, and a read-only presentation layer
for web access.

Thanks,
-Don

On 9/1/2010 08:37, Stan wrote:

What you've not listed is Value. Rather than inventory the entire
collection, I track only items than catalog at or above a specific
value, ADJUSTED FOR CONDITION. Currently I use $5 as the miinimum,
but if starting over, I might well choose $10 as it would cut down the
work considerably while still giving a start for my heirs and assigns
to use in negotiating with future dealers. (Separate topic: my
guidance to the family is that an offer of 20% of the total for all $5-
and-higher material is probably more than fair.)

Stan,
I'm not sure how much I'd use "value" - it's a funny thing. Yes, it's
useful for insurance purposes (assuming that I have something that has
some significant financial worth), but otherwise it's only useful if I'm
willing to sell something.

It may be the case in the future I may sell some or all of the
collection, but at this point I'm considering myself the custodian for
my boys' collection. Perhaps a separate table with duplicates and
values, so that I might sell them...

Another column in my list is M/U/C for mint, used, or on-cover. You
have a similar column but added "condition" to the list. Using m, u,
or c makes the column narrow, with condition going into a general
"Comments" column.

The "Comments" column gets notes about condition adjustments, such as
0.2 centering, 0.3 margins, 0.1 stain, etc.

OK, that makes sense.


Thus a full seven column entry might be:
German States Baden LJ 0003 m $12.50 1/2,
margins

Using Times New Roman 11 point, the seven columns fit across an 8.5"
wide sheet.

Images and links would be a nice touch but is more work than I want to
put in, especially as I have the stamps and covers themselves, with
images of many of them for archival reasons.

At this point, the collection is small. Given my equipment, I could
easily take a photo of, say, an entire page in an album and cut it apart
for the individual images. Yeah, it's a little work (I *did* say I was
a glutton for punishment); the ability to show off the "virtual"
collection seems an attractive point.

--
Don Levey, Framingam MA If knowledge is power,
(email address in header works) and power corrupts, then...
NOTE: Don't send mail to to
GnuPG public key: http://www.the-leveys.us:6080/keys/don-dsakey.asc

On 9/1/2010 12:12, Sir F. A. Rien wrote:


If you cross link two databases, one with the collection, one with the
cat# an prices. you can then easily update the whole on a yearly basis.

That's a very tempting possibility. Getting the catalog in a digital
manner would help that tremendously, else I'd be manually entering all
that data, which I think is beyond my patience level for a yearly thing.


In addition, use the computer to figure out 'real' cat value and sale by
assigning a % to the grading. Cat $12.50, Grade "F" [real 60%], CV Real =
$7.50 Retail = $2.50 [1/3rd 'real' cv].

All it needs is a simple comparison loop table in the program.

If I were to do the first, such a routine would be quite useful. Thanks!

--
Don Levey, Framingam MA If knowledge is power,
(email address in header works) and power corrupts, then...
NOTE: Don't send mail to to
GnuPG public key: http://www.the-leveys.us:6080/keys/don-dsakey.asc

"Don Levey"

I'm not understanding this. Are you saying that you've got a file for
*every* stamp in the catalog, with the filename denoting whether you
have it or want it?

Of course, how else are you going to have a database?

The file name is the secret, you put in what you need, for a "want list" I
place "missing" in the file name..not too hard is it?

Windows explorer or any graphic file hiearchy system is faultless, it's
there for the taking,
alongside my image I can have a power point demo, you tube, word doc, a
*.pdf its just limitless

An example of my image database in simple "details" view.
you may get the idea then.

http://cjoint.com/data/jdoJOYtDXP.htm

On 9/3/2010 08:41, rod allan wrote:
"Don Levey"

I'm not understanding this. Are you saying that you've got a file for
*every* stamp in the catalog, with the filename denoting whether you
have it or want it?

Of course, how else are you going to have a database?

The file name is the secret, you put in what you need, for a "want list" I
place "missing" in the file name..not too hard is it?

For each one, no. But that's a LOT of data entry to do for the
thousands of stamps you *don't* have, especially when compiling images.

Windows explorer or any graphic file hierarchy system is faultless, it's
there for the taking,
alongside my image I can have a power point demo, you tube, word doc, a
*.pdf its just limitless

Modern database packages do allow for binary objects such as PDF files,
images, etc.

An example of my image database in simple "details" view.
you may get the idea then.

http://cjoint.com/data/jdoJOYtDXP.htm



Interesting, thank you,
-Don

This is the database, 2 clicks for every 4c stamp australia produced

http://cjoint.com/data/jdo2vtyYAE.htm

one further click...pictures
http://cjoint.com/data/jdo5jkIhGg.htm

and you want to crank up an access database to handle 4000 stamps?
I would reconsider.

Remember the same one click for the pictures, will also retrieve every 4c
stamp in
the 500,000 stamp database.

Access would have a hard time doing that.

It's your choice

"Don Levey"
For each one, no. But that's a LOT of data entry to do for the
thousands of stamps you *don't* have, especially when compiling images.


You havn't thought it through though, once again you presume.

Tonight I did EVERY stamp in the US catalogue for 2006

It took me 12 minutes.