"What Tool(s) Do You Use to Catalog Your Minis?" Topic

What do you use?

* paper and pencil
* text editor
* word processor
* spreadsheet
etc.

None. It would frighten me to have a full listing.

Labels on the boxes.

Excel Spreadsheet…. just did my full collection of ancients.

None. The wife might find it.

None/nothing.

Excel spreadsheet. Took a few weeks to catalog everything, but it was a lot of fun going through all the nooks and crannies and finding game stuff I'd long since forgotten about. (When did I pick up a bunch of 6mm Franco-Prussian War figures?)

None.

Microsoft Access database. Been tracking for more than 20 years now.

Google drive spreadsheet, though I really only use it when I'm first fired up about a project.

Rich

Hmmm – you've asked this one before…

Excel still does the job for me.
My missus would at times offer to use a shovel.

Excel spreadsheet, saved in DropBox, so I can check it at the FLGS or convention.

My memory.

a poorly maintained Excel spreadsheet.

boxes

Paper and pencil.Although I love Ivan DBA's idea of using excel and keeping it on Dropbox. Looks like a new project on the horizon!

Pen and paper originally, now e-documents. Need to merge the two lists for a single comprehensive list.

I mount them on stands

Paper and pencil for some.

Spreadsheets for others.

Many items uncataloged, though I have attempted to at least list the contents on labels on the box exteriors.

1/285, 1/2400, 15s, and 25s spread sheet.

Haven't cataloged the 1/76.

Spreadsheet but mostly memory.

Excel spreadsheet

My wife thinks I'm weird keeping my CDs in alphabetical order, she would think I had completely lost it if I catalogued all of my " little lead men". (but Excel sounds good to me!)

I don't catalog anything.

Paper/pencil ---> Excel spreadsheet though the programmer/analyst in me snipes that a database would be an ideal tool not an inappropriate spreadsheet…

Spreadsheets work best for me. I tried using a database to combine them all together but found that didn't work – too many differences between the way I wanted to describe units for different periods that a single DB structure couldn't be easily made to work.

Cyrus and I are on the same page – but I am thinking about using MS Word

Excel Spreadsheet

Some are on word processor files (by period), for the rest I rely on memory.

The minute portion that are cataloged are in Excel. The rest are living in happy anarchy.

Evernote.

Google drive spreadsheet.

I store my miniatures in a 72 drawer card catalog, so label on the drawer.

A poorly maintained spreadsheet

A hammer, yes definitely a hammer an a screwdriver, I like to use a saw to make it neat and very straight with nails to finish…:)
OK OK, seriously. I've got books full of scribbles of what I've got mixed in with army lists, paint recipes, what I need to complete armies, doodles of terrain and paint schemes, what I sold and the lists go on, I update the catalogue or rewrite it out into a new book every so often, it becomes a work of art in its self, almost like a diary of the stuff I own. Got I think 5 books filled like this with the latest update started this year.
Cheers oldschool but fun.

Labels on the boxes.

Memory, not always the best, but it's fun when you look in a box and have that "I forgot I had those guys" moment.

Everything but the text editor, but it's by project, so some things are in Excel, usually if it involves ships or planes. Others in Word, others paper and pen, but the latter are usually projects where I've just been collecting stuff and realize I should figure out what I have. Usually it's a prelude to a digital catalogue.

Nothing currently, but I really like the idea of using a Spreadsheet, with photo's, and storage locations: room, unit, tray, etc. Would love to create a database for my miniatures, along with my local gamer's figures, so that we could create a Lending Library, to assist each of us in putting together a game. The Lending Library would be accessible by all, such that they could look to see who has what figures, to allow all of us to know easily what we can put together for an army.

Currently, we create the army roster we want to have, then e-mail everybody with the troop types, and numbers, we need, asking what each can supply to the cause (frequently, we have a few people each bringing overlapping figures, which we don't use…). The Lending Library would simplify this, greatly. Ideally, it would e-mail the owner of the request for the loan of his figures, date, time, etc…

Right now, it is 'pie in the sky.' I don't know enough about dB's, so I cannot write one. I tried to reverse engineer a Lending Library dB example I found, but I could not understand it enough to pull it off. Oh, well. a spreadsheet, with photo's, would be better than what I have now -- which is nothing. Cheers!

Word processor/spreadsheet/database, depending on the period/purpose.

I use MS One Note for inventory, painting recipes, history notes, research, etc. Very easy to pull things off the web into it, as well.

Excel
- 1 file per period
- covering scale and up to 5 battles I want to model
- broken down initially by type of cmd, inf, cav or art (as I develop an army further break this down a bit)
- generally 1-2 small getting started, 2 mid-sized and 1 larger – alter this when I want a particular battle or two represented (Kars for the Crimea, Springfield for the AWI as well as New Market and Franklin for the ACW)
- covering current figures I have; both raw lead and painted
- then a total column of what I need

Excel spreadsheet

I wish!! absolutely nothing at the moment and I really could do with doing it!!

What is this cataloging of which you speak?

My computer word document which is down but I always have had a paper copy which I change as needed then every few years print when it's to messy

Excel spreadsheet for the bigger collections. But by no means is it comprehensive nor complete

I have a dresser bureau that I have one drawer for 15mm, 1 1/2 drawers for 28mm, 1/2 drawer for 20mm and other odd figures…and the others for "associated stuff…"

Excel Spreadsheet

None. Why do people want to catalog their minis?