"What do you use to keep track of your wargames collection?" Topic

Often the topic of what will happen to our collections when we move on comes up. I started a bit haphazardly to keep track in Excel and then a couple of tries with Word. The goal is to have something my heirs can use to value the collection and make unloading or keeping it easier. I'm not sure which is better or if there's something else.

Here's an image of two of them.

Do you have a database, spread sheet or just a list of your figures, rules and or books? How much detail is in it?

No, but it's a good idea. I know someone who lost a large collection in a house fire and had quite a hassle making an insurance claim, so I know better. But I'm lazy, and I guess I don't really value my stuff as a collection per se.

I use an excel with similar columns – though I have a link to pictures included

At one time had it all on an online database website – but that collection tool went offline a few years back and I lost all my information

I keep a master running list of gaming projects and collections in a Google doc.

It's useful for keeping my hobby under control. I'm running out of lifetime to play with these, so over time I'm shrinking the list and selling things off. Each collection comes up for evaluation once in a while, and I discard the ones I don't think I'll ever get to again.

I keep separate inventory spreadsheets for most of my larger and more complex collections, because I hate buying excess or duplicates for the dumb reason that I forgot I already had them. I still have a bunch of collections that haven't gotten into spreadsheets yet. I didn't start doing this until 2012, and some collections are just hard to enumerate (ancients, Medievals, buildings), or worse, have been sitting unused in boxes collecting dust since before I started making spreadsheets around 2012ish.

My inventory system is for my own shopping and game planning purposes. I don't estimate dollar values anywhere, it would be a waste of time, and mostly out of date guesswork anyway. I don't think any of my collections are worth enough to make the long search for a buyer pay off; almost none are painted/based to "collector" standards, and they're only worth money if you can find a buyer, a search that continually confounds even my co-hobbyists who frequently attend clubs and flea markets. It would be a monumental effort to normalize my data enough for non-gamers to find it useful, and then it would be less useful to me (maintenance of data normalization is quite a bit of effort).

- Ix

Other than notes lists on my tablet and phone, neither are all there, a old fashion school notebook with all games the Regiment, battalion or battery have been in, figures lost, any special wins or losses they have achieved.

Yes I need a spreadsheet on a computer

Spreadsheet with multiple tabs that is similar to yours. I also often include links to the mfg of the minis, basing materials, terrain, etc. It is great for quickly knowing what I have available for games. I do need to go back and set up sheets for my SYW, Napoleonics, and ACW collections.

Now finding which box it is in and where I put that particular box is another matter entirely.

Worth a poll, I'd have thought.

Boardgames are on a spreadsheet. I should get the minis in one too.

Other than what I can remember, absolutely nothing.

I do cound special events, great roll wins and extremely bad roll run aways in their permanent record.

Mostly memory, a couple of notebooks for games, and the shopping list.

A spreadsheet, with a different tab for each army. The columns vary with the armies, so my SYW collection has three columns for each nation ([Units] Painted [and based], Unpainted and Planned) and five for "collective" data, but my 15mm Niko Byzantines only need eight columns and my Saga Anglo-Saxons three columns.

So I know what I have in the SYW collection at a glance- the project is 94.55% complete with 91 units painted and based, figures for nine units awaiting paint and, in the unlikely event I get those painted, another 8 units (377 figures) still to buy, paint and base. I doubt that I'll get within a cooee of finishing the project.

A spiral notebook

Separate spreadsheets for the smaller scales (1/285 and down). I guess I should start ones for the rest.

I had to do the same for paint bottles, I kept buying duplicates.