Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Program for Collectors

We all are getting older , Some people buy lots of gas related items .
I have for 7 Years now and have tons of stuff .

Problems
When did I buy it?
Who did I buy it from or where did I buy it ?
What was the price I paid ?
What year was it made ?

My question has any one made a program for to track there Finds or Buys ?

Thanks Sid

microsoft excel

I use a green roll of masking tape, a sharpy and a scissors asap after purchase. I used to try and enter everything in excel but would not always remember!

I use a mobile app called Encircle. It is meant to be used for home inventory to document for homeowners insurance. It makes it easy to take pic of a sign and add the info you want to keep. It will sync between your phone and tablet if you want.

Pen and note book

I use dealer inventory folders, keep track of when I bought them, who I bought them from, price I paid and if I put any money extra money in to the item

I use Microsoft excel spreadsheet as well. And then I email the document to myself every once in a while incase the computer crashes, breaks, burns or gets stolen. By emailing the document to myself, I always have a copy kept safe.

-Steve

There was a guy in Australia that sold a database program for collecting here on oldgas a few years ago. I bought one and it was a great little program that has a lot of cool features from classifying the items by company, category such as globes, pumps, cans, etc. and you can include photos of the item. I wanted to catalog my entire collection and then add items as I bought them. It even has a place for the price you paid and what the current market was when purchased and price sold for when sold. It keeps a running total of collection value as well as total cost invested. The only problem is, you have to take the time to enter each item and then remember to enter each item as you buy. I think I have about twenty items entered so far..... It’s a monumental task to enter all the info for each item and take pictures of each item. I’ve thought about actually hiring a data processing person to put everything in for me and maybe I’d be able to keep it current with buys and sells. But for me to do it all myself has become a pipe dream....GB

I use an excel spreadsheet. I also embed pictures as "comments" to some of my better pieces or when I have various pieces of a given brand (for example different firestone signs). That way, when I hover the mouse cursor over the cell with the comment, a nice pic of the piece appears (sized to whatever I want), and then goes away when I remove the cursor. That way it doesn't take up any space in the spreadsheet. Joe

Digging up an OLD thread here - I remembered the guy in Australia's program - but can't find the thread in which he talked about it. Jim, our gracious host, was kind enough to point me to this thread - and I have PM'd Rabbitman also. Does anyone else recall a similar thread - or have any new insights on best collection management software? I'm tired of using Excel - I want something more..... thanks!

OH GEEZE , I do not remember, can't remember, and anyway tough to justify getting something for $100 and then selling it for way more not to be taxed on it. Just because I try to keep track means nothing if I die, someone will just want to dump it anyway. Just paid a bunch of taxes on some stuff I sold and thinking now who was the smart one. Guy who claims the stuff or guy who does not. Money just disappears off the face of the earth at swap meets. Now I am going to spend the time after I have an inventory price it, calculate when 35 years ago I bought from who ? Guess I am the only one who does not care and can't remember. The people who get this won't care either, free money to them, they won't care about the tax.