silver_beetle wrote:I'm curious as to how the collectors on this site keep track of their collections. I use an Excel spreadsheet, where each item is sorted by mod code (B2, C1, etc.), with the non-coded items (DMG, etc.) at the end, in product code order. It's like that because I originally started it to sort out the modules I had, then it grew once I discovered this site and decided that I indeed was a collector. I only have about 200 items total, which I'm sure pales in comparison to others here.

So how do we track our collections?

Beetle

I don't...I just have boxes full of stuff. A terrible system, I know, but what can I say...I have everything I need or want, and its all somewhere in my house, that's all I know....!

Only 200 items?  Welcome to the wonderful world of spending all your available disposable cash!!!!  

Mike B.

I use an Excel spreadsheet also, sorted similarly: by game system, publisher, and module code (if any) in that order.  200 items?  Well, that's twice what I have, and half of mine is 3.x/d20, so don't feel too badly.  I probably had 300 - 400 individual items, not to mention miniatures, back before I sold everything I could bear to part with--AD&D-wise I now just have nice specimens of the hardcovers and a double handful of the "classic" modules.  Oh, and the World of Greyhawk boxed set, which I have always adored.

Hi,

Excel also. I keep everything in boxes (which holds roughly 15 items) and make sure I catalog which box each module is in. Then I can find it easily again if I get a better condition copy in and upgrade it.

Cheers,
Malcolm

list? LIST??!!

mine is all in the back room

i know its all in the back room - thats enough info for me. i enjoy the moment of finding something i didnt remember having

Al

silver_beetle wrote:
I've noticed a trend: the more posts someone has, the less organized their collections seem to be.  

Bingo....!

Although because of this, I do very often have a serendipitous moment when I find multiple copies of something cool...so one of them can go into the old Ebay store and make me some money!
 A funny story is that after I moved three years ago, I looked high and low for the first box in my Dungeon mag collection....it held issues #1-#50.  Never could locate it, thought it either got thrown out, stolen or lost during themove.  So I went ahead and started over...first pulled out of my Ebay store all copies I needed in that range of issues....then over the next year or so located pretty much the rest of the issues I needed.
   Then one day in a trip to my warehouse (storage space, really...), I came upon a box in a corner...there was the original #1-#50!!!!  It was a very nice day, putting the second set up for sale on Ebay!!! Keep hoping that will happen again with, say, Dragon 1-50 or something.....

Mike B.

I keep trying to organize mine on an excel spreadsheet but everytime I get around to updating it a new shipment arives, lol.

zhowar wrote:I have a decreasing collection; I still buy stuff but overall sell more. I started with about 8 boxes 10 years ago. Now I'm down to about 1.5 boxes of material, so I just open the box up and take a look!

My long term goal is one box.

I can help - just send me the half box of stuff (I'll pay for shipping)

This is probably going to be considered kind of an oddball way to keep track of what one has but I decided I didnt want to mess with spreadsheets or anything like that.  Instead I created several folders in the My Documents folder on my computer for each type of game (war game, rpg, boardgame, etc.) and inside each folder I have more folders broken down into either publishers (TSR, GDW) or brand (D&D, Traveller, Shadowrun).  In each of those folders is two additional folders:  Want and Have.  I have a .jpg or .bmp of all the items that I own or want.  They aren't scans of the actual items as that would be a massive undertaking....the pics are from different websites such as The Acaeum, Boardgamegeek, or even a pic from an Ebay auction.

When I acquire one of the "wants" I simply move the pic to the Have folder.  This way I don't bid on stuff I already have and I don't have to spend ten minutes typing everything into a convoluted spreadsheet.

Anyway...it works for me.  

SH60B wrote:Thats what I'm currently shooting for, though I have included any TSR game pre 1980.

I started to collect stuff from before 1980, picked up an OCE and all of the supplements, etc.  I found that I never so much as opened them, I guess because I started playing in 1980.  They just didn't resonate with me at all.

So now my collection rules are: 1) Must fit on the bookshelf, 2) Must be something I actually owned and/or played at the time (i.e., published 1980 - 1988, and also 2003+) and can remember in some detail, 3) Must cost less than $100.

Keeps me from going nutso cuckoo; I mean, what's to stop any of us (aside from the size of the bank account) from going completely off the deep end and purchasing everything TSR ever published?  And what would be the point?  Now that I'm down from 5 boxes to one shelf, every single title I glance at resonates on a number of levels.  There's no more ho-hum, "Oh, yeah, that's kinda cool, but why did I spend $145 on it?"

zhowar wrote:
My current cutoff year is ~1982 - the transition from TSR Face to Angle Logo. I do have some early Angle Logo modules - N2, C3, I3, 4, 5. But I don't like the direction that TSR art went after then (Easley, Elmore, Parkinson etc).

I also have some other post-1982 stuff on pdf from RPGnow, like UK4-7. That's a space saver.

Anyway, I'm not down on large collections. I'm just short on space these days.

I have to agree about the art.  I much prefer the "cheesier" old school stuff (Otus, Dee, Roslof, etc.) to the slicker later work.  I absolutely abhor Easley and Elmore especially, whom I know many people really enjoy.

EDIT: Oh, and the angled logo thing was a big mistake.  I'm okay with the wizard face logo, but why on Oerth did they keep f'ing around with different ones?