How do you track / store yout collection?

[+intvsteve]

So, how do you keep track of your collection? And how do you store it?

 

This is proving to be an ever-more-challenging problem. The most alarming aspect is that some items are just not appearing when I call out to them! My Force skills have waned! With the offspring not always quite as reverent around the almighty INTV and the ever-more-of-a-stretch aspects of my collection, keeping things put of sight has been a primary goal for me for over a decade now. (Oh, crap that makes me old, too!)

 

Sadly this means manuals stashed quickly here, a console there, piles of overlays covertly placed. And major trouble unearthing an ECS or Intellivoice.

 

What do you do? Keep a database? Spreadsheets? Treasure maps? Geocache coordinares? Crèches of cartridges? Sometimes I feel like a squirrel out looking for an acorn buried all too long ago...

[bikeguychicago]

I use the VGCollect web site.

[+Rick Reynolds]

I believe I had a spreadsheet when I was actively searching and collecting. But once I "finished" the collection (got the 125 CIB) I really haven't been tracking anything anymore. The games are all displayed on shelves, and the consoles and other miscellany are in a cabinet.

 

We recently put a TV in our basement and I now have a spot where I can have an Inty unit connected and ready to go at any time. That's been pretty great.

[VectorGamer]

I use RFgeneration.com.

 

As far as storage, almost all my games are stored in tubs.

[Bill Loguidice]

I have well over 400 computer, console, and handheld systems, so storage is tricky. I put up various shelving systems in my basement, which luckily is nice and dry (but not too dry). Almost everything, wherever possible, is grouped by platform, then, preferably, by company. That at least gives me a fighting chance of finding stuff. Whenever possible, stuff is covered or put into bins of some type, though many things are out loose on the shelves. Most of my boxed games (3,000+) are in a hallway on rack shelves (and a few other bunches in the basement office and basement storage area). I long ago had to give up making them all easily accessible, but those too are grouped by platform, if by nothing else. It's definitely unweildly, and I'm at least selling off my duplicates, but once your collection reaches a certain size, I don't think there's a perfect system for storage in the home anymore.

 

All of my systems are listed in a spreadsheet, and in that same spreadsheet I list much of the boxed software for the various systems, though, sadly, not everything is in there. I've tried various online and offline systems in the past (including a custom database in Access I made), but the easiest system is generally the one that you end up using, so I stick to the multi-worksheet spreadsheet (Excel) now.

[+SoulBuster]

I use a spread sheet that details condition of each item in the CIB and color code them for need of replacement.

[mdoerty]

I need to get a system. I have some things on VGCollect. Others, all I have is an old dog-eared "JerryG" guide.

Storage is in boxes, tubs, and furniture.

Edited August 14, 2013 by mdoerty

[RickR]

Spreadsheet here. A separate worksheet for each system. I e-mail it to myself on my phone so I can keep it with me. Never know when you need to refer to it while out shopping. As for storage, I bought some nice metal shelving units that fit in my attic and keep everything in rubbermaid boxes. Loose manuals are put in a ziploc bag, arranged alphabetically and put in one of the rubbermaid boxes with the games for that system.

[OutlawTorn71]

Spreadsheet for me as well, and funny thing is that I plagurized it from the data your website , made some tweaks that made it work for me

[sqoon]

Over 40 consoles and 4,000 games and it's all stored in my head. Surprisingly, I rarely buy duplicates.

[+intvsteve]

Over 40 consoles and 4,000 games and it's all stored in my head. Surprisingly, I rarely buy duplicates.

[Ignorama]

I am not even close to own 1000 games, but I use ogbd.eu

 

The site is in german language, but it offers great oppurtinities to the community. I dont know if VGCollect offers the same, but on ogdb.eu I can fill in titles by my own and also EVERY variation of a game. Thats very nice, but it also takes some time to understand the system and fill in the games in a correct way.

[+evg2000]

I've got a mac so I use gamepeida on the mac and iphone. Storage, well that's a problem. I have a large bonus room full of stuff, a 10x12 shed and then stuff in the 3rd bay of my garage that I haven't gone through yet.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Keeping track/logging:

 

I keep most of it in my head. I never remember which Atari 2600 (160 loose, 45 boxed), NES (110 loose, 35 CIB), or Coleco/Adam (40 loose, 10 boxed) I have, but I'm pretty good with the Intellivision. Including many variations and duplicates, I think I have around.....OK, that's embarrassing. I just counted Let's just say somewhere between 100 and 1000 CIB Intellivision games. I count them all and sing them a lullaby every night, so I'm pretty familiar with what I have. Occasionally, I need to double-check.

 

Storage:

 

I have thought about this a lot lately. What I currently have is a staggering blend of tubs, drawers, shelves, and boxes....although it's actually pretty well organized, but not if you ask my girlfriend . I keep my primary games (125, Sears, Intellivision Inc, Homebrews) all stored semi on display (mostly shelved) with no duplicates mixed in. This is my core collection sorted first by Network, then alphabetically. Early versions with full color manuals are mixed into the core collection. Homebrews are sorted by release date. Duplicates are kept separately (mostly shelved) and stored similarly to my core collection, but since there are many copies of each I have devised the following system. Each copy is ranked with a number (1 is best copy, 2 is second, etc). Still sorting first by Network, then alphabetically, the dupes are lined up best to worst. So from left to right, I would have:

Astrosmash#1, Astrosmash#2, Astrosmash#3, Space Armada#1, Space Armada#2, Space Battle#1, Space Battle#2, etc.

The only thing that really sucks is when you have like 10 Astrosmashes and receive an 11th in a lot of games. Do I pull out all 11 and find the proper ranking for the newbie? It wasn't so bad when I had only 3 Astrosmashes As much work as it is, there are advantages to having all 10 Astrosmashes organized by condition.

 

What I plan on doing is building custom shelving to display all of my core collection games for all consoles. Most of the variations would be stored safely (not on display). All dupes would temporarily be stored on cheaper non-display shelving with an eventual goal of selling off most of them. Some of the rarer dupes, I'd probably keep for future trades, but they wouldn't take up much room.

 

My inspiration for display shelving came from Thriftdweller (Youtube):

Edited August 15, 2013 by JasonlikesINTV

[Keatah]

Because of your collection.. How many of U have to live like they do on the Hoarder's tv show? And how many of U have the cat's ass in the bag with room to spare?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

My entire collection is located in one room in my basement. The rest of my house is gameless, with the exception of my Wii in my living room. I plan to utilize more wall space (shelving), and free up more floor space when I better display my games. I may still be a hoarder, though but fortunately I think I've reached the point where I'm past the growing phase and entering the pruning phase.

[Bill Loguidice]

Because of your collection.. How many of U have to live like they do on the Hoarder's tv show? And how many of U have the cat's ass in the bag with room to spare?

 

The serious response is that you just have to be considerate with how you store/use things. We have a reasonably large house, and in fact bought it in part because it would easily accomodate my collection, but it's still something of a challenge. Basically how it works is, in our bedroom upstairs I have an Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U, and a few portable systems. We also regularly use our tablets, smartphones, and laptops up there, as do our daughters with their tablets. On the main floor, we have one touchscreen PC in the girl's playroom and my main PC in the family room, along with a now spare touchscreen PC, as well as an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Vizio Co-Star, etc., hooked up to the main TV. The associated games for those systems are stored in the same wall unit. The rest of my collection is stored in the one floor that's "mine," the basement, but luckily, it's a very nice basement. I have a main storage area that's the unfinished portion of the basement where the bulk of my collection is stored, as well as an office area where a little bit of it is stored, but it's mostly for actively used systems. There's also a hallway where a good portion of my boxed software is stored, which leads to a family room type of area that has my arcade machine, Zizzle pinball machine, Midway Touchmaster, as well as two TVs with various systems connected (off to the other part of the room is a full gym). So the point is, there's a plan there, and I'm very considerate of my wife and kids. Without them there, I might very well have more stuff in the active living areas, but the reality is this is the best way of doing it, and I'm certainly not suffering for it. Unfortunately, at the moment, I'm in one of those deadline-driven book writing phases where my collection is far more of a mess than I like it to be due to having to photograph various items and also not having the time to re-organize it after accessing it. To be sure, I'm far less "stressed" when everything is in its proper place. There really is a point of having too much stuff, particularly if you don't have the time to properly make use of it all.

[sqoon]

I have a small house, but organization is key. No, it looks nothing like hoarders, or my wife would leave. My collection takes up half of a spare bedroom and one end of my family/game room. Lots of wall shelves and component stereo cabinets helps.