I have been looking for a program to inventory my collection. I would like one which can update the currents of the items. I have been looking at several inventory programs but none of them can automatically update current valuse.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
my email is dmreed@dmreed.com for any direct communications or offers.
I keep a college ruled 150 page notebook. It goes with me to train shows and hobby shop sales. I cannot carry my great big desktop with me.
I doubt you’d find one that will automatically update anything to “current” values unless your database was somehow connected to the manufacturers or supplies website.
Gordon
Automatic updates would mean a subscription service and I doubt there is enough demand to make it worthwhile. Alternatively you could develop your own software to download pages from sites such as Walthers or Ebay and parse them for prices. This is not a trivial project, but wouldn’t be difficult if you know how to develop software.
You don’t say what scale you’re collecting. The collectors market is really only well established for O & S toy trains. Resale prices for others are not well established and probably will require some estimating, something you would have to do manually in any event.
Enjoy
Paul
I use Excel, but I don’t bother with “value”. You might check out some of the more generic collection management programs. I doubt highly that you will find one that can automatically update prices however. Your best bet will be managing the collection with a software tool, but updating prices manually. Sorry.
-dave
Current value is a tricky concept in my experience. The prices asked for models vary everywhere - on eBay they are often higher (or lower) than an LHS, and some LHS charge higher prices than others. I’ve seen Fleischmann cars that I bought used with a “sticker price” of £10 go for £20 on eBay (same car, same condition, and I’ll be going back to that store again!). Price guides are often very far removed from reality - again, I’ve seen list prices well above what you’d pay for an item and also far below.
As far as cataloguing is concerned, I’d use something like Access (database package) and build a custom database. I’ve done this for some Hornby coaches in my collection, sorting by paint scheme, running number, manufacturer model number, etc. You could do this and add a “amount paid” section where you record what you paid for the item, then just check this against what they’re now going for sometimes. Hope this helps!
I wrote my own inventory program in Foxpro. Everytime I add something, I just print out a new list, and that goes with me to train shows. Also wrote an inventory and sales history program for a hobby shop 15 years ago. It’s really easy using Foxpro. Almost like basic.
Bob Hayes
I use Frostbow Home Inventory for my trains and my other collections. It’s only 20 bucks for the full version and it works really well. http://frostbow.com/
Heyas,
I have no idea how this could be made to work but upon thinking it over I see several potential questions that it brings to relevance.
Were I to do this would I:
Depend upon one source for accepted value or have several available and accept one over the other by some predetermined criteria?
When deciding upon that criteria would I want the current value to reflect the best available price or the highest reported value of the item in question? (The age old dilema of either showing the Financial Controller that the money has been well spent or bargains have been discovered)
I guess one could use the highest possible value as an ego trip. Look at all the more I paid for this collection but think of how much it could be worth if I were to liquidate the whole thing.
Personally, I’m pretty much satisfied with knowing that I’ve undercut the SRP on most if not all of my collected bits and at least three of my diesels were purchased with the cash I’ve saved by ducking the state sales tax on my transactions online.
BTW I’m using a Data Village Model Collector version toi keep track of everything. Got it and just saw it again on Ebay for under ten clams.
dwRavenstar
Are there any freeware ones?
I found a good freeware inventory program called “RRTrains 2000”
The website is: www.gregorybraun.com
Good luck.
www.openoffice.org has a free office package that includes a spreadsheet (along with word-processor and presentation software, both of which handle pretty much all file types). Not sure if they have a database package to go with this yet though - there’ll probably be one along soon. Beats me why people pay a small fortune for MS Office when you can download something better for free (and legally)!
It would be nice if the freeware ones allow you to attach a JPEG photo of the piece so you can even see the condition. A picture is worth a thousand words. 
You can attach a pic to this software.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11644&item=5929218272&rd=1
And, to add to the mix, here’s a link to a model railroad collection software product from Oz:
http://www.gppsoftware.com/cmsstock/cmsstock.asp
Looks as though it has some nice features. Wish some of our Australian “cousins” would post a review of this product. It’s from the outfit that sponsors the free downloadable quarterly of Australian British practice model railroading, Model Railways Online.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
The RRTrains software mentioned earlier does let you attach a picture to the description. It’s a neat little program, and more than sufficient for my purposes (and probably most modelers).
if you can brave learning Microsoft access’s advanced features, you can create a database, and a front end that will allow you to see pictures fo the object when you search on it.
Really, there’s a lot of free stuff out there that will help you, course you also have to be willing to learn a little computer skills as well 
my dad has an old inventory system i think i am going to use it wont be able to ato updatte but it has a search bar and it is very well organized
is there a way you could put it on here for us to download or mabey you dont whant to put it up but if you could it would be great
I had to buy Foxpro in order to write the program, and you want me to give it away for free? Fat chance. I only mentioned it as a way to get an inventory program the way you want it. Besides, it wouldn’t fit on this forum, even if the moderators would allow it. Free isn’t always best. Just look at some of the free track planning software.
Bob Hayes