How do you digitally organize your Philco collection?

How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Printable Version

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How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - AVSorrell - 02-17-2021

Hi Group - I recently had a hard drive failure in which I lost the fairly simple excel spreadsheet I used to track my Philco collection (of 150 plus radios) As I am starting anew, I am curious how others keep track of their collections - do you use a software program? have you created your own spreadsheet as I did? I would prefer not to start from scratch again, so I am hopeful others out there have some good ideas. -- Andy

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Chas - 02-17-2021

Try a search online.

IMHO the 'sheet should contain all the information that an insurance company or IRS would require in event of a loss or liquidation.

I search Google and this was on top:

https://americancollectors.com/agents/resources/marketing-materials/collectibles-inventory-sheet/

I downloaded a copy and it seems adequate. May want to add a column for images or links to images kept in a separate file.

I did craft a 'sheet when I gave some 60 items to a 501c3 museum. It worked O.K for me though the image handling was a bit quirky.

I have not been required to reveal the file other than include a print for my tax records...

I suppose I could strip a copy of my records and offer the blank file with all its headers?

Oh, I use Libre Office, I'm a Linux man...

GL

Chas

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - mikethedruid - 02-17-2021

Dear AV, you have learned the hard way what those of us who have used computers since the early days had drummed into us from early on. Keep you data files on separate media from your hard drive, or at least back the data files up regularly on separate media. I suggest that if your excel spread sheet worked well for you that you use one again. This time back it up on a thumb drive. I would have said floppy disk, but not many people have them in their computers any more. I am not familiar with Excel, but if it can, include a library of the pictures of your radios on the thumb drive, and have a links to the photos of each radio in the line for that particular radio. Finally, if you do not keep the first, working copy of your data file on the hard drive, then keep two copies on two different thumb drives just in case one has a problem some day, you will always have a good one to keep going.

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Paul Philco322 - 02-17-2021

Save to Cloud? I am sure you will find a solution works for you. I knew one old timer kept a packet on each set, schematic, notes on work done, wrote on outside when acquired, where, from who, etc, kept them in a file like a dossier on each set, if he worked on one again more notes and into packet. If you got a set from him you got the info too.

Or just put them in the basement, wonder where they are, what you did with it, is it upstairs, did I sell it? Surely I jest Icon_smile

.

Paul

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - morzh - 02-17-2021

I have a NAS. Which is pretty much a server. With hard drives. I have it as mirrored RAID, so it is somewhat protected.
There I keep all that I would like to not easily lose.
Also it is in your home so you do not nee Cloud.

As for CLoud......I do not trust it. I do not trust something that is 1) on the Net and 2) does not wholly belong to me and is not in my house.
Also I do not have it as a server accessible from the outside, so.....I cannot access it, but so cannot others.

Oh....how I keep the collection notes.....well, I don't.
My collection is not huge so I know all that I have.
I have a mental picture of my basement and my workshop, and I can name all the radios, including where they stand and in what order.

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Phlogiston - 02-18-2021

Radios, Parts,tubes and everything else on Excel. They are backed up on no less than 4 devices, the easiest is a new 1TB (I think) thumb drive.

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Ron Ramirez - 02-18-2021

I don't. I started thinning the herd a few years ago and I know what I have (and what else I need to get rid of).

If you need computer software to keep track of your radios, you might have too many. Icon_wink

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Arran - 02-18-2021

I don't digitally organize my Philco collection, mainly because most of my collection isn't made up of Philcos. I have just over a dozen, maybe a dozen and a half. I used to keep a log book of what I owned but gave up some years ago. It's a hobby, not a business, so I don't really see the need to keep an inventory of anything other then parts.
Regards
Arran

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - Eliot Ness - 02-23-2021

I use Excel to keep track of my collection. It comes in handy when I want to see where, when, and from whom I bought a radio from. Since I collect a lot of obscure sets I also make notes about schematics, original manufacturer, etc.

As others have mentioned it's important to backup your hard drives. Personally I use external USB hard drives, but thumb drives, floppy disks or cloud storage also work, as long as you have a backup scheme and stick to a schedule.

RE: How do you digitally organize your Philco collection? - palegreenthumb - 02-24-2021

I also use Excel. I keep 2 workbooks that are continuously updated every time I buy or sell a radio. One is a single sheet, row-per-radio list of models and values, which I update to my insurance agent about once a year.

The other is a ginormous workbook where I use a sheet-per-radio. For a given radio purchase, I record a sheet with all the info that seems relevant... Seller's name, history of the set, purchase price, date, shipping costs, # of tubes and types used, # of bands, type of power supply, parts purchased, the price I sell it for, and the net amount I invested in that radio. Oh, and a photo, too. I paste a photo of each set into the sheet for that radio.

At the end of the workbook, I have a statistics sheet that totals up total # of radios bought and sold, average age, avg tube count, total and average-per-radio parts cost, total loss on sales, and anything else I'm interested in tracking. I append new sheets at the end, between the most recent purchase and the statistics sheet, which must always be last. Then I copy-paste another sheet's contents to transfer the form layout to the new sheet.

And I back up my hard drive, yes.

-Rodney