Hey guys,

I am looking for help testing an online SW Collector's database I am working on.

I am looking for folks with a little time (not much) to poke sticks at it and help me find bugs and make suggestions.

The database is meant to help you track your SW collection in many ways whether its very simple or more complex.
There are public and private features, valuation tracking/stats, strong filters to assist finding items blazingly fast, exporting to a local XLS file, posting/viewing For Sale items and much more!

If anyone is interested and has time to try it out, please PM me for details.

My only criteria for the testers is that you have been a member of TIG for a while and we have at least ""met"" before. I need to be able to communicate with folks I am familiar with to really help me keep track. No offence to folks that I don't really know or are new. Open enrollment will come very soon (I hope).

If you want in, I will not offer any instructions or help unless you ask me directly. I need the site to be self-explanatory so please understand if I want you to fail in some spots so I can make the site better overall.

Anyway.....

Please PM me if you would like to give it a whirl.
Reply if this was too vague or you have questions.

cheers and many, many thanks!  
Jay

I have had the privilege of giving Jay's new, collectors database, a bit of a test drive.
Although I have only uploaded a few figure variants and pics so far,
I must say it is very well put together and easy to use. Its a real credit to you man, well done

chris.75 wrote:

I have had the privilege of giving Jay's new, collectors database, a bit of a test drive.
Although I have only uploaded a few figure variants and pics so far,
I must say it is very well put together and easy to use. Its a real credit to you man, well done

And its LEAPS and BOUNDS further along now.  

Valuation stats... alternate views, bugs fixed and more!

Thanks for the kudos, Chris! 

cheers!

o.k. considering I just registered so I am still looking around but I can say from similar sites I have seen this one is really easy to navigate and selecting what you have is pretty easy all the figs are listed you just need to fine tune them to what you have in your collection and even that is really well laid out. I am very impressed so far with the whole site. I will continue playing with it and let you know if I find anything that need work. But for now great job my friend.

arohk wrote:

o.k. considering I just registered so I am still looking around but I can say from similar sites I have seen this one is really easy to navigate and selecting what you have is pretty easy all the figs are listed you just need to fine tune them to what you have in your collection and even that is really well laid out. I am very impressed so far with the whole site. I will continue playing with it and let you know if I find anything that need work. But for now great job my friend.

 and thanks!

... to add....

It started as a figure based collection site, but has expanded to include the ability to add vehicles, playsets, micros, die casts, card backs, pre-prod, custom entries and more!

cheers!

I too have had a look through Jay's site which is fantastic and really does have great potential, I'm just waiting for some decent photo light!

Great work Jay, the site is off to a great start chief!

I have also tested Jay's database, and speaking as someone who only has basic IT skills, I also find it easy to navigate and use. So support a fellow TIGer & please give it a test so that it can go live!

For those that have poked at the site, I removed my items from the public view, except for those I want to share of course , and created an Example User to show 25 items to give people ideas on how I plan on using this. Because of this, there are fewer public items shown. If the site grows, I will remove the examples once there are enough real public ones up.
The items for the example user are mine and I messed with some of the values to give you an idea of what I want to track. So please no messages if you think I placed too high or low of a value on anything.

Here are some screen shots of its current state:

Main table view with powerful filtering:


Filter in one or many columns (partial matches work great!)


Filter in the main input box to filter against ALL fields - no need to use column headers as a filter


Alternate view with the main image shown:


Alternate view (cubed) for a little more graphical, fun


The HELP & FAQ page with tips and answers keeps growing (please check it out!)


And a basic stat view based on your entered high and low estimates, purchase and sale prices:


Finally, a list view with your high and low estimates so you can see items with cost easily:


There you have it.
The stats area will be tweaked over time as well and new layouts or tweaks. Nothing is done. Ever.

cheers!
Jay

Sounds awesome. A couple questions. Is this going to be available as an app or just online? I see its a database but with all of the users uploading their collections won't it actually become a registry more or less? Not trying to be the conspiracy theory guy. Just asking. I would love something app based that was able to track my collection haves, needs and wants. All the best to you. Looks good from what I can see.

sonofsolo wrote:

...Is this going to be available as an app or just online?...

At this time I have no plans to make this an app for Windows nor mobile platforms. Sorry.

sonofsolo wrote:

...I see its a database but with all of the users uploading their collections won't it actually become a registry more or less? Not trying to be the conspiracy theory guy. Just asking. ...

As far as it being or becoming a 'registry' ... not exactly sure what that means. Is that a good or bad thing?

sonofsolo wrote:

I would love something app based that was able to track my collection haves, needs and wants.

I don't currently have any mechanism in place to support "wanted items". That never crossed my mind since this really was meant to help me track what I have and to help my family figure out what's what when that day comes that I pass them along. But who knows what the future will bring.

sonofsolo wrote:

....All the best to you. Looks good from what I can see.

Thanks!

cheers!

The "registry" comes from my other hobby. Vintage Volkswagens. There was a big fuss about this years ago when people started to create things like this for their personal databases but then you have other people who try to use that knowledge/database to track down vehicle locations. I'm not saying that you are doing this but databases create a list of items and their locations and bad people do things. I know I sound crazy but where I live it's hard to trust anyone.

sonofsolo wrote:

The "registry" comes from my other hobby. Vintage Volkswagens. There was a big fuss about this years ago when people started to create things like this for their personal databases but then you have other people who try to use that knowledge/database to track down vehicle locations. I'm not saying that you are doing this but databases create a list of items and their locations and bad people do things. I know I sound crazy but where I live it's hard to trust anyone.

Gotcha.

The ability to mark items as public can be done per item or not at all. So if you want it out in the public view to share in this social media world, go for it! Otherwise you can leave them all private and only visible to you. The choice is yours and can be toggled at any time.
So yeah, if a lot of items are flagged as public, the public can view them and you can share links to them.

At first I wasn't going to do the public thing, but it seems logical people might want to share. And there is a feature to mark an item for sale as well - again, totally optional.

My overall goals are simple - track my stuff and share a little here and there, but definitely not everything for public consumption.


cheers and thanks for the clarification!

Jay

Thank you. Looks great. I understand the whole "when that day comes" too. My friends and I were discussing starting a collectible estate brokerage. Can you imagine some of these large collections out there not getting the prices they deserve if something happens.

A bunch of updates and tweaks recently....  

The biggest addition is a proper search was added and is now the default starting point to view your collection.

Pretty powerful and working well so far (more options will be added later), but all fields are searchable now so you can view your items  how you want.

The other views have been tweaked and just a bunch of subtle stuff was tweaked including mobile phone views.

Search....


Search for...


Search results....


I have finally started adding my stuff for real into the DB since that was the point of this all.

I have about 175 items in and all with pictures. The pictures will always take the longest to do if you don't have them. Once you have pictures (if you want them), adding an item with a few changes or additions to the fields takes 60 seconds or less depending on how proficient you are with a PC. If you are adding a bunch to the description it will add up a bit of course.

I have to say I am very happy with it so far and being able to ""see"" my collection at a glance is awesome!
And being able to now tweak a search and export the results rocks!!!!
My Leia Bespin Focus is worth XXXXXX and I paid YYYYYY or my loose run is worth.... you get the point.
Its a bit scary and cool at the same time.  

Anyway........

cheers!