POLL: Inventory software smackdown

Entered my preference - "Excel or similar"

As a LinuxOS user, the LibreOffice suite has as one of its applications something called LibreOffice 'Calc'; basically a spreadsheet which more than meets my needs for maintaining my collections.


Have fun and happy collecting!

Mike, have you looked into EZStamp and its suites - I like their main unit and the one to do pages - No computer litteracy needed.
René

I used to use Linux, and I absolutely loved having emacs for my text editor. I returned to Windows mostly for one word: Quicken. (The other word is WordPerfect, but even though they still put out a new version every 2 years, they're behind the times and are actually less stable than in the Windows 2000 era. My wife still uses it.) I miss Linux to some extent, but Windows 10 and 11 surpass previous versions so I'm happy enough with them, and the software choices are still better. (Except emacs. There is a Windows version, but it was just a shadow of the real deal.)

LibreOffice is wonderful. I don't have Microsoft® office because I don't need it. Calc is every bit as good as Excel for my purposes, and LibO Writer is much stronger IMHO than Word.


StampManage is basically a bunch of Access tables. I've never tried it, but I wonder if you could copy one of the databases out of StampManage and tune it directly in Access? Might be worth a try. 

I was pretty good at WordPerfect macros and did a bit of Visual Basic, but I realized I'd never be up to professional standards, so I gave it up. Part of it is that I'm a poet at heart - moody, sensitive, and somewhat inept at ADL skills - and part of it was that I took classes with a bunch of incompetent teachers and snothead students who had more experience than me and let me know it at every turn. But even beyond the static, I knew I wasn't getting much of anywhere. That and calculus were the two epic fails in my academic career. I did medieval and Renaissance literature in college. Wanna buy a pencil?

angore , I think I saw on another thread that you have submitted additions and corrections to various StampManage databases. Did you ever hear back from anybody there or get an acknowledgement? I'm experimenting with it now and sort of accidentally uploaded a few years' worth of spiffed-up contemporary Croatia, and I'm wondering what to expect, if anything. (They had all the Scott numbers up to sometime in 2018, but the last several years were devoid of descriptions except for a few locomotive topicals.)

Just on this particular point, several people on here and a couple of other boards I frequent like AlbumEasy.

The developer, clivel , participates on here.  Some people who develop album pages with it also share them there, too.

I would think it might be worth checking out:

www.thestampweb.com/albumeasy

Also, another active participant on here, PostmasterGS , has developed several helpful software applications, one of which is to create album pages.  Scroll down the page to take a look at it.  (I use his PMGS StampFix program.)

www.germanstamps.net/

Both of these contributors generous offer these tools at no cost (although I think contributions are welcomed).


(Apologies for taking the original thread a little off-topic.)

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, either via this forum or the contact form on the AlbumEasy website.
I am always happy to help.

For those that replied "None". how do you keep track of what you have and what you need?

This would be my concern as well.  The same can apply to many online services.  For example, if you are renting access to the online Scott catalogs, if they folded or changed their business model, you could be left with nothing (lost your lease).  

I chose StampManage because no matter what happens to Liberty Street I have all the data and can continue to use it.  It is not locked so can exported to other platforms.


Yes, I have submitted well over 10,000 changes and expect they are adding based upon feedback. I cannot tell if they were added unless I do  clean install (not migrating my database) since if you add something to the your database itself it will not be overwritten by their data.  This is to protect your work.  Someone had completely messed up Malaysia and worked with them to fix that.  Email communication can be spotty.

The do rely on user contributions and have paid some to create entries.  If you go to the far right in the data, you can see who (windows username) created it or modified it. 

Hi clivel

I also was working with CollectorDave integrating my software with his.  Then, poof!  He disdappeared into the woodwork.   In general my software does not incorporate any Microsoft, or other, Office software.  It stores the stamp info within the stamp image file.  If wanted I could finalize what I have and make it available. Note that due to the collaboration with CollectorDave my software and his should not impact each other.  Unfortunately my software is for Windows only.

Jerry B

After reading some recent posts I thought I would clarify. My software database in no way tracks my complete collection. It would take way too long to enter every stamp I own. I currently only track my main collections: USA, Germany (and areas) and Machins. Anything past that would make collecting more of a chore than a hobby.

Hi Jerry,

Inventory? What’s an inventory? 🤔😜

you mean my little black book ?   Otherwise I use none of the above 


over the years I have collected , tired of , and sold on , my USA, GB, Denmark, Faroes, Schleswig Holstein….all gone .My only one country collection Samoa is already complete from 1880 to independence +10 (1972)and no temptation to go forward.
The only stamps I hunt come few and far between, ie SamoaExpress from 1877and impossible high values of New Zealand 1914 occupation,  Cape triangles , and classic 1st issues from 19th century Europe.  My little black book is more than adequate.

my main collecting is in Postal history covers and as no two are ever the same who needs an inventory…..what am I looking for?
Well I’ll know it when I see it !

Alex, you are in a special class with lots of good History to help us - would you ilke to sell some of my inactive Countries ??   They will have to travel on the Titanic !!
Your little black book makes me laugh - I do not have one (too any stamps) for now - trying to giveaway some, but they are not in Albums but on Vario pages
René
and I also have friends you know




Aix-en-Provence, FRANCE - Xavier, Chris and René (L to R)

Have tried so many - EZStamp, StampManage, StampMate - none of them quite fit what I had in my head. Then I found Colnect and that became my main collection system. I continue to use that for many reasons, but I also developed my own bespoke website at the same time.

Sorry, a bit late joining this party, too late to vote.

I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep up with my USA inventory. I started developing an Access database (strictly USA) years ago, maybe more appropriately decades ago, that I used for want lists. I had big designs for the database but it fell to the wayside as life intervened.

I did manage to locate Scott catalog data for stamps through Scott 3791 but only managed to get up to Scott 2558 loaded in the database. That data, however, did not include the Scott value for each stamp and for the stamps after 2558, the data was incomplete (only have the catalog number, face value and description). Will soon start the search for the rest of the data.

I have downloaded Stamp Manage to check it out, just have not yet. I will also check the other options mentioned in this thread. I like the 'free' options so they will be what I check out first.