Coin Collection/Sales Record Keeping and Tracking

[me0505]

Maybe this topic has been discussed, possibly too much, but....

 

What are you guys and gals using to keep track of your inventories and transactions? I have been very lax in this area and know that I need to start a proper system since I have been building a decent collections (at least in my feeble mind).

 

I would like something simple and to the point, like me, but am interested in everyone's systems.

 

Regards

[physics-fan3.14]

I use Excel. Alot.

[YeahToast]

Lotus Word Pro for inventory. It's easy to insert any new additions. It looks like this:

 

ALBANIA (9)

KM 27 - 1940R - .05 Lek - aluminum - bronze

KM 29 - 1940R - .20 Lek - stainless steel

KM 30 - 1940R - .50 Lek - stainless steel

KM 35 - 1957 - ½ Leku - zinc

KM 5 - 1930V - 1 Lek - nickel

KM 31 - 1939R - 1 Lek - stainless steel

KM37 - 1957 - 2 Leke - zinc

KM 38 - 1957 - 5 Leke - zinc

KM 47 - 1969 - 50 Qindarka - aluminum

 

So much of what I have came from change, or in the case of World coins from bulk bags, I have made no effort to list a cost. I do note fineness and Actual Silver Weight of bullion coins.

 

Whatever you do take frequent back-ups. It will save the headaches of having to re-enter everything if you should happen to wipe out your file.

[TomB]

Excel.

[toyonakataro]

Both excel and note book.

[bsshog40]

Pro-coin!

[Bugmann1974]

I keep track of what I want to buy on Excel, Not so much what I don't have or what I do have.

 

 

[jgrinz]

Coinmanage 2009

 

 

[Schatzy]

Excel

[rbrown4]

Excel Spreadsheets for me.

 

Rey

[bsshog40]

Excel Spreadsheets for me.

 

Rey

 

Good to see ya Rey! Missed ya my friend!! (thumbs u

[James_OldeTowne]

Excel does everything I want to have done. That being said, I am considering moving to a relational database system to facilitate realtime updates of my website.

[Dwaine]

I have been very laxing in this topic and need to start doing better. I am thinking of using Access.

[Bugmann1974]

I tried Access but it was kind of a pain for me.

[Schatzy]

Excel does everything I want to have done. That being said, I am considering moving to a relational database system to facilitate realtime updates of my website.

 

I have been working on using Access!!

[physics-fan3.14]

I thought about making a database in Access about a year ago. The problem is, I've got roughly 1300 coins and items arranged just how I like them in four different (linked and inter-dependent) spreadsheets. It would take many, many hours to switch now.

[Dwaine]

Yes but if you didn't have those spreadsheet's would you use Excel or Access?

[physics-fan3.14]

Yes but if you didn't have those spreadsheet's would you use Excel or Access?

 

Probably Excel, since I know how to use it. I would have to learn Access from scratch.

[World Colonial]

Excel with a worksheet for inventory and another one for sales which I also use for tax puposes.

 

I keep a decent amount of information on each coin such as purchase date, what I paid, my estimate of current value, where I bought it, the grading service and serial number and so on. I still need to photograph my collection though. I have done that yet.

[DC Dawg]

Lotus Word Pro for inventory.

Lotus Word Pro?! Do they even make that nowadays?! I think IBM ditched everything but Lotus Notes when they bought out Mitch Kapor. I haven't seen Lotus Word Pro in years!! Probably the last time I saw WordStar of WordPerfect for DOS!

 

I use Excel and Circus Ponies Notebook. Notebook is a great program for the Mac. There is no equivalent for the PC.

 

I am going to try to get Bento. Bento is a lighter database system for the Mac. It has some interesting features and makes it easier to work with databases. Bento only works with Mac OS X 10.5.

 

Sorry PC users... it seem the Mac has the best programs!!

 

Scott

[me0505]

Thanks guys, lots of good info here! It seems that for the most part Excel, or some spreadsheet software, seems to be a sufficient tool for most everyone's needs.

 

World Colonial, it looks like you do keep a good bit of info, just from your description and would be a great foundation/starting point for creating a tool of my own. Not sure if you listed all of you key subjects, but since I have been buying a few coins from board members I would like to keep information for "bought from"....or is this your "where I bought it"?

 

For the guys using actual software packages designed for coin collectors, what and/or why did you go that route vs. spreadsheets or databases? Ease of data entry, available features (i.e. photos, linking, etc...).

 

THANKS

[Jakeblue]

I keep it all on Microsoft works spreadsheeets, which works fine. Sort of a poor man's excel. I also keep the records on what I paid, cashback, discounts and value when purchased. I update the overall value every month with a combination of Heritage, Numis and PCGS.

 

I am curious about the Pro-Coin software. That appears to be a user-friendly database. Maybe the users of it could share some more info here for the OP and others.

[jgrinz]

Coinmanage 2009

 

Plain and simple I am lazy -

I looked for a piece of software that had :

 

"Complete & comprehensive listings of all US coins from 1793-2008 with mintage figures.

Up-to-Date & accurate valuations in many grades.

Instantly search for coin auctions on eBay™ by year and mintmark.

Updated every year since 1997"

 

Picture insertion utility

Bullion update utility to automatically update your bullion coin values

09 version should be out shortly.

Totally configurable to your needs ( I deleted the whole WORLD section )

Pretty Nice Interface

$49 -

 

I usually update every other year

 

** I am not affiliated or associated with Libertystreet Software"

 

http://www.libertystreet.com/

 

 

 

 

 

[jackson64]

wow...I really like that jgrinz...are those your own pictures also in the slots?..also, I don't see any mintmarks..is that just a coincidence that you displayed a page with all Philly mint coins?..that's a nice set-up

[jgrinz]

I was just highlighting one of my coins ... the rest are available slots that can be used/filled to customize your own coin insertion. If you see a Proof grade on the right it is/was a coin I owned BEFORE my proof set sell off

 

I am not going to update the software until the 09 version comes out in a week or so

 

[RI AL]

I guess I'm back in the dark ages with this and maybe I had better get up to date. Anyway, for my U.S. stuff, I use the Heritage site "my collection". HRCG.com

 

Works well for me, it's free, easy to add, edit, add comments but I'm not sure of photographs. Never tried. It keeps a running total of value based on Numismedia wholesale (I believe).

 

For foreign stuff, that that is worth listing, I have a very high tech method, pen and paper. Maybe I need a little guidance here, huh, guys? I think it would be a fun project to list my Music collection (now at about 200 pieces), my world crowns, my Peru set, on a computer program so I will go back and look at the suggestions you all posted. I just sold off my Tibet coins on e-Bay. Got to start cutting back. The mass of about 2000 minors are little by little going on e-Bay too. Then comes the Canada whitman book with all sorts of stuff in it going bacl to the 1850's or so.....a few gorgeous Albanian proofs, a China gold silver set...I just don't need all this stuff any more.

 

Time for RI AL to simplify and clean out!

 

RI AL

[World Colonial]

Here are the exact fields for each record in my inventory:

 

Country (since I only collect world coins);

Denomination

Date

Mint Mark (usually not applicable)

Grading Service

Grade

Cost

Estimated Market Value

Month Acquired (for sorting)

Year Acquired (for sorting)

Slab Serial Number

Source (Heritage, eBay etc. For eBay I will also list the specific seller in some cases)

Location (where I have it stored such as which deposit box)

Notes to describe something particular about the coin if applicable

 

For presentation purposes. I also group them. In my particular case, I have one section for South Africa, Spanish Colonial, Bolivia, Austrian Netherlands, Mexico, Spain and "other". Then for South Africa, I break them out between ZAR, KGV, KGVI, QEII and RSA and I do this for both business strikes and proofs. These are for my graded coins. My raw coins I just dump into one section together.

 

 

 

[World Colonial]

For the record keeping I just described, i do not have every raw coin listed, but I do have every graded coin. So at a glance I know exactly how many coins I have, how much I paid for them and what I estimate they are worth for each category. For example, I have 271 graded coins with 186 from South Africa and of those, 53 are King George V business strikes.

 

There is still some excess inventory from my raw coins I could and probably should get rid of but I have not bothered with it. (Its simply not worth the effort to me given the low value.) I did a big clean-out back in 2006 when I sold over 100 lots on eBay and used the money to buy nine very scarce cons from Heritage (four Bolivian Republic and five Peru pillar minors, all graded NGC AU-58 or above) and it was one of the best things I ever did with my collection.

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

Here are the exact fields for each record in my inventory:

 

Country (since I only collect world coins);

Denomination

Date

Mint Mark (usually not applicable)

Grading Service

Grade

Cost

Estimated Market Value

Month Acquired (for sorting)

Year Acquired (for sorting)

Slab Serial Number

Source (Heritage, eBay etc. For eBay I will also list the specific seller in some cases)

Location (where I have it stored such as which deposit box)

Notes to describe something particular about the coin if applicable

 

For presentation purposes. I also group them. In my particular case, I have one section for South Africa, Spanish Colonial, Bolivia, Austrian Netherlands, Mexico, Spain and "other". Then for South Africa, I break them out between ZAR, KGV, KGVI, QEII and RSA and I do this for both business strikes and proofs. These are for my graded coins. My raw coins I just dump into one section together.

 

 

 

I have a similar approach, although I also have columns in my spreadsheet for KM# (for the world coins), and obverse pic and reverse pics (usually links, but I have been working on actually embedding the pics as well). I also have a column for a description of the coin.

 

I have four files: one US, one World, one just for my half dollars, and one for bullion, paper money, error coins, and everything else. There are individual tabs in each file for different groupings - for example, in the US file each denomination has its own worksheet. Each type is then grouped on the worksheet. For my world file, I have coins grouped by Empire (British, French, etc.), and subgrouped by country.

 

My files and sheets are all linked together, with totals updating between them and such. I have it set up where it downloads bullion prices and will update and recalculate all my bullion coins, including lower value circulated coins in my folders. I also have it set up where it will download the values from the PCGS price guide, and my registry sets, and update the values in my spreadsheets based on a weighted average between PCGS, Numismedia, Coin World, my price paid, Heritage prices realized, and a couple other sources.

[bsshog40]

 

I am curious about the Pro-Coin software. That appears to be a user-friendly database. Maybe the users of it could share some more info here for the OP and others.

I use the Pro-Coin software myself. It's kind of set-up like Mikes also. I paid $35 for this a couple yrs ago, gives free updates and it just went to the 2009 version about a month ago. Thier tech support is awesome. If I have any problems, I email them, and I will 90% of the time get a response within a 2hr time frame.

Thanks for the help Mike. This is what Pro-coin looks like.