Cataloging Your Collection? (Warning - Extreme Data Nerdery Ahead!)

Replacement cost would be determined at the time of loss, so there's no need for you to try to track that - and good grief, that would be so much work... At the most, I would recommend listing some doll appraisers nearby that could be called in a pinch.

Riders are generally purchased in set amounts - $5,000 or $10,000 is standard. Your insurance company may ask for a list of your dolls, though. So... good thing you're here?

 

I switched from cataloguing my BJDs in a Microsoft Word table to using AIrtable a few years ago when another DoA member posted a thread about it. I have separate pages for dolls that are home and my wish list/pre-ordered dolls.

For the ones I have home I keep track of:
Name (I've given them)
Company
Sculpt
Resin Color
Size category
Arrival Date
Eyes
Wig
Face-up (Company, blank, or me)
Original Purchase Price

I also have a "To do" column where I list if they still need a face-up, or better eyes or wig.

 

I have a google spreadsheet of my collection! It's got different tabs including: Dolls, parts, books, and wishlist; also past dolls and the period I owned them for. I've been meaning to also catalog my clothing, eyes, wigs, shoes, props, as well.
For my dolls/parts, I catalog:

-Doll sculpt+maker
-Skintone
-Year made /Date Acquired
-How much I paid
-Faceup/mod/etc artist
-Damage
-Box/CoA?
-Wig/eyes (if static)

I see estate sales and such of selling peoples dolls with no names, wrong boxes, whatever else. It devastates me in a way, that these things that meant so much to their owner once are more "junk" and has to be rid of by the family in a time of grief. If anything were to happen to me, I want my loved ones to be able to use my spreadsheet to identify and sell things for what they're worth and to people who know what they are.
It also helps me when I need to sell things! I'm ADHD and need tools like this to help organize and remember things. Like for my doll books and magazines, it's helpful to have them all written out in one place vs having to physically check my bookshelf to see if I already have a copy. My Wishlist helps me keep track of items I want (to help prevent impulse buying) and checking off items to move them to my collection tab makes me so happy!

 

im not one for spreadsheets but i do have a bjd catalogue book that i should fill in some more cuz ive had 3 new arrivals lol. i even want to get a polaroid camera eventually so i can add their pictures!

 

I use a spreadsheet that features name, companies and names of the head and body, country of the companies, any event/line its part of, resin color, material, jointing structure, size, date acquired, where purchased, box, what group is the doll in, whether its a fullset or has a faceup from someone else/company, hair and eye color, string size, quick clothing description [i rarely ever change their clothes, everyone has a default set and that's it unless I need to wash it or a special occasion], name explanation, any additional parts, yellowing status or if it has a strong smell or not, and any additional comments. another page on the sheet contains most of my purchases so i can track my spending, another page is a project page to tell me which dolls need clothing, wigs, eyes, repairs, etc. Also a buying and selling page.Several other pages but not as commonly used and I only use them if I need to put information that doesn't belong in the other ones. There's also several rich text documents on the doll's characters.


I'm trying to figure out how to do this physically since I erase, change, or add a lot of things.

 

Oh my God the thing I enjoy most even more than dolls is cataloging I used to do it with everything , and yes I do it with dolls obviously!!!

 

I like that! I have several bases and many tables in my Airtable. I have a separate table for models informations, character informations, body comparisons, which is very useful when you're considering a hybrid. I also have a table of their relationships (I plan to make an extra mind map), I have a special base for large photo projects and everything I need for them, and KanbanFlow for creative stuff for BJDs (props making, faceups etc.). In addition, I have WordPress stories in progress and list of Artbreeder icons of my characters. I just love having all the information neatly organized.

 

A request (more of a beg) for the Airtable peeps: Any chance of posting a quick explainer in Brigadoon? I've tried Airtable, and while it's easy to use, I have no eye for design. My attempts look messy and cluttered.

 

I keep a spreadsheet around like this for keeping measurements all centralized so when I have to buy patterns / clothes or make anything myself I can easily check the measurements. It's an absolute godsend especially when the companies go defunct and you can no longer check for measurements on the company website.

 

@pondkoi - um, maybe just some design ideas? Like screenshots of a template? Mine just ended up looking like I'd thrown stuff everywhere, which is what I did, to be honest.

 

I keep mine very simple: name, price, date.
You can get a lot of useful info from just that

 

I use a word processor called Scrivener to organize my doll info. It’s primarily made for writing novels, but allows for a lot of organizing tools in a single document. I have pages for each of my dolls that are split into folders based on size. Each page has all of the information about the doll, and new pages are made from a template that I just fill in. When I take photos of my dolls I attach them to the doll’s page. I also like to keep info pages for my processes of making eyes and dying, and a summary page that tracks general to-do and orders I’m waiting for.

Recently I started making a web document for my dolls as a way of having something more visual and practice coding html and css. It’s pretty basic at the moment, but I’m planning on expanding it.

 

I should, considering I'm a museum professional by trade and ought to follow my own example! But I haven't yet. I've gotten as far as sitting down to make the spreadsheet and then gotten overwhelmed at the scope of the task- and my collection isn't even that big. Sigh.

 

I have a fairly encompassing AirTable instance, note that I do have some experience with data modeling and analytics, so of course I do it for my fun hobbies as well.

Here are the tables I have



Within each of these, there are dimensions associated with each record. For example, for Faceups, I have the artist, date, amount paid, and the moodboard I put together for that project.

Inventory is my largest table which has every item I own as its own row. Dates ordered, received, color, price, and associations with other tables like Invoices and COAs. Then I do visualizations on wait times for fun or aggregations of the number of items I own.

Some of the wait times I've experienced, as well as when I acquired some dolls.



Distribution of items I own


AirTable also lets you do cards, which I've done with my characters.



So yeah, I love data

 

Glad to be a help / inspiration! I mostly detailed these so I could keep myself honest.

I have not yet used interfaces in AirTable. Seems like an interesting feature to explore.

 

@VeraLyne - I am not worthy. That's amazing. I'm going to fire up AirTable and try to do something similar. I may pester you for help if I get stuck.

 

I have an AirTable set up but not to the amazing degree of some people in this thread. I bow to your cataloging skills!

 

@VeraLyne Wow! Your method of use is very advanced.

Spoiler: If you are interested in tools that can make your diorama easier.

I'm testing SketchUp now.
I don't know if it's appropriate to put this in this thread, but it seems like a very useful tool for diorama planning.
The only drawback for a European is that this tool cannot use the metric system.