Alyssa 2 / Loot - Collector Tool

[zhulien]

Hi Everyone,


Everyone comes to CPC from different angles, for me it was my first ever computer and I have been a user of it (with some gaps here and there) until now.  I have a large collection of games too because I also happen to collect them.  When I was a kid, I had some original titles but of course piracy was big then - you can argue all angles, but honestly, if I had never pirated anything I would never have bought as much stuff as I did, both then as a student short on money and now as an adult with not as much money as I wished I had. 


Part is nostalgia, but other parts of my collection are less-nostalgic.  I want to make a wall like a computer shop wall with lots of games on it so i can see the awesome artwork and presentation of them.


A software that I have been developing for a bit is called Loot - it is for maintaining collections of things - Video Games, Computer Games, Movies etc.  It supports lots of medias, lots of genres, and lots of platforms.  You can enter them, it works fine on a PC with 4K monitor and of course a smart phone.  It has audit flags so you can track your collection auditing (i.e. what is the condition?, does it have a battery?).  You can chart things and so on.


I have of course used ebay now for close to 20 years (my gosh a long time) and all I can say is that it has never actually improved during that time.  I am not trying to compete with ebay, but ebay doesn't provide what *I* want as a collector.  I want to maintain my collection and easily sell or trade things without the hassles and (to me) huge listing expenses.  I am tired of listing something on ebay for a period, only to have to list it again in future if it isn't the most popular item in the world - and waste another 3 to 5 minutes listing.  In bulk I can streamline ebay listings down to a minute or two, but it is far from fun.


This is where Loot comes in.  I can maintain my collection, i can keep it private - Users can even remain anonymous if they want to maintain their collection only - they can remain partially anonymous if they want to trade or sell 'in person' at a physical meet location - I can list an item for sale or trade (both the intent) within a few seconds!  The data is already there in a consistent format, images can be attached.  My goal was to make the system entirely free for those collecting to maintain their collections (families and individuals) but charge a fee for 'businesses' that might like to sell on the system.


Have I seen other similar types of products?  You bet!!!  I have found one I like actually, but... for me it isn't good enough - in fact it has a LOT to like, just there is nothing worst than not being able to add something that you have to your collection because they want you to choose from a pre-defined list!!!


Does such a system appeal to anyone here like the idea?  Do you collect stuff that isn't listed here?

[zhulien]

btw, does anyone here use or have used Alyssa in the past on the CPC?


https://cpcrulez.fr/applications_util-alyssa_ATK.htm

[Gryzor]

This is very interesting. I keep my collection on an Access db (good enough for such stuff).

One worry with a platform like this is, what happens with my data if it goes tits-up? Should I spend all this time typing in my collection data to see it disappear at some point?

I should check out Alyssa too

Btw, just a small note, in my collection db I also have a field for the box type - you know, jewel, double jewel, small/big carton etc...

[zhulien]

I used access for years, one of Microsoft's best products I think.


I don't like web-based software that let's you lose your data - or ... not grab a copy and re-load it easily - so that feature is a must.  Currently there is an import feature.


Likewise I don't like web-based software that vanishes when businesses / websites go broke or get bought or just close down - so as a minimum, I think the collectors version should be freely available indefinitely - for self hosting if that ever were to happen.



Box type is a good suggestion.  If audited you can probably have it calculate how many in each condition too so you can know how many cracked jewel cases to buy for example.

[robcfg]

I'd definitely find useful to have such tool running on my server (Raspberry Pi ) so I can access it anywhere.


And being able to export/import the data is crucial. I could also backup the sql database if that's what the tool uses to store the data.

[Gryzor]

Another field I'm using: original release/rerelease/budget release.

But this leads to probably just allowing the user to define their own fields? Just saying, it's something I missed from Alyssa.