Comparing Physical Media Organizational Apps For Collectors!
Story by @GIJoeRepairShop
Over the past few years, this author has been constructing a large vinyl record library. At the same time, this author has been reconstructing a large CD collection that got wiped out in a basement flood in the late 1990s. (The same flood destroyed my comic book collection and ninety-nine percent of my GI Joe collection. I’ve successfully rebuilt both collections over the past two decades.) One thing that always was a hassle was being in a record store and not knowing whether or not I had a particular album. Another challenge was being in a Goodwill and not knowing which DVDs were already in my collection. If you’re like me, then, you’ve experienced these situations frequently; so frequently, in fact, that you’re in need of an iPhone app to help you start sorting through the clutter.
The best one that I have found is called “My Media Shelf” by developers ThinChip Software. This is a simple, straight-forward app. There’s no account sign in, nothing to sign up for, no cloud storage options. This app is just seven lists (represented by seven different databases) all rolled into one handy application. It allows you to track books, vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, Blu-rays, and VHS tapes. This is ideal for folks who just want to transition from paper lists to a phone application without a lot of bells and whistles. When I entered my CD collection into this app, I found seven duplicate CDs that had been sitting in plain sight in my collection! A nice feature of this app is that a dynamic index pops up on the right hand side of the list for lists over 20 items in length. While there’s currently no way to share your lists outside of the app for now, the developers have mentioned that future versions will include the ability to email, tweet, and share lists with contacts.
Another popular app for organizing physical media is called “Libib.” It is an efficient cataloging tool designed to help folks organize their personal media collections. It functions as a companion to the Libib web platform, automatically syncing your databases in real-time with the web frontend. Some appealing features include the ability to organize a wide variety of media, such as books, board games, movies, music, video games, etc. One unique feature is the ability to use an iPhone or iPad camera as a bar code scanner to enable the user to auto-populate product titles and details just from an ISBN, UPC or EAN barcode! Any items from ancient times (1970s or earlier) that lack a bar code can be entered manually.
Finally, there’s iCollect-Everything from the developers at iCollect. As with Libib, it is a popular inventory app designed so that users can quickly catalog and maintain lists of all sorts of collectible items. It supports creating lists of movies, books, music, comics, video games, trading cards, coins, stamps, wine, and more. It also features artificial intelligence tools that are designed to make data entry and photo clean-up faster and simpler. The AI agent will automatically identify an item from photos and will then fill in details like the item name, description, year, manufacturer, edition, condition notes, and market pricing. Another nice feature is the ability to track the value of individual items and of the collection as a w
All of these apps seem immensely useful. Call me old fashioned, but My Media Shelf provides the simplicity I like to quickly and easily track the collections I care about.
