Tracking Your Game Collection

Have you ever browsed in a retro game store, found a game you needed, maybe even spent a little more than it was worth because you were excited to finally find it, and then get home and realize you already had it? Well I have, and not just once, but many times. After this happened to me a dozen times I thought that this just needs to stop, I need a way to keep track of what I already own and what I actually need, and be able to view it when I am at a retro game store. Throughout my years of collecting I have tried a few different methods of game tracking, and the point of this article is to share my experiences with you so you can make a more educated pick on your own method.

The Good Old Pen and Paper

The first method I tried, and the one I stuck with for the shortest period of time, was using old fashioned pen and paper. When my collection was only a couple hundred games I thought it possible to just write down what I already had, and a short list of games that knew I wanted. I would go to the store, pull out my list, start looking for games. At first this was fine, but I soon realized that as I got more games it was nearly impossible to add to the list without rewriting it completely. Also when I added games to the list, they were on the bottom or the back, in other words completely out of any kind of alphabetical order, which made it pretty useless when quickly trying to determine if a game was a deal or not. Eventually it made its way through the wash, and I decided that it was now time to find a new method of tracking.