Most collectors who keep any record at all start with a spreadsheet. It's free, it's familiar, and it does the job — at least at first. The question is what happens as the collection grows, and whether the spreadsheet keeps up.
We make a collection app, so you can guess where we land. But we also give away a free spreadsheet template, because for some collections it's genuinely the right tool. Here's the honest comparison.
Where a spreadsheet wins
It costs nothing. If you already have spreadsheet software, there's nothing to buy and nothing to sign up for.
You control the columns. Want a field for which shelf a car came from at a specific show, or a note about who gave it to you? Add a column.
It's portable. A spreadsheet file opens almost anywhere, and you can email it to an insurer or a family member without asking anyone to install anything.
It's fine for small, stable collections. If you own forty pieces and rarely add to them, a spreadsheet will serve you for years.
Where a spreadsheet struggles
The problems show up as the collection grows and the questions get harder.
Data entry is all on you. Every catalog number, road name, scale, and description gets typed by hand — which is why most spreadsheets stall a few dozen rows in. The tedium is the number one reason collection records never get finished.
Values go stale the moment you type them. A spreadsheet holds whatever number you entered, on whatever day you entered it. Unless you look up every piece again, your "collection value" drifts further from reality every month. Values move, and a spreadsheet doesn't.
Photos don't really fit. You can link to image files, but keeping hundreds of photos matched to the right rows across folders and devices is fragile. One renamed folder breaks everything.
It isn't with you at the show. Checking a spreadsheet on a phone in a crowded aisle is possible in the way that reading a newspaper in a rainstorm is possible.
One file, one copy. If it lives on a single computer, it can be lost with that computer — often in the same event the record was supposed to protect against.
Where an app wins
A purpose-built app does the parts of the job a spreadsheet can't:
- Identification and auto-fill. Instead of typing, you identify a piece and the details come from a reference catalog.
- Current values. Market values refresh on their own, so the collection total reflects today's market.
- Photos and documents attached to the item. Receipts, appraisals, and condition photos live on the record they belong to.
- Mobile by design. Check your collection and want list from a show floor in a few seconds.
- Reports built for the job. Insurance-ready exports, rather than a printout of a grid.
Where an app can fall short
Fairness requires saying it: an app is someone else's software. You'll want to know you can get your data out, what happens if you stop paying, and whether the fields you care about exist. Any app worth using should let you export everything, any time.
How to choose
A few honest rules of thumb:
- Under fifty pieces, rarely changing, no insurance concerns: a spreadsheet is fine. Use our template.
- Growing collection, or you buy and sell regularly: the time you'll spend typing and re-pricing in a spreadsheet adds up fast. An app pays for itself in hours saved.
- You need it for insurance, an estate, or a sale: current values and attached documentation matter, and an app is the better tool.
Moving from one to the other
If you've started in a spreadsheet, the work isn't wasted. Model Train Tracker imports CSV and Excel files and maps your columns to its own fields, so years of records come across in one step rather than being retyped. From there, new pieces go in by photographing the box end, matched against a catalog of over 100,000 products from more than 600 manufacturers, with current market values attached and refreshed regularly.
The Free plan covers up to 20 items with no card required, which is enough to see whether the app fits the way you collect. And you can export the whole collection to PDF or Excel whenever you like — on every plan. Here's how the plans compare.
The best record is the one you'll actually keep up. Choose the tool that makes keeping it up easy enough to do.