For those of you who went to York and heard from this site owner you are already familiar with what they are offering. Since they have a free version I thought I would give it a try. My current inventory list is on an excel spreadsheet without the Manufacturers number and only contains the engines I own. This site has encouraged me to get a complete inventory of what I own.
I am no where near finished getting my trains in the system, however I do find the service useful and quite user friendly. There are a lot of trains already in the system but there are also a lot of trains that are not and you have to add them. There is were the issues begin. Each train engine, car, accessory can be categorized down three levels. For instance let's say I want to add a K-Line Maryland 50 state quarter bank that is not currently in their system. I would go to O-Gauge modern, then I would drill down to freight and then down to the manufacturer K-Line. If I don't see what I am looking for I can add it. That is where the little issues begin. Many people adding their train items do not use all three categories, they simply stop at freight car and then add their car. That means there are 50 state quarter cars under the K-Line heading as well as no heading at all. A
Another issue is people add there trains under the wrong headings, for example there is a MTH NYC 260E set under modern standard gauge. Some are interpreting standard gauge as meaning any tinplate-other people are not. This site has not been up very long I could see this getting a little messy.
Another issue is it the person didn't put the manufacture's item number in the description then the search function will not be able to pull the item up even id the information is listed under MFR Number.
Overall this is a great new tool and I like its ease of use. You can get an upgrade from the basic free addition for $59.95 per year that includes the estimated value of your collection and other features. They offered it at 1/2 during York as an intro; however I didn't even get to look at the site until after York on Monday.
Here's the link if you want to give it a try:
www.collector-modeltrains.com/
Scott Smith
