Hi guys, I was looking for a good database application to help me keep track of my rapidly growing coin collection and found this software on the air-tites website. I like it OK, it crashed a bit when I first got it but they seem to have fixed that issue already. It's basically written in Microsoft Access which I've dabbled in in the past. I was wondering if anyone on this forum besides me uses it? If so what are your impressions/thoughts? Thanks!
I use Excel. I have a great spreadsheet that is infinitely customizable. Far more people know Excel than Access. And who wants to spend money on a program that you could make yourself fairly easily?
The software you use would depend mainly on your intent. Most purchased software would depend on how much time you want to invest in coin management and turn over of those coins. Access is terrible overkill for anyone not familiar with Access. Most people we sell coins to, use hand written or Excel Sheets. I do recommend some means of keeping track of your collection or will soon find yourself buying the same or similar coins. We use Excel, started out using Access and found margins were too small and very time intensive. I looked at some collection software but could not find one fit our needs.
Thanks Ken, I've been an IT guy most of my life and hate programming and am not very efficient with Excel. I guess it all depends on what your time is worth, but having a database already populated with the many thousands of coin types on the market, the ability to instantly get current values (not sure where it pulls them from?) get current bullion values, tables cross referencing other tables, etc. is a pretty complex program! I know because I took an Access database template years ago for another collection of mine and tried editing it to meet my needs more closely and I know how much work and expertise is involved! Anyway, I know it's not perfect, but it suits my needs rather well, and for $40 it was definitely worth the money! I was just wondering why nobody else here has mentioned it. Thanks for the response!
I've been using it since the 2013 release. Suits my needs perfectly, though I do wish they would add the current year's releases a bit sooner. Still waiting on most of the 2017's to be added to the database, though you can add them yourself if you want.
I wonder what the difference is from your 2013 version and Ken's 2015 version and my 2017 version? If you guys get regular updates does your version become my version? Or do you just get new coins added to the database or...? I'm just wondering if I'll be needing to buy/upgrade to newer versions in the future. Thanks for responding.
Question Say they stop making the program or stop updating it. Could it be backed up as a.cvs file so you could open it in excel.
I seriously doubt it. There are lots of tables that cross reference each other, etc. The data is not linear, that's the beauty and power of a relational database. You might be able to create several reports, and export the resulting table data into .csv files, but that would be a LOT of work. And just because they stop updating the program that doesn't mean it would stop working, not that they would have any reason to stop updating it.
There are many reports built in that can be output at Excel files. There is also a report editor so you can design your own reports. If the vendor stops updating, it will certainly be possible to continue updating the program yourself with a little work, the database editor also works quite well. I recently added a record for the 1941 large S Jefferson nickel, since it was not already in the database. I had to manually add a grade/value in the table before the interface would allow me to edit other values, but otherwise it worked fine.
