Topic: Compare Inventory?

Hello All,

I recently discovered this site and am already getting my friends gung-ho about it as well. We're really loving all of the features and the ease of use.

One inquiry I do have is this - Is there a way to compare inventories? What I mean is if I'm looking at my friend's inventory, is there a way to see the quantity of a certain card of his that I have logged in my own inventory? Currently, I'm doing this by having multiple windows open and going back and forth or clicking on the card and opening it's detail page, but it'd be so much more convenient if it was a "column" option or some such thing.

I'm also not talking about wishlist items and such.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Compare Inventory?

So the best (and really only) way to accomplish this is to first go to a deck idea that someone else has created.

If you go to section that actually starts listing the cards in the deck (IE right under all the stats and Graphs) you should see 2 columns next to the left of whatever card is listed.

The Left most column (with the little brown box at that top) is actually the number of copies you own in your own Inventory. The Column right next to it with the Deckbox logo at the top is the number of cards they would have for the deck. Obviously if they dont have the card but have it listed it would just show 0.

This helps should you find a deck list you like and want to see what else you might need for it.

Profile - Haves - Wants

Re: Compare Inventory?

Site-Only Methods

Unfortunately, as you have discovered, there's no easy way to do this, not if you're just wanting to quickly scan through a bunch of cards.

The easiest way to do it for a single random card is to click that card's link (opens its detail page in a new tab), then type Ctrl+W to close the tab and go right back to your friend's inventory. (I love keyboard shortcuts! They make things like that quick.)

If instead you're browsing through multiple cards that are in an easily-definable subset (like a specific edition, or foils), I'd probably find it easiest to open my and my friend's inventory in separate tabs, filter each to show just the desired subset (edition, foils, whatever), apply the same sort, then yes.... flip back and forth between the tabs.  :\

That being said.... What's your specific use case? I'm assuming your goal is something that Deckbox's trade functionality doesn't fulfill....


Possible Tool

The reason I ask is that I've created Excel spreadsheets for almost every set up through Khans block (and it would be very simple to create sheets for later sets/blocks). These sheets allow you to see how many of each card in that set is listed in multiple inventories. It works by typing in the filename of an open inventory file, which then populates that column with the counts from that inventory. You can then "lock" that column, so that the values won't disappear when you close the inventory file. You could compare as many inventories this way as you want.

If you think you'd benefit from these sheets, let me know, and I'll put them all in a ZIP and make them available for download. The obvious limitation is that you DO have to go set by set. That's why I asked how you're trying to compare inventories. If you're already doing it this way, then this should be perfect for you!


Background

I created these spreadsheets because I had originally managed multiple physical inventories, and had a separate digital inventory for each of them, but I ultimately combined the physical inventories. So in order to spot check myself (since I did a lot of the work when I was sleep-deprived!), I created these sheets so that I could go through an edition of already-combined physical cards, and compare the quantities to the Total column in my sheets. Yes, I'm a bit OCD about it. wink


EDIT: I should note that I still keep foils and foreign cards in separate inventories, both physically and electronically, so if you have e.g. 1 regular, 1 foil, and 1 foreign version of a card, these sheets are going to show that you have 3 of that card. I could potentially customize this functionality depending on what you were needing.


EDIT 2: I just took the time to glance at your inventory, and I noticed that all of your cards are from Shadows Over Innistrad. So tomorrow, I'll create an SOI version and upload it, then you can get more of an idea what I mean!

Last edited by meldon44 (2017-08-24 08:05:11)

Re: Compare Inventory?

Here's the tool for the SOI edition.

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Export all inventories to CSV. Go to your Inventory, and under "Tools", click "Export". Name the file something short and simple; the filename must NOT contain an apostrophe, but MAY contain spaces. Your friend(s) will have to export their inventories for you, and send you the CSV files.

  • Open the spreadsheets. Open the "Compare Inventory" spreadsheet, as well as all inventory files you want to compare.

  • IMPORTANT: Enable iterative calculations. The exact steps may be different depending on your version of Excel, but in 2010, go to File > Options > Formulas, then click the checkbox on the top right. If you don't do this, you'll get the "Circular Reference" error, and the values won't update properly.

  • Enter the inventory filenames. In the Compare Inventory sheet > Row A, type the filename, NOT including the ".csv" extension.

  • (Optional) Lock the columns. If you want to be able to close the inventory CSV files, or be able to save the card count values for later, then type "x" in Row 3 under the inventory filename. If you ever need the values to update themselves, delete the "x" and reopen the CSV file.

Like I said, this version of the tool counts foils along with regular cards. I could easily filter out foils, so that you only get counts of non-foils. Let me know if this is even helpful at all, and if you'd like any tweaks to it.


EDIT: Another feature I could very easily add is conditional formatting to the rows, depending on what you were looking for. The tool could automatically highlight the highest value (who has the most of a card), highlight mutual cards (to easily pick out shared cards), or other such rules. Again, just let me know what your use-case is!

Last edited by meldon44 (2017-08-25 03:34:19)

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