As my interest in getting back into mtg started to grow I needed to find a catalog system for my collection. I was using openoffice at first but realized how much of a pain that was gunna be and started to google for something specialized. I try to resist buying software where possible cuz 90% of the time I will buy something and a month later I will find something twice better for free lol. This time however after using it for almost a month on the trial and knowing how much trouble I went to even find it in the first place I settled on MTGStudio (http://mtgstudio.com)
My question is, anyone else here use it? The forums have very little traffic but being that I couldnt find a decent catalog/deck software anywhere else I was suprised that people arent hopping on this thing.
I personally think its great software and I like the developer what I know of him so far and no this is not an advertisement, I am just curious what a large user base like mtg salvation would think of this software?
They talk on those forums about some of the other software out there of that type and it seems like the only runner up thats remotely popular which name I cant remember off the top of my head isnt even being developed anymore.
Is there really such a little need for catalog software? Or is there some major much better software out there that somehow resisted three days worth of google attacks to try and find?
Thanks!
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In life I have been called a superstar, a rock star, an ambassador to another planet and a variety of four letter words for varieties of reasons. In my past I have done many stupid things and live the consequences of my actions including but not limited to brain damage. Forgive me if at one moment I seem to be excessively coherent and thought provoking and in another like the village idiot. I am just glad to have a village. -me
I know very few players who are serious enough collectors to worry about cataloging their cards.
I didn't start using Card Vault until I had completed a playset of Standard (Lorwyn-Alara Blocks) and realized if I wanted to start buying extended and legacy stuff, I needed to keep tabs on what I had because I found myself trading for and buying stuff that I already had.
I use Card Vault by Lone Wolf Studios. My only real complaint with it is that the updates for new sets tend to run about a month after it releases and that they remove the autoupdate feature after your first year of use. You can still update it manually though - so it's nothing more than a nuisance.
I have 50,000+ cards cataloged using it. One other minor nuisance is that they are bad about not having inventory lists for obscure stuff like FTV sets or promos. You can however, define your own - I just haven't done it.
Edit: I downloaded the Studio and looked it over. I like the look of it but some differences between it and CV are:
-- I couldn't find a way to filter on target to collect? I use this extensively with CV to output shpping/trade lists
-- The idea of adding 10k+ unique cards by double clicking doesn't appeal to me at all. They should have some kind of bulk edit. (CV Does)
-- I REALLY like that they pull pricing information - CV was alleged to at some point, but they took it out apparently
-- Their pricing information is a little skewed, especially for singles who have foreign counterparts that sell for a lot less (P3K, Legends)
:shrugs: I can see it's usefulness. I paid $10 for CV at Gencon last year - does what I need it to.
What's target to collect? Not familiar with that term or that phrasing if its something obvios. I feel there is a bug with the way the filtering works and I am working with the developer on changing it.
For one thing I specifically asked for myself for the ability to not have to open and close the filter window over and over again to play with the main window. He put it into his process que for changes and actually has me using a private beta to test it.
The other thing is I find it hard to tell if you are filtering the top window or the bottom by sight and often forget and end up wondering why the filter didnt work. Currently you have to click on something in the window you want to filter and then filter. Can get cumbersom since if you add cards to the lower pane your focus changes and you have to click back.
Not sure if that helps your problem or not.
Also should mention that in the upper right there is a three option drop down to switch between the three 'states' of transfering records from top to bottom. Pool to colloction, pool to deck, and collection to deck I think are the options. (I am only using the pool to collection for now.) So which one of those you have selected may affect your filtering choices I dont know.
I have only added maybe 100 cards to the moment so I dont know exactly what goes into bulk adding to know what to look for or might be worth asking the developer gaddlord to add. I do know that he is usually responsive to questions within a few days of posting and has been known to put out new versions within days or a week of things such as major bugs that he could easily fix or new edition releases.
If it looks like it might be useful to you I recommend getting on the forums and poking around. It is 20dollars but thats for life including forever free updates and you dont loose any functionality. On the right hand side of the website there is a red feedback button that goes to a list of all the features people have asked for. You can vote for features and he takes into account the requested features when deciding what to work on. Two of the ones Ive voted for are planned in the next release I think and then I get to vote for others. Nifty system and great to see how he shows what he is working on.
Tell me what target to collect is and I'll see if I can figure out how to do it if you want me to. Is that like adding multiple of the same one? Fairly confident thats possible but I havnt had a use for it yet so I would have to play with it to find it if thats what you want.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In life I have been called a superstar, a rock star, an ambassador to another planet and a variety of four letter words for varieties of reasons. In my past I have done many stupid things and live the consequences of my actions including but not limited to brain damage. Forgive me if at one moment I seem to be excessively coherent and thought provoking and in another like the village idiot. I am just glad to have a village. -me
Thought "Magic Online" refered to the WotC game. Not everything about Magic "on the internet"
This opens up a whole new realm of useful forum reading. Thank you!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In life I have been called a superstar, a rock star, an ambassador to another planet and a variety of four letter words for varieties of reasons. In my past I have done many stupid things and live the consequences of my actions including but not limited to brain damage. Forgive me if at one moment I seem to be excessively coherent and thought provoking and in another like the village idiot. I am just glad to have a village. -me
My question is, anyone else here use it? The forums have very little traffic but being that I couldnt find a decent catalog/deck software anywhere else I was suprised that people arent hopping on this thing.
I personally think its great software and I like the developer what I know of him so far and no this is not an advertisement, I am just curious what a large user base like mtg salvation would think of this software?
They talk on those forums about some of the other software out there of that type and it seems like the only runner up thats remotely popular which name I cant remember off the top of my head isnt even being developed anymore.
Is there really such a little need for catalog software? Or is there some major much better software out there that somehow resisted three days worth of google attacks to try and find?
Thanks!
I didn't start using Card Vault until I had completed a playset of Standard (Lorwyn-Alara Blocks) and realized if I wanted to start buying extended and legacy stuff, I needed to keep tabs on what I had because I found myself trading for and buying stuff that I already had.
I use Card Vault by Lone Wolf Studios. My only real complaint with it is that the updates for new sets tend to run about a month after it releases and that they remove the autoupdate feature after your first year of use. You can still update it manually though - so it's nothing more than a nuisance.
I have 50,000+ cards cataloged using it. One other minor nuisance is that they are bad about not having inventory lists for obscure stuff like FTV sets or promos. You can however, define your own - I just haven't done it.
Edit: I downloaded the Studio and looked it over. I like the look of it but some differences between it and CV are:
-- I couldn't find a way to filter on target to collect? I use this extensively with CV to output shpping/trade lists
-- The idea of adding 10k+ unique cards by double clicking doesn't appeal to me at all. They should have some kind of bulk edit. (CV Does)
-- I REALLY like that they pull pricing information - CV was alleged to at some point, but they took it out apparently
-- Their pricing information is a little skewed, especially for singles who have foreign counterparts that sell for a lot less (P3K, Legends)
:shrugs: I can see it's usefulness. I paid $10 for CV at Gencon last year - does what I need it to.
For one thing I specifically asked for myself for the ability to not have to open and close the filter window over and over again to play with the main window. He put it into his process que for changes and actually has me using a private beta to test it.
The other thing is I find it hard to tell if you are filtering the top window or the bottom by sight and often forget and end up wondering why the filter didnt work. Currently you have to click on something in the window you want to filter and then filter. Can get cumbersom since if you add cards to the lower pane your focus changes and you have to click back.
Not sure if that helps your problem or not.
Also should mention that in the upper right there is a three option drop down to switch between the three 'states' of transfering records from top to bottom. Pool to colloction, pool to deck, and collection to deck I think are the options. (I am only using the pool to collection for now.) So which one of those you have selected may affect your filtering choices I dont know.
I have only added maybe 100 cards to the moment so I dont know exactly what goes into bulk adding to know what to look for or might be worth asking the developer gaddlord to add. I do know that he is usually responsive to questions within a few days of posting and has been known to put out new versions within days or a week of things such as major bugs that he could easily fix or new edition releases.
If it looks like it might be useful to you I recommend getting on the forums and poking around. It is 20dollars but thats for life including forever free updates and you dont loose any functionality. On the right hand side of the website there is a red feedback button that goes to a list of all the features people have asked for. You can vote for features and he takes into account the requested features when deciding what to work on. Two of the ones Ive voted for are planned in the next release I think and then I get to vote for others. Nifty system and great to see how he shows what he is working on.
Tell me what target to collect is and I'll see if I can figure out how to do it if you want me to. Is that like adding multiple of the same one? Fairly confident thats possible but I havnt had a use for it yet so I would have to play with it to find it if thats what you want.
Thought "Magic Online" refered to the WotC game. Not everything about Magic "on the internet"
This opens up a whole new realm of useful forum reading. Thank you!
For clarification, most of the Magic Online General forum is reserved for "Magic Online", but the "Magic Software" forum is for everything else.
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