Collections and wantlists, copy by copy

A list here is a list of objects. Not the title above them — the edition, the pressing, the print run, the disc you can take off the shelf. That one decision sets everything else: where the buttons are, why a collection entry has a condition and a wantlist entry does not, and why two of the same thing means two rows rather than a number in a box.

Collection, Wantlist, and Read

Every catalog has two lists: Collection and Wantlist. Books has a third, Read. No other catalog has a third list — there is no Watched and no Played.

One collection covers all seven catalogs at once, and so does the wantlist. You do not keep one collection for books and another for comics; the catalogs are tabs across a single list.

The buttons live on the object

You add from an entry page, and only from pages for things you can own. In books that is an Edition, in home video a Release, in gigposters a Poster, in comics a Comic, in hi-fi and music gear a Gear entry, and in video games a Release or a piece of Hardware — six entity types out of the nineteen across the live catalogs. A Book page, a Film page or a credit has no Add button, because nobody owns a title. Why the object gets its own entry is the longer version of that.

Adding to a collection makes a copy

One click on Add to collection creates a copy with nothing filled in, and the form opens on it so you can add details or skip. Untick "Open this form every time I add a copy" and the click stays a click.

A copy holds:

• Condition, from that catalog's own scale. Books run As new down to Poor, comics through Very fine, gear ends at For parts. Condition grading goes scale by scale.
• Notes.
• Where it is — a room, a shelf, a storage unit.
• What you paid, in any of sixteen currencies, and when you got it.
• Whatever else the catalog asks. Video games add Completeness: Sealed, Complete in box, Game and box, Loose.
• Up to twenty fields of your own per catalog — yes/no, free text, or a list of choices you write. You also choose which fields show on the copy row, so a copy can read "Near fine · Signed · Flat A" at a glance.

Location, what you paid, when you got it and your own custom fields are owner-only. Nobody else sees them, whatever you set the list's privacy to.

Two of the same is two copies

There is no quantity field. Add the same edition twice and you get two copies, each with its own condition, location, price and notes. Three copies of a poster can be one mint and rolled, one pinholed, one a spare you would trade.

Your copies sit in a panel under the entry, labelled with the fields you picked. With more than one you can drag them into the order you want. A copy with nothing filled in is listed by the day you added it.

A wantlist holds objects, not titles

The wantlist is a single on/off toggle — no condition, no price, nothing to fill in, because you do not have the thing yet. What it does carry is precision: a want is for one object, so it can say that you own the paperback and want the 1965 hardback, and the two are different entries.

Browsing, filtering and exporting

Your lists live at /collection/{username}, the wantlist one level down at /wantlist, and the Read list at /read. Tabs across the top cover All and then every catalog you have something in; ?cat=books narrows it directly.

From there you can search — titles and notes in a collection, titles on the other lists — filter by condition, and sort by date added, title or condition. Two controls are yours alone: filtering by location and sorting by date acquired, since both of those fields are private. Each list draws as a grid, a list or a table, 100 items to a page, and the view you pick is remembered.

Everything exports as CSV at /collection/{username}/export.csv, one row per copy. Your own download carries Location, Purchase price, Currency, Acquired on and your custom fields; a download of somebody else's public collection drops those columns.

Who can see a list

Each list has its own setting, and it covers that list in every catalog:

• Public — anyone can see and browse it.
• Counted only — your username shows next to the count of owners on an entry, but nobody can browse the list.
• Private — your username is hidden and you are still counted.

Entry pages carry a line like "12 in collections · 3 want · 8 read". Those are members, not copies, and clicking a count opens who they are, leaving out anyone who keeps that list private.

Two things grow out of a collection once it exists: shelves, which group entries across catalogs, and listing a copy for sale. Both start from the same entry page the copy does. If your lists from the legacy sites are missing, ask on the forum with your old username and they get attached.