Cellar Tracking/Documentation Woes

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sardonicus87

Lifer
Jun 28, 2022
1,259
13,480
37
Lower Alabama
So, there's been websites before that have come and gone for tracking your cellar. I've tried using a few, they're mostly annoying and not that great. I know many keep track using spreadsheets. I tried som spreadsheet apps, most are equally a pain in the ass. There's been apps that have come and gone, haven't used any.

But with over 100 blends, I don't want to dig during sales to see what, I do/don't have. Or when a blend gets recommended, I don't want to dig to see if I already have it before adding it to my wishlist for later purchase. Or forgetting if I have extra tins of a limited blend that I bought a year+ ago.

So I need to get on tracking. And I am not concerned about tracking age necessarily, it's really about what I have on hand, what I've tried and never want to buy again, etc. Just basic stuff, not about aging or rotation.

I've downloaded a free database app (Android) called Memento Database. So far this has been the last pita solution, but it has it's annoyances and limitations as well, though it does have other cool features (like potential for pie charts). One issue at present that I can't live with, is in table view, you can't sort the columns just by clicking on them.

That's my goal, an offline database where it's easy to throw stuff in, where I can just view everything and quickly sort with a single click by brand, blend name, type, etc and not have to click 3-6 times to filter. That and an option (which this app does have) to just search. I want a column I can open edit from the table view that's just a basic check box of "I hate this, don't buy it again" or maybe an integer column where I can adjust the number of tins with up and down click arrows without having to bring up the entry card and edit it there.

So the issue is, lot of the database options are either too complex or don't meet my needs in one way or another.

As a result, I'm thinking about just making my own database app. I have very limited coding experience, and know some of the basics. I do have the Google Android app creating software on my computer that I don't remember what it's called, Juno type of thing if anyone ever used that years ago, but I haven't tried dicking around with making an app since the Gingerbread days (Android 2.3).

I don't want to make an app to sell it. I don't want to port to iPhone, or any other nonsense. Again, not a coder or developer, just have the minimal understanding of coding and compiling and just want something quick and simple.

It's going to take a while for me to make one, but if anyone is interested (and I am not taking requests for features), I'm more than happy to share. And if anyone here IS a coder and has experience, I sure would appreciate any help you're willing to offer.

Otherwise, if anyone knows a customizable database app (available for Android), I'm open to other suggestions (because I'd rather not have to figure out how to make an app, only considering it as there's no good options for my needs). I'd much rather use an actual database than a spreadsheet. A key goal is quick and easy entry (which is not the case with spreadsheets, having to select each cell in a row to enter data, instead of having one easy entry card to quickly add all the data at once to populate the whole row, where things can be even more efficient with quick drop-down selections for some data like, blend type/genre for instance).
 
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sardonicus87

Lifer
Jun 28, 2022
1,259
13,480
37
Lower Alabama
I was actually considering that... way less pita than anything available.

The downside to pen and paper... can't sort and can't quickly search. I already have a list on my phone, which has to be manually scrolled through. Hence why I want a database, because I already re-bought something I already have because I missed it in scanning the list of over 100 tins.

But I kind of want the option for stats too, like how many tins of each brand, genre, etc. Though that's not important.
 

sardonicus87

Lifer
Jun 28, 2022
1,259
13,480
37
Lower Alabama
I just use google sheets and do them by whatever bin they're in. Over 300 blends and counting. I really need to sell most of it lol.
Yeah, I already said why I don't want to do a spreadsheet. Aside from entering the data being inefficient for each entry, searchability is also less than what you can do with a database.
 

Piping Abe

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 27, 2021
591
1,641
North Dakota, USA
I was actually considering that... way less pita than anything available.

The downside to pen and paper... can't sort and can't quickly search. I already have a list on my phone, which has to be manually scrolled through. Hence why I want a database, because I already re-bought something I already have because I missed it in scanning the list of over 100 tins.

But I kind of want the option for stats too, like how many tins of each brand, genre, etc. Though that's not important.
Great problem to have 🤣
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,398
114,189
I was actually considering that... way less pita than anything available.

The downside to pen and paper... can't sort and can't quickly search. I already have a list on my phone, which has to be manually scrolled through. Hence why I want a database, because I already re-bought something I already have because I missed it in scanning the list of over 100 tins.

But I kind of want the option for stats too, like how many tins of each brand, genre, etc. Though that's not important.
Excluding a phone for online shopping, I haven't found a reason for a home computer. Just an expense I'll not have a use for.
 
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Sig

Can't Leave
Jul 18, 2023
474
2,264
Western NY
I just keep packing tins and jars in hand over fist with absolute zero "tracking". Heck,
How else will I be able to go in there 4 years from now and say, "where did that come from?"
Nothing is as nice as finding a dusty tin of random tobacco deep in you cellar.
Here is a related story......
The other day I was looking through my pipe cabinet and happened to move a Stanwell pipe box. I knew I had this pipe at one time but, not seeing it for awhile I assumed I traded it off. Then I realized the box was sort of heavy. I opened the box and low and behold, there was the Stanwell Facet pipe I haven't seen sinse 2016 or so.
Ive only smoked it a few times and absolutely hate it, but I have no idea how to sell pipes so it stays....along with a dozen other pipes I don't like.
Someday I will sell them!!
 
Aug 11, 2022
2,582
20,214
Cedar Rapids, IA
After having quite a few blogs/journals lost after the niche hosting site went kaput or changed, I prefer to keep all my tracking sheets on paper and/or a site like Google. My cellar is on a Google sheet, with columns for genre, and a total (in ounces) for each one. Not really searchable in a clever way, but good enough.
 
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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,909
15,827
Software for pipe tobacco storage.

rotf

Pretty soon some Chinese company will make a tobacco-specific container with a touch screen form on the lid that you fill out every time you add or remove something...

And which can be accessed with a cell phone for updates while you're out shopping or otherwise away...

And will sell everything IT learns about you and your buying habits to anyone/any company interested in the information...

And will make product recommendations every time you hit enter...

And will play non-stop background commercials the entire time you're not keying something in or otherwise interacting with it...

All for a subscription price of $7.99 per month...

Until a tiered scheme announcement pops up one day and the $7.99 tier has fewer features than what you've been paying for, and you must go to tier level 3 (for the low price of only $9.99!) to avoid permanently losing many of the records & info you bought the fuckin' thing for to keep track of in the first place...

OR

Screen Shot 2024-06-11 at 7.44.46 PM.png
 

renfield

Lifer
Oct 16, 2011
4,976
39,675
Kansas
I use an Excel spreadsheet. It’s set up with drop downs etc to make it easy to add and remove items. It also writes out as a webpage to a Raspberry Pi running a web server so I can check the database from my phone or any other device on my home network. Below is a screen shot of what it looks like. I prefer not to rely on an outside provider.

1718157479090.jpeg
 

AJL67

Lifer
May 26, 2022
5,496
28,129
Florida - Space Coast
If there is a sale on something i like i buy it, don't care if i have 5 tins or 50, i i have well over 100 tins of CRF and when it comes out at the end of the year i will have another 25 or so. I'm just not that anal about this stuff, i have pipe and tobaccos and i put tobaccos in a pipe and i smoke it. No fuss no muss.
 

JOHN72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2020
5,722
56,634
51
Spain - Europe
4 years buying tobacco pipe, cigars. Until I said, hey stop. I'm not willing to fill a room with tobacco, knowing that I'll never be able to smoke it all, and that most of it will turn to shit. No, I don't keep track, I finish one tin, and start another, I don't even keep track of dates, most of my modest stash is in its original tins. I still think I'm in favor of smoking fresh, old tobaccos to a certain extent. I stand by the reality of the difficulties faced by tobacco brands and their factories, with respect to what you all know, anti-smoking laws, falling consumers, cutbacks, costs, bans between countries or states, to buy online. And a loss of the quality of the product, which makes it less attractive, at the time of consumption. And sorry to be so pessimistic, at least at European level, we are already seeing for decades this degradation.
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
3,662
47,337
Casa Grande, AZ
@sardonicus87, You already started one (from your profile)

Current Blends:
Aromatics
- Sutliff Edward G. Robinson's Pipe Blend
- Sutliff Apple #208
- Lane Limited Very Cherry
- Cornell & Diehl/Warped Scarecrow 2022
- John Aylesbury Dragon Flake
- Mac Baren Vanilla Roll Cake
- Mac Baren Mixture: Scottish Blend
- Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Ennerdale Flake ★
- Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Rum Flake
- Mac Baren Plumcake
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Bellamy ★
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Rackham
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Graham
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Drake
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Seegar
- Kohlhase & Kopp Caribbean Blue: Wynne
- Half and Half (STG)
- Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic (STG)
- Cornell & Diehl Corn Cob Pipe (and a Button Nose) Ready Rubbed (2023)
- War Horse Green
- Cornell & Diehl Founding Fathers
- Sutliff Maple Shadows ★★
- Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Kendal Black Cherry
- Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Glengarry Flake
- Samuel Gawith Grousemoor
- Two Friends Homeward Bound
- Dan Tobacco Devil's Holiday
English
- Sutliff Crumble Kake English #1 ★
- Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding - Special Reserve (plug and flake) ★
- Mac Baren HH Balkan Blend
- Peterson Early Morning Pipe ★
- Sutliff Match B.S.O.M.
- Sutliff Match B.S. 759 ★
- G. L. Pease Quiet Nights ★★
- Arango Balkan Supreme
- Cornell & Diehl Black Frigate
- Mac Baren Presbyterian Mixture
- Peter Stokkebye English Luxury (No.17)
- Mac Baren HH Latakia Flake
- Cornell & Diehl/Warped Sarto
- Drucquer & Sons The Merry Monk ★★
- Drucquer & Sons Loch Ness
- Ashton Artisan's Blend
- Ashton Consummate Gentleman
- Missouri Meerschaum Drawdown
- Cornell & Diehl Star of the East Flake
- G. L. Pease Chelsea Morning
- G. L. Pease Gaslight
- G. L. Pease Odyssey
- G. L. Pease Sextant
- G. L. Pease Westminster
- Solani Gold Label English Luxury
- Cornell & Diehl Brigadier
- Cornell & Diehl Mississippi Mud
- Cornell & Diehl Pirate Kake
- Cornell & Diehl Bayou Night
- Peterson Nightcap
- Peterson My Mixture 965
- Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader
- Mac Baren HH Vintage Syrian ★
- Cornell & Diehl Star of the East
- Cornell & Diehl Star of the East Gold
- Cornell & Diehl/Toscano Maestro Allegro
- Cornell & Diehl/Toscano Maestro Concerto
- Cornell & Diehl/Toscano Maestro Sinfonia
Burley Based
- Mac Baren Navy Flake ★
- Savinelli Jupiter ★
- Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired ★
- Mac Baren HH Burley Flake ★★
- Mac Baren HH Bold Kentucky
- Cornell & Diehl Old Joe Krantz ★
- Cornell & Diehl Pegasus
- Cornell & Diehl Haunted Bookshop
- Cornell & Diehl Burley Flake #1
- Sir Walter Raleigh Regular (STG)
- Mac Baren Golden Extra
- Cornell & Diehl Big 'n' Burley
- Cornell & Diehl Old Joe Krantz Blue Label
- G. L. Pease Barbary Coast
- G. L. Pease JackKnife Ready Rubbed
- Cornell & Diehl Burley Flake #2
- Solani Aged Burley Flake 656
- War Horse Bar
- Wessex Burley Slice (K&K version)
- Wessex Burley Broadcut (K&K version)
- Cornell & Diehl Crooner

Virginia Based
- Peter Stokkebye Danish Export (No. 81)
- Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake ★
- Savinelli Brunello Flake ★
- Cornell & Diehl House Reserve 2022 Fall Edition (13 October 2022) ★
- Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Carolina Red Flake (2022)
- Cornell & Diehl Blockade Runner
- Sutliff Cringle Flake (2022)
- Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation: Small Batch Resolution
- Mac Baren HH Pure Virginia
- Orlik Golden Sliced
- Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake (No. 403)
- Sutliff Crumble Kake Barrel Aged No. 5 - Rustica
- Sutliff Birds of a Feather: Anomalous
- STG - Escudo Navy De Luxe
- Mac Baren Stockton
- Mac Baren HH Rustica (2023)
- Cornell & Diehl/Warped The Red Hunt
- Sutliff Crumble Cake Barrel Aged No. 6 - Phantom Privateer
- Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Sun Bear Tupelo (2023) ★★
- Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Steamworks (2023) ★
- Missouri Meerschaum Luminaire
- Capstan Flake Blue
- Peterson Elizabethan Mixture
- G. L. Pease Bankside
- G. L. Pease Windjammer
- Cornell & Diehl Briar Fox
- Cornell & Diehl Bayou Morning Flake
- Cornell & Diehl Bijou
- Solani Silver Label
- Cornell & Diehl Miskatonic Mixture
- Cornell & Diehl Bayou Morning
- St. Bruno Flake
- Erinmore Flake
- Watch City Cigar Rouxgaroux (Fall 2023)
- G. L. Pease Géométrie
- G. L. Pease Embarcadero
- Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Steamworks (2024)
Other (cannot properly fall into an above category)
- Cornell & Diehl/Warped Midsommar