Show Off Your Board Game Collection

How TrophyShelf helps a board game collector

TrophyShelf is built around the shelf itself and sits happily beside BoardGameGeek.

It keeps the physical side: a record of each box — which edition, what condition, what came in it — with your own photographs, and a public shelf to point people at. If you post shelfies, this is the record behind them.

What a board game records

The type is Board Games — 🎲 in the picker. It has six fields of its own, plus the condition, description and purchase fields every type carries.

Publisher, players and year

Publisher and Player count are free text, so 1–4 players and 2–6, best at 4 both fit as written. Year published takes the four-digit year.

Category and language are lists

Category / type offers Strategy, Family, Party, War game, Eurogame, Deck-builder, Legacy, Cooperative, Miniatures, RPG and Other. It takes one answer, so a cooperative deck-builder has to pick — choose the one you would sort the shelf by.

Language lists twelve languages and Other, which matters for imports and for games whose editions differ by language.

⚠️ Edition is the field that matters most

The choices are First edition, Reprint, Kickstarter edition, Deluxe, Anniversary and Retail. For a crowdfunded game, the edition is most of the story: a backer copy with stretch goals and upgraded components is a different object from the retail box, and this field is how the shelf says so.

Put what made your copy special at the front of the description — the all-in pledge, the upgraded components, the promos — since none of those has a field.

Where do expansions, sleeves and missing pieces go?

Two easy ways to record them. Write them at the front of the description in a fixed order, such as 2 expansions · sleeved · complete. Or add each expansion as its own collectible in the same collection, with its own photo. The first keeps the record short; the second puts every box on the shelf.

Condition is mostly the box

The usual condition scale runs from Mint to Poor. For a board game the box carries most of it: corner wear, sun fading, a split lid. For a shrink-wrapped or unpunched copy, write sealed or unpunched in the description.

Let the photo do the typing

Add up to 10 photos of a game and the AI reads them. In our tests on a photo of a box front, it filled in the name, publisher, category and language, rated the condition and drafted a description. It found the player count only sometimes. Every field it fills is marked as AI-suggested, so you check it before saving.

The edition and the year are often small print on the back or bottom of the box, so photograph that side too, or fill those two yourself. The free plan includes 15 AI autofills a month.

Put your favorites on the shelf, and share it

Every collection has a six-slot shelf at the top, for the games you would point a guest at first. On the public page, the shelf comes first.

Tap Share and you get one link that opens in any browser, with no app and no account needed to view it. ⚠️ A new collection starts private, so make it public before you share the whole shelf. Each game also has a page of its own that you can share on its own.

Do it in TrophyShelf

1. Create a Board Games collection🎲 Board Games in the picker. One collection for the whole shelf, or one per publisher or genre.
2. Photograph the box, front and backThe front for the name and publisher, the back or side for the player count. Up to 10 photos.
3. Check what the AI filled, then set the editionFix anything it misread, then pick Kickstarter edition, Deluxe or Retail. A photo of the front rarely answers it.
4. Write down expansions and extras2 expansions · sleeved · complete at the front of the description, in the same order every time.
5. Fill the shelf and share itPut your six favorites on the shelf, make the collection public, and send the link.