Track Your Video Game Collection

How TrophyShelf helps a video game collector

Video Games keeps things simple: two fields of its own, Platform and Year, on top of the universal ones.

That makes it great for what do I own, what condition is it in, what did I pay, and can I show someone. It is a shelf catalogue. If you track sealed WATA-graded investments, pair it with a specialist database.

What it records for a game

The two fields

Platform is a list of six: PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, NES/SNES, Other. Year is a date rather than a plain year, because a game has a release day.

📌 For a retro collection, put the platform in the name. Older consoles such as PS1 to PS4, Game Boy, Mega Drive or Genesis, N64, GameCube, Dreamcast and Saturn file under Other. Name the piece Super Mario 64 (N64) and the shelf stays readable.

Region, completeness and grading go in the name and description

Three details price a game copy, and you record each one in the description:

• Region — NTSC, PAL, NTSC-J. A Japanese copy and a European one are different objects at different prices.
• Completeness — sealed, CIB, loose cart, manual only. The single biggest multiplier in the hobby.
• Grading — a WATA or VGA grade and slab number. The Grading fields belong to trading-card types, so note it here.

All three go in the description, and they are worth writing in a fixed order so a shelf reads consistently: PAL · CIB, manual present · light shelf wear on spine.

What the photograph adds

It carries these details, and for games it does that unusually well.

Completeness is visible. A photograph of an open case showing the disc, the manual and the inserts settles “is it CIB” better than a dropdown ever would, because a buyer can check it rather than trust it. Region is printed on the spine and the back of the box. Condition is a matter of shelf wear and disc scratches, both of which photograph plainly.

Ten photos per game is more than enough: front, spine, back, the open case, the disc or cart face, and the manual.

What is it actually good for, then?

• Not buying it twice. Past a couple of hundred games, a searchable shelf in your pocket is what stops the duplicate at the swap meet — the same argument as any large collection.
• Paid, Est. value and Where acquired are real fields, not description text. For a collection assembled over years from car boots and eBay, that is the record worth having.
• Showing it. A shared shelf link opens in any browser with no app and no account — and a wall of spines is one of the more photogenic collections there is.

Do it in TrophyShelf

1. Create a collection per platform🎮 Video Games in the picker. Split by console so each shelf stays tidy, whatever the platform list says.
2. Put the console in the nameSuper Mario 64 (N64). The field says Other for anything pre-PS5, so the name is what keeps the shelf readable.
3. Photograph the case openFront, spine, back, then the case open with disc, manual and inserts visible. That shot is your completeness record.
4. Write region and completeness firstPAL · CIB, manual present at the top of the description, same order every time, so the shelf reads consistently.
5. Fill Paid and Where acquiredReal fields, and the ones a collection built over years from car boots and eBay most benefits from.