My Collection ‒ User Guide - Stanley Gibbons · My Collection ‒ User Guide. ... stamps from your physical collection and add them to your ... appear in our Stamps of the World

My Collection ‒ User Guide

2Stanley Gibbons User Guide

Contents

Quick Start

Navigation

Settings

Collection Management

Search SG Catalogue Data

My Album Management

My Wants Management

Export Your Collection

Access Gibbons Stamp Monthly Online

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Quick StartThe quickest way to learn about My Collection is to dive straight into the Catalogue Data. If you collect a particular country or reign you might want to start by looking for that subject using the Search options you will find when you click on the Search SG Catalogue Data link on the floating menu bar.

Once there, you will find the search options.

How it Works


Summary

Export/Output


Settings

Subscribers FAQs

User Guide

GSM

My Collection SearchTerritory Select a Territory

toYear

Key Word

SG Number

Search

By selecting the appropriate territory: years, keywords or SG numbers, you can find stamps from your physical collection and add them to your virtual collection.

For more detailed information, please read on.


NavigationNavigation around My Collection is achieved via the embedded menu, which will follow you up and down the pages as you move around.


Summary

Export/Output


Settings

My Collection Menu Functions

Main Management Page

Collection Summary Page

Export Collection Data

Search the Catalogue

User Settings Page


The individual sections of the product are closely integrated which makes navigation easier and more intuitive. As an example, when viewing the Catalogue, if you already have a stamp in your collection, hovering over the Collection Icon ( ) causes a small pop-up panel to appear, which gives additional details about the stamp and provides a link to the item itself.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s look at the individual features in detail.

SettingsThe Settings page offers the user a number of options which tailor various aspects of the product, making it easier and quicker to use.

Here are the settings:


Collection Currency simply changes the currency symbol, so people who want to view values, Euros or US Dollars, are able to do this. It should be noted that at present, there is no exchange rate conversion between currencies.

Stamps Per Page determines the number of stamps that are displayed on each page in the Catalogue Search and the Collection Management pages. Whilst it might seem advantageous to have this set to the maximum (100) ‒ it must be remembered that the greater the number of stamps shown, the longer the web page will take to load.

Default Add To sets the default destination when the Add To button is clicked in the Catalogue Search pages. If the setting is set to Wants, any stamps added will be recorded in the Wants section. If My Collection is selected, the stamps will be added to your collection data. It should be noted that this setting could be temporarily overridden by changing the local setting in the Catalogue Search page.

Default Condition sets the default condition of stamps added to your collection or wants. Again, this setting can be temporarily overridden by changing the local setting in the Catalogue Search page.

Collection ManagementThe Collection Management page is essentially the home page for the product. It offers the user access to an overview of their collection, albums and wants. The page is divided into three distinct panels, one for each area of data.

The My Collection Panel


The data shown in the My Collection panel is broken down by territory. Against each territory in your collection, you can see the name of the territory, the number of stamps saved against that territory and the cumulative values of the used and unused stamps.

At the right hand end of each row, there are two links, Simple and Detailed which take the user to a simplified or a detailed view of the stamps for that territory.

You will notice that there are also two buttons above the panel, the Create Unlisted Stamp button and the Recalculate button.

The Create Unlisted Stamp button allows the user to add stamps that are not covered by the online catalogue data. Typically, these will be specialist stamps, blocks of stamps, or items of a specialist nature such as those with ‘traffic light’ printers marks attached or stamps with plate numbers. Further details of the process of adding an unlisted stamp can be found later in this guide.

The Recalculate button performs a recalculation of the data held in the user’s collection. This process is generally not needed and can take a significant amount of time to perform. But you should find that after adding stamps to your collection, if the totals have not changed in the appropriate panel (Collection/Album/Wants), a recalculation will normally rectify the problem.

To find a particular stamp, select the territory of the stamp and enter additional informa-tion such as the year of issue, any keywords or the SG number (if known) then click the Search button.



Add the required stamps to your collection by selecting the appropriate condition (Unused or Used) and destination (Collection or Wants) then click the Add To button.

Any matching stamps will be shown. It is worth noting that at present, only stamps that appear in our Stamps of the World catalogue are present in the online database. This means that First Day Covers (FDCs), variations, errors and plate numbers are not covered.


The appropriate flag, a C for Collection or a W for Wants, as well as a text message will indicate that the stamp has been added. The I indicates that a custom Image has been uploaded against that stamp, but we’ll cover that in a later section.

Clicking on the Add All Displayed Items in the Set Above button does just that, according to the options set for each stamp. Please note that any stamps already in the collection will not be added a second time.

By hovering over the C icon, you will be presented with information about the stamp and offered a link that takes you directly to the stamp details.

Once items have been added to your online collection, the C, W and I icons will show the status of those items in subsequent searches, giving to a visual indication of those items.

Because My Collections is currently based on our Stamps of the World simplified catalogue, you may find that you cannot locate certain more valuable stamps in the


online data base. This is not an error; it is simply because another stamp of the same design and denomination but of lower value was issued for that territory. This will certainly be the case when you are trying to enter variations, specific plate numbers, first day covers and other specialised items.

In this case, you may want to add a custom stamp in your collection via the Create Unlisted Item button.

When clicking on the button, you will be presented with an empty example of the stamps details page.


You should select the territory and where appropriate the sub-territory, as well as the condition for the item you are adding. You may then enter details into the remaining fields as you see fit. The Name and Purchase Price fields are required in order for you to save the record. The Quantity will default to 1 unless you enter a value.

As with any custom record, the more details you enter, the easier it will be to find and identify to which item the record refers if you have a number of duplicates.

You are also able to upload a custom image for the item, a scan or digital photograph, which is particularly useful for variations, blocks of stamps or first day covers. As with all editor pages, please remember to click the Save Details button before you leave the page to save your work.

Editing Stamp DetailsWhen you click on the link offered in the stamp details pop-out, you will be taken to the simple view of the stamp.

To edit the details, click on the Update Details link.


As you can see, there are a number of custom details fields that you can edit with your own information. Fields that have a grey background hold catalogue data and cannot be edited. Please remember to click the Save Details button before you leave the page as details are not saved automatically and will be lost if you fail to do this.

You may also upload a custom digital image of your own stamp using the Custom Image section of the form. To do this, click on the Choose File button to select the image file, then click the Upload Image button to save the image against the stamp. You can remove the image at any time using the Remove Image button.


My Album Management

As with the My Collection panel, the data shown is broken down this time by album. Each line shows the details of the album named in the first column. So in the above example, the Namibia album contains three stamps, with a cumulative Used value of £0.00 and an Unused value of £756.50.

The three links at the right hand end of each line allow you to perform tasks with the album.

The Manage link allows you to make changes to the album details, such as the name, as well as allowing stamps to be added or removed.

The View link takes you to an overview of the stamps in that album.

The Delete link does exactly what it says; it permanently removes the album, but not the stamps within the album. You are asked to confirm the deletion, but if you allow the process to continue, there is no undo function. If you have deleted the wrong album by mistake, you will have to rebuild it from scratch.

The Create Album button allows you to create a new empty album and it places you directly in the Album Management page so you can start adding stamps immediately.


To add stamps to the album, find the stamps in the left hand dropdown list; select them and click the Add button to copy them into the right hand dropdown. You can select a group of stamps by holding the CTRL key down whilst clicking on the individual stamp, or by clicking on the first stamp, holding down the Shift key and selecting the last stamp, just as you would in any other Windows list.


Once the list is complete, or at any time during the process, clicking on the Update button saves the stamps to the album.

Removal of stamps is a similar process. From the right hand dropdown list, select the items you wish to remove from the album and click the Remove button. Again, please remember to click the Update button once you are finished.

It is worth noting at this point that removing items from an album does not remove the stamps from your collection. Conversely, removing stamps from your collections is not only a permanent action, but will also remove the items from any album to which they have been added.


You may add a name for the album and extra information. You can edit the details at the top of the page and save your edits by clicking on the Update button within that section.

You will now see the new album in your list.

The three links at the right of each line allow you to Manage, View or Delete your albums.

Manage allows you to add or remove stamps, and edit the details of the album (name and information).

View takes you to a list of the stamps in that album.


Delete removes the album, though it does not remove the stamps that the album contained. This action has no undo command. Please take care when deleting albums as your work adding stamps to it will be lost.

To add your Wants, you should find the stamp or stamps in the Catalogue.

My Wants Management


Select the required condition and Wants as the destination and then click the Add To button.

The icon ( ) will show indicationg the stamps have been added.

Once the Wants have been added, you will see them reflected in the Wants section of the management page.


Clicking on the Manage link, next to the required country, will take you to the Wants Management page.

From here, you can select individual or groups of stamps for addition to your collection, when you have acquired the items, or for deletion if they are no longer required.

Please note that although the stamps will be added to the appropriate country with your collection, they will not appear in any albums until you add them manually.

It is also worth mentioning that the Wants list in My Collection is not reflected in the Wants list in Your Account, or vice versa.


The Export / Output link on the mini menu takes you to the Collection Output page.

By selecting the required options you can control the data contained in the resulting output file. Here we have requested that only Great Britain / Regional Issues / England stamps from our Collection are included in the output file.

You can request that all data be included from your Collection, Wants or Albums by selecting the All option.

It is not possible to request data for a selection of countries in a single output file, although with suitable software, it is simple to amalgamate data from a number of output files into a single spreadsheet or file.

Export Your Collection


If you also have a Gibbons Stamp Monthly Online subscription, you can now easily navigate to your subscription by simply clicking the GSM link in the menu bar. If you are not signed in, you will receive the login screen to enter your credentials.

Access Gibbons Stamp Monthly Online

The output file uses the universally acknowledged CSV (comma separated variable) format. This can be opened, read and manipulated by any CSV capable application such as Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, QuickOffice, etc.

How it Works


Summary

Export/Output


Settings

Subscribers FAQs

User Guide

GSM

Documents

My Collection ‒ User Guide - Stanley Gibbons · My Collection ‒ User Guide. ... stamps from your physical collection and add them to your ... appear in our Stamps of the World