So yeah, bought a CueCat today off eBay. I figured, if all else fails, I’m out $13 including shipping and handling.
Which brings us to the next question: What do I use it for? I know there is software out there (DVDProfiler I think is the name) that lets you barcode scan DVDs to catalog them… is there a similar program that also lets you scan books and video games?
I can kinda see this coming in handy if I want to make little high-speed barcode labels for my stuff before the movers packs it up (as mentioned elsewhere, I am in a line of work where I can pretty much assume I’ll be moving at least every few years), so I can scan it as I unpack it and make sure it all followed me to my destination.
Also, and most importantly, barcode scanners are fun to play with.
I have a CueCat which I got free from Readerware when I bought their Book/Video/CD Database program set. The only problem I ever had with it is that it doesn’t work with the CDs I bought from a music club, since the barcode on them isn’t the UPC that’s on store-bought CDs.
What a coincidence. I bought one off e-bay two weeks ago because I am down-sizing my house and therefor donating thousands of cheap trashy novels to any charity that wants them.
I also have one I got with the Readerware software, although once I scanned all of my books, DVDs and CDs, I just type in the ISBN for any newly purchased items.
If for no other reason, it helps you avoid unintentionally buying duplicates, since with Readerware, at least, you can port a text list of the scanned books to your Palm (and maybe other PDAs/smart phones by now)*. Readerware also gives you an idea of the value, if any, your books might have by checking list prices on various book seller sites. And as someone who has a lot of books, I’d like a list of what I have.
And, as I said before, barcode scanners are fun. Though I somehow doubt that the CueCat is going to give me one of those really satisfying BEEP sounds that the barcode scanners at supermarkets do.
Plus, comon, it’s a CueCat. Wouldn’t you like to own one of those curios of history?
Yup, I’ve been scanning our DVDs and books on my iPhone (using MovieScan and Book Crawler, respectively), both for “don’t buy this accidentally again” and also for renter’s insurance reasons.
I think it only supports the Palm handheld. And now that I’ve been using it for a while, that’s one of its limitations. I’d hope that they’d have support for the iPhone and other smartphones by now. Also, the interface is really archaic looking. I hope that they’re working on a new version.
This thread prompted me to look for book cataloging apps for my iPhone. I settled on BooksApp. I can scan the bar codes, then it finds the book on Google Books and adds additional information. The books are then added to a collection. Collections include: Reading Now, Have Read, and To Read. You can also create your own collections.
I don’t have that many, but misplacing a few books led me to assume that I’d tossed the books out or donated them. The app I use has features like tracking whether you’ve lent out or gotten rid of a book you once had, so if I’m diligent about it, this should help.
Similarly, DVD tracking helps for cases like loaning out DVDs or trying to remember if you’ve bought season 6 of South Park or not. (Upon organizing our DVDs recently, I did discover that we’d bought two copies of one season of one of those cartoon series.)
last count 5480,and i have a few duplicates that were presents from people who knew i liked certain authors [but didnt go a bit further and think that I probably already own all their books =) ]
Not only do I have thousands of books, but a lot of them are still boxed up from when I moved to NC from Chicago four years ago. My first priority was unpacking and shelving the unread books; I’ve got over 500 of them in my bedroom. Of course, this includes the books I’ve bought in the past four years.
I only have hundreds of books but aside from avoiding duplicates, I did the inventory so that I’d have detailed records in case I need to make an insurance claim.