I track each bike purchase and sale. 5-10% of the bikes I buy are for personal use or gifts to friends. But sometimes, bikes are bought just for the components, so it's not a perfect inventory system.

Saddles and tires often get switched around too. Also, I tend to buy consumables in bulk, like a 100 count box of brake or shifter cables, due to the many flips.

When Niagara Cycle charged for shipping, my parts orders were bigger to leverage the cost of shipping. Now, only a couple of items are needed to reach the minimum $100 for free shipping. Also, a few Amazon vendors have free shipping on less than $25 orders. So parts ordering is more as needed, not to replenish inventory.

But rather than track each dollar spent on a flip, I am considering using the standard cost accounting model, which is often used in manufacturing cost accounting. For example, each bundle of cables, housing, bearings, and other consumables is $10 per bike, rather than try to say 2 cables on this bike, 4 on that bike, etc.

I have friends that will sell my bikes for my widow, if they don't buy them for themselves. I've never been opposed to having an extra of anything, especially Campagnolo. Keeping a spreadsheet seems a bit dehumanizing to me, and values change. This is especially true for older steel, which is what I believe most of the bikes on this forum are.

I do take lots of detailed pictures for insurance purposes. A picture of a fresh build is always a good reference point.

Breaking everything down into a spreadsheet reminds me more of Scrooge McDuck than Dave Stoller. I like Dave Stoller better.

When Dave Stoller grew up, he kept spread sheets and put his bills in a filing cabinet...perhaps you mean Peter Pan?

They can be updated easily and from time to time - it's nice to know what I have. It's also interesting to see how I view fluctuations over time. If you find it "Dave Stoller" to buy a campy umbrella clamp when you already have one, great. I think it's incredibly stupid, a waste of money and I find it useful to have an easy repository of what I have. It also gives me a fast place to look if there are trade offers, or WTBs, or to quickly check what I can part with if I need fast bike funds. It's fine if you don't find it useful, but obviously some here do.

Example.

I needed Kool Stops today and was ready to order a set.

Checked inventory on my spreadsheet for handy reference, went to dig through boxes and there they were.

On the Merckx and functioning, well mostly. :)

I guess I have a better memory, or less of a parts stash.

I have started but not completed, an image database of bikes including serial number (or any stampings, not all have serial numbers) for potential recovery in case of a loss.

As to a spreadsheet.... I have kept a service book on many, that's it. To treat is like a business inventory would just take any fun out of it. Or reduce my surprise when I found that extra set of NOS Campagnolo pedals or extra seat post. Every frame needs a seat post...

I did take a big swipe at organizing my stuff... I am glad there are spare offices at work to store stuff.

I know one guy, "if I sold most of these, I could buy a Ferrari"... and he could and should. Thankfully none my size.

I think organiztion and effective storage that is easy to visually scan is the way to go. It may be in the database, but can you put your hand on it? Opening a flat file (those work really well and out of date now technically) and finding it straight away is pretty pleasurable.
After my organizing sweep, I think this is definitely helpful.

My vintage guitar collection is worth at least 5x all my bikes combined. I gotta get that **** cataloged (and insured).

Good for you. I know I should do this. I guess I'm not ready.

I'm pretty sure that if my wife inherited my bike collection, it wouldn't be significant compared with everything else. If I'm wrong, then I have too much money into the stuff. Worse, I might have spent more than what it's all worth. Hmm!

I do have a couple of spreadsheets. My "bike configs" spreadsheet has one bike per column. The rows are the components. So it reads like a spec sheet from a 1970's bike catalog. I also have proposed changes in this spreadsheet.

I want to make an inventory of the spare components I have. I want each component to have a picture in the spreadsheet. Would you recommend a picture embedded or a URL to a picture? Ideally, I could use the spreadsheet to generate ebay or craigslist ads (or a web page that my ad would point to).

Also, once I have this inventory, I can easily see how many theoretical bikes I have. A theoretical bike is all the components of a bike that would become a real bike if I strung them together.

And I use google docs. I use several computers, and I store as little information as possible on one of them. I store nothing on all of the other computers. This way, I can access all of my important information from the cloud, from all of my computers. If you're not using some sort of cloud storage, you are working too hard.

The problem is that Google's spreadsheet app doesn't format as nicely as Excel. It works for most stuff, but as an Excel power user I find it frustrating to transition to Google docs for spreadsheet type data.

No, not yet, but maybe it's a good idea. Especially to curb random spending :)

I just always equate speadsheets with work. Bicycles are fun, so in my mind the two are seperate. Also if I die and my wife sells my bike(s) on craigslist for cheap, I would simply consider it balancing out the uiverse. I have received a lot of great deals over the years, so I have no problem passing one on, after I have passed on!

You should send them to me Fender...I'll redfine cheap ;)

I'm sure that quite a few of my buys were, ultimately, made available in this manner and I'm quite certain that the likelihood is that mine will end up the same way. I think that should be my wife's choice and my duty is giving her tools to make the decision. The triplet and Marnati I am personally invested in and have specific desires for the disposition of both. The rest are just bikes...some I like more than others, but they're just bikes.

I can definitely understand that. And the "Scrooge McDuck" image of swimming through a vault of money.

But I sat down the other evening, leaning against a box in my garage, and started cataloguing by eye, looking up at the bikes from where I sat and doing everything I could from memory. I hopped up here and now when that failed. It was relaxing, productive, and enjoyable.

The main purpose for me was similar to one of Tom's: "Theoretical Bikes." I want to accellerate the build on a few frames I have, and need a better handle on what I need and how to budget for each build. It's time to ride them!

fender, spreadsheets are work for you. Sometimes they're fun for me. Sometimes they're not fun but they help me organize my thoughts and think more clearly. For me, a bike spreadsheet doesn't get in the way of bike fun. I understand your position, though. It has already prevented me from absent-mindedly buying components I forgot I already had.

Frankly, for those thinking of estate matters, I'm surprised no one yet has said they want to be buried with their grail bike!

I want to be cremated, placed in my Marnati, and given to a future quality cyclist ;)