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Hi everyone! I wanted to share an early look at a project I’ve been working on. It’s a new website to track your playing card collection. It has a modern responsive design, robust search and filtering, and more.

Although fully functional, it’s still in its very early stages—I have only just started adding decks—but I wanted to share this now to get some early feedback and first impressions.

First, to address the elephant in the room. This is not intended to replace Portfolio52, and I really hope it comes back online. There is a lot of knowledge on there, and it would be a shame if it got lost (I have implemented features to prevent the same thing from happening to Deck Collect. More on that later). I had started working on Deck Collect even before P52’s recent downtime. The development of Portfolio52 has been somewhat slow for some time now, and I think there is room for another option. My goal is just to make what *I* would want to see from a collection website, and hopefully others will find it useful as well.

With that said, here are some of the key features of Deck Collect:

Deck Details


The deck detail page shows a lot more information about the deck, like artist, company, printer, and so on. From here you can add the deck to one of your three lists: your Collection, Wishlist, or Favorites.

Something I think is really useful: you can click on any of the deck’s details, and it will show you *all of the decks that match.* It’s really easy to find all decks from the same artist, with the same features, etc.

Search


Besides a simple text search, Deck Collect also has powerful filters to narrow down your search. For example, you could find only the decks by Lotrek that use Hot Foil, and so on.

Design


Of course, the whole website is built with a modern, responsive design—which means it will work great on mobile. Although there are still plenty of improvements on my list, I spent a lot of time on making it really enjoyable to use.

Export


To prevent your collection from being lost in the worst-case scenario, you can easily export your collection from your account page for safekeeping. In theory this could be imported into other websites in the future, making it easy to migrate your collection. For now at least you can have a local copy.

Not only that, but you can also export *the entire deck database.* Any decks that I or others add in the future should belong to the community, so anyone should be able to make redundant copies.

Beta

For now, Deck Collect is in a semi-closed beta while I make sure everything is working smoothly. I hope to open it up to everyone soon.

If anyone from UnitedCardists wants to join the beta and help me find any issues, please let me know! Also, I would be happy to add any frequent contributors here as Moderators, which means you’ll have the ability to Add and Edit decks. I’ll be adding decks myself of course, but the more people contribute the faster the database will grow.

Roadmap

Here’s a short list of some of the features that I would like to add:

- Sorting
- Custom lists
- Improved system for adding and editing decks
- Collection value estimate.
- Support for more deck details
- View related decks.

Deck Collect still has a ways to go, but I’m very excited to see what you think of it so far! Please let me know of any issues you find, as well as any ideas for new features and improvements.

Wtf this is awesome, please invite me

That being said I worry we're going to end up with multiple P52 replacements and a splintered userbase....

This looks pretty damn good! I'd love to give it a try if possible.

Dude, that looks fantastic. Great job! I'd love to join the beta.

manu wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 8:45 pm To prevent your collection from being lost in the worst-case scenario, you can easily export your collection from your account page for safekeeping. In theory this could be imported into other websites in the future, making it easy to migrate your collection. For now at least you can have a local copy.

Not only that, but you can also export *the entire deck database.* Any decks that I or others add in the future should belong to the community, so anyone should be able to make redundant copies.

I like this. I like this a lot.

hsbc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 8:55 pm That being said I worry we're going to end up with multiple P52 replacements and a splintered userbase....

This is a legitimate concern, but I suppose competition may result in (hopefully) the best resource prevailing, and the community being better for it. I'll probably keep my participation slightly inactive until the P52 web domain expires on May 10th. Then I'll consider it truly dead.

Sign me up, Manu!

There is no confirmation of any sort when saving your display name

Also the main page looks like this, on Firefox/Windows:

hsbc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:22 pm There is no confirmation of any sort when saving your display name

Also the main page looks like this, on Firefox/Windows:

Good catch! That display issue should be fixed now.

Edit: Also added confirmation upon saving your display name.

manu wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:30 pm Good catch! That display issue should be fixed now.

Fixed indeed!

Are you going to implement hovering on images to see the backs? Could you go a step further and make it so that the left half stays the same when rolled over, and switches on the right half? Ideally that would be a user preference and could also include card backs and the image split in thirds...

I hope that made sense

Ah you can click on the deck on its page to see the back! I'm not sure how I feel about the subtle 3D effect though

Clicking on categories in Features or Stock & Finish doesn't work -- "No results found" for e.g. Poker size, B9 Slimline

In stock, "Legends" shouldn't have an apostrophe

... but seriously, this is immensely impressive

Could you add a "View fan" feature in the future?

hsbc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:33 pm Ah you can click on the deck on its page to see the back! I'm not sure how I feel about the subtle 3D effect though

Yes you can click on the image to see the back! In the future I'd like to have more images (back design, etc.) in which case I would have a different method of scrolling between the images.

hsbc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:33 pm Clicking on categories in Features or Stock & Finish doesn't work -- "No results found" for e.g. Poker size, B9 Slimline

Fixed! Thanks for catching these!

I also worry about the description actively encouraging the "official" wording -- that text is likely not free to use, technically

I tried adding a deck, Piracy by theory11. I couldn't find an exact release date or verified printer, but I can't submit without them and once again it's an invisible error. An incomplete date will trigger a dialog about the date format, but an entirely missing release date won't. We definitely need to be able to add decks with incomplete information

An import capability may be useful also.

Would love to join the beta for this as well!

Sign me up for the beta if you still need testers! I signed the waitlist with my coloradocookseys email.

Need some space between the deck name and release year:

Ideas: gilding color? Tuck flap type?

hsbc wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 4:46 pm Need some space between the deck name and release year:

Seems more of a punctuation issue. That's Vol. 392,024.

In all seriousness, huge shoutout to hsbc for your help on the website.

kevork wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 5:44 pm In all seriousness, huge shoutout to hsbc for your help on the website.

manu deserves all the credit I'm just double-checking things!

Should Artist be changed to Artist(s)?

There should also be an easy way to swap the front/back images in case they're mixed up, like with the Table Players deck

Missing fields: edition/print run, gilding color, one way/two way back, Bicycle?, material?, UPC, Ace code, SKU

I can't add decks! Clicking on Save does nothing, the button briefly says "Loading..." and then goes back to normal

Example filename: fades-v2-1.png, 6.96 MB (Is PNG a problem?)

This is awesome!

macstrat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 9:35 pm This is awesome!

Glad to see you in this thread! Especially if/when back designs are added, you would be an incredible contributor

Wow. This looks amazing.

If you still need beta testers, count me in.

Thank you for the feedback everyone! I’ll be looking into the issue with adding decks, and adding more beta testers in the morning.

manu wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 8:45 pm Deck Collect.jpg
Hi everyone! I wanted to share an early look at a project I’ve been working on.

Major Props, dude! You Rule!

Well, I converted it to a .jpg and the upload worked... sort of

Direct link to uploaded image

Sweet. Well done, Manu.

Incredible project. Great job @manu. I wish my current job would leave me with the time to contribute but alas.

As for concerns about P52. Nobody should be afraid of competition and the rise of one might be indeed the downfall of another systems but that's how it goes. If systems are equally good, they will coexist (e.g. Windows, MacOS, Android, etc...).

As for deck details (going from the The Parlour screen), I would seperate tuck and card manufacturer, since there're a lot of projects who use different producers. On the other hand it will be hard to get reliable info. A lot of tucks from Jackson and AoP/Fulton were made by Clove St.Press without people knowing it.

Call me a stickler but your category is called Stock (1) and Finish (2) and then I read True Linen B9 (2), Superlux (1)... grinds my gears! Jokes (or exaggorations) aside, information should be as clear and unmistakeably as possible imho.

Quick update on what I've done since my first post.

Fixed several bugs (Thanks hsbc!). Nothing reveals all of your mistakes like having actual people use the thing you made

Added a way to reset your password if you forget it.

Refactored the Edit and Create forms, added some basic error messages, and tweaked the permissions. Mods should be able to add and edit decks. It's working on my end, but please let me know if anyone is still facing issues.


Now that more decks will be getting added (hopefully!) I added pagination to the bottom of the search results so that you don't have to load them all at once.

hsbc wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:24 pm Missing fields: edition/print run, gilding color, one way/two way back, Bicycle?, material?, UPC, Ace code, SKU

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 6:06 pm Call me a stickler but your category is called Stock (1) and Finish (2) and then I read True Linen B9 (2), Superlux (1)... grinds my gears! Jokes (or exaggorations) aside, information should be as clear and unmistakeably as possible imho.

In regards to the fields, I'd love to get some opinions on the best way to handle this. I wanted to avoid having too many separate fields with few options, instead preferring larger categories (when it makes sense, of course).

This is why I combined Stock and Finish, as they often go hand-in-hand (in fact, I believe some manufacturers use a single term to refer to both the stock and finish). The options are not mutually exclusive, so a deck can have a stock and a finish applied, all under the same field. I think "material" could go under this field as well?

I can definitely add a print run field.

One-way Back and Two-way Back feel like they could belong under the "Features" field.

Are UPC or SKU of interest? Ace code seems like it might not apply to the majority of decks, and it isn't really something you'd want to filter by. It might be better to put in the description?

Maybe a "Series" field? (e.g. Egoism Rust, Ivory, Peacock and Relic would all have the series "Egoism").

Maybe a "Tags" field as a kind of miscellaneous catch-all? "Bicycle Branded" could go here, or things like "Animal-themed", etc.

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

To clarify, I don't have a problem with combined fields but if the field is called "stock & finish" and names both, then imho it should follow the rule to have stock named first and finish second. So that everyone who isn't that deep into the rabbithole sees at first glance the first named one would be the stock and the second one is finish.

For fields in general. I like stuff in a tidy and orderly fashion. So that at a quick glance I can see the info I care about. Meaning the more fields the better. If you lump up everything under features for example it get's cluttered imo.

I'd definitely love a series field btw. Very helpful for both non-completionists (to see which ones are out there and therfore being able to pick their favorite) and completists (for obvious reasons).

I was also thinking about this yesterday. Having a series indicator would be a great feature. Just imagining having all of Lorenzo's Heretic variants all in one place for collectors to view, for example.

kevork wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 10:35 pm Just imagining having all of Lorenzo's Heretic variants all in one place for collectors to view, for example.

We already have that - it’s called “Kevork’s House”