New Site Offers Collectors Free Inventory Management System

The Austin Business Journal reports, "Three Austin entrepreneurs have launched a business that operates a website to enable collectors of just about anything to list and trade their items online while forming virtual communities of like-minded collectors."

Called Klect, it offers free online inventory management system for collectors. For an additional fee, the system includes an automated feature that flags items a collection is lacking and lists possible locations for the user to get them. There is also a trade service which chargesw a per item fee.

According to the article, "Ten years ago, during the dot-com bubble, a couple dozen stamp collection inventory software businesses were launched, but none proved to be sustaining. Today, three or four online inventory systems exist, but none have grown to capture a sizable market share, said Ken Martin, executive director of the American Philatelic Society, the Pennsylvania-based stamp collecting organization that claims 36,000 members."

It goes on to say, "The approach hasn’t caught on because for most collectors there is little return on investing hours entering stamp information into a database. Instead, collectors want to spend their time learning about the design and history of stamps, Martin said. 'Compiling lists … [is] not generally why people take up stamp collecting in the first place,' he said."

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