InventoryDifferent - a system for managing, tracking, selling, and showing off your collection

[wottle]

I've been collecting vintage Apple hardware for a few years now and kept running into the same problem: nothing out there really fits how collectors actually think about their stuff. Spreadsheets are clunky, generic inventory apps don't seem to capture the types of things I care about in my collection and don't streamline my workflow like I'd prefer, and most tools assume you're a business tracking assets, not someone who just wants to know where they put their Macintosh SE or whether they'd replaced the caps in it.

So I built one. It's called InventoryDifferent and I'm looking for people to kick the tires before I announce it more widely.

What it does:

• Track your collection with photos, notes, maintenance logs, and condition history
• Works across a web admin dashboard, a public storefront (if you want to sell), and a native iOS app
• Ships with 280+ pre-built device templates for common Apple hardware, so you're not typing "Motorola 68000" from scratch every time
• Has an AI chat assistant that can answer questions about your collection ("which of my machines haven't been powered on in over a year?")
• Supports English, German, French, and Spanish, for now
• Custom fields let you track whatever matters to you that isn't built in
• Only a name and category is required to add a device. Fill in the rest as you go or need
• Asset tagging for devices and locations with a scanner built into the iOS app and web app for quick device lookups (can also scan serial number bar codes)

It's self-hosted via Docker, so your data stays yours. Setup takes about 5 minutes if you're comfortable with a terminal or have a helper like portainer.

I built this primarily for my own use, but designed it to be useful for a range of collectors -- not just Apple, and not just computers. Whether you track 10 machines or 500, it should scale reasonably well.

If you want to give it a try, the repo and setup instructions are at https://github.com/wottle/InventoryDifferent2. I'd genuinely love feedback on what's missing, what's confusing, or what doesn't match how you actually manage a collection.

Reach out and let me know if you are interested to help beta test. Trying to get others using it before I post more broadly.

Thanks for taking a look. And if you do install, let me know what you think. What doesn't make sense, what could be optimized, what is missing, etc.



I also recently re-designed the iOS device detail screen to look a bit nicer, while adding quick buttons for transitioning a device in its "lifecycle" (e.g. from "For Sale" to "Pending Sale" or "Sold").



I also recently added a new container for a showcase site. You can see the early stages of mine (I need to make better "Journeys" and take some good product shots for my actual showcased devices) here: https://thearchive.inventorydifferent.com/



Anyway, I'm hoping this will be helpful to others and I can make it better to do even more as people install it and think of ways to improve it.

 

[Torbar]

If you want to give it a try, the repo and setup instructions are at [github link].

Looks like you forgot to put the link!

Looking forward to giving it a try

 

[wottle]

Looks like you forgot to put the link!

Looking forward to giving it a try

Added it. Something didn't go properly with that post as I lost many of the regular app images. Will try to edit

 

[nathall]

Interesting! Look forward to trying it.

 

[is2scooby]

Looks great.

 

[Torbar]

started messing around with it yesterday, seems pretty cool so far!

 

[techstep]

Looks great! I'll give this a try when I find some free time. I may have missed this, but is there a way to export reports? (ie a CSV for basic info like machine name, state of recap (done, not done), last powered on date, approx. $ value, etc),? I think this would be super helpful for quick references. Sometime I also like to print a little status line and put it in the box with machines too.

 

[wottle]

started messing around with it yesterday, seems pretty cool so far!

Awesome. Let me know if you see anything wrong. Also, I have some stuff that I decided that may not be clear to others (a specific example is the thumbnail system - I have the option for light mode and dark mode thumbnails because my OCD hated having a bunch of white background images of devices while in dark mode.). But definitely trying to make it flexible to work for everyone.

 

[wottle]

Looks great! I'll give this a try when I find some free time. I may have missed this, but is there a way to export reports? (ie a CSV for basic info like machine name, state of recap (done, not done), last powered on date, approx. $ value, etc),? I think this would be super helpful for quick references. Sometime I also like to print a little status line and put it in the box with machines too.

That’s a good idea. I have the ability to print a full report (I keep a pdf backup of the full report for insurance purposes - if my house burnt down, it would take my NAS with it so this is good to keep off site) but that has everything included- all your notes, maintenance log, pictures, specs, etc. I’ll look to add a simple export to CSV for the metadata. Just need to figure out how to structure the 1 to many relationships like notes, logs, etc.

 

[shirsch]

Docker *hates* me, but perhaps I'll give this application a try.

 

[wottle]

Docker *hates* me, but perhaps I'll give this application a try.

Ha. I tried to make it as easy as possible in the instructions, but I definitely understand the requirements of deploying multiple containers that need to talk to each other may be a showstopper for some. Unfortunately, I felt it gave users the best control over what they want deployed. Don't want a storefront, don't deploy the container. Hate AI and don't need an MCP server, don't deploy that container.