Describing an Item

A detailed walk-through of item creation in NeoCollect, and how to describe your items thoroughly and clearly.
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As you saw in the Overview video, NeoCollect helps you manage and showcase your collections, connect with other serious collectors and share your expertise. 

The Entering Collection Information video described the template for entering information about a particular item, and then saving it to your NeoCollect collection. 

This video provides some ideas to consider when describing an item, and answers questions you may have on the way certain types of information are entered and displayed. 

When entering a new item, start with the Title and enter a brief description or name – what you would call this item or how it might be titled in an auction catalogue or exhibit.  It is often helpful to include the type of item (in this case “medal”) in the title, though this might be unnecessary if everything in your collection is the same type of item. The Title should be short, since you can provide all of the necessary description in the fields below and on the other input tabs.  The Title is the only field that’s absolutely required to add an item to NeoCollect.  In all other fields, you can add as little or as much information as you’d like, or leave it blank.  If you make a mistake or want to enter additional information later, you can always come back to a field or to a previously entered item to edit it. 

After you have uploaded the representative photographs and other images, and chosen the Collection, Status and Privacy settings for the item, you can enter the date of issue, either as a specific date, or if you are unsure, as an approximate period such as “circa 1900”, “1900-1920” or “early 20^th century”. 

Similarly, in the Place of Origin field, you can put in a specific place such as New York, or a more general location such as United States. The Notes and Commentary that you add on this page will be displayed in the item description, while the Historical or Other Relevant Background that you add on the fourth tab will display in a smaller font below the basic description and provenance. 

While many NeoCollect input fields allow you to type words, numbers and symbols in order to provide flexibility in your description, others have convenient drop-down menus with the most common terms used for that field.  In many of these, however, you can also choose “other” and enter your own information if it not shown on the drop-down menu.  Note that beneath most of the input boxes there is some light gray text that explains the field and provides examples of the descriptive terms you might enter. It’s important to be as consistent as you can with these descriptions, both for a professional final appearance and to make later searching as easy and efficient as possible. 

The physical dimensions of the item are entered in metric units, but you may leave any of these and other fields blank if they don’t relate to a particular item, you don’t know them, or if such information is commonly understood and therefore unnecessary. 

The Condition and Provenance tab provides fields for third party grading information, such as NGC and PGCS, and also gives you the opportunity to be as descriptive as you’d like.  You can provide detailed information concerning the item’s color, visual appeal, distinguishing marks, manufacturing defects or subsequent damage.  Keep in mind that others who view your public items will be able to see the photographs you have uploaded and can also make their own condition assessments. 

You can enter as much information as you’d like about the history of prior ownership, including the names of other collectors, where you or they acquired the item, auction dates, sale information and lot numbers.  You can also include public notes for others to see and private notes for your own use, such as questions or concerns that require further research on previous ownership. 

If you have additional information about earlier ownership history, you can add it in the same way, and these prior listings will be displayed in the order you entered them. 

In the basic description fields, you can enter as much or as little detail as you’d like.  These item descriptions can include capitalized, bold, italic and underlined text, and you can include links to other NeoCollect items and other websites.  For ideas on how to describe an item, it’s often helpful to refer to the descriptions of similar items in reference books or auction catalogues, but be careful to credit other reference sources where appropriate and not to plagiarize or violate others’ copyrights. 

The Creator Information section allows you to identify several individuals, companies and other organizations which were involved in the creation of an item, for example, those who designed, engraved and produced an item.  For each one, simply select the role, type in the name, and if the item is signed, note that in the Attribution Location field.  Click “+add creator information” if you’d like to include similar information for others who were involved in creating the item in similar or different roles. 

If the item has been described in one or more published reference works, you can note that in the Reference Source box for as many references as necessary. 

In the Historical or Other Relevant Background box you can add all of the additional information that may not neatly fit in any of the other input fields.  The information you enter here will be displayed in a slightly smaller font in a new paragraph below the item description and provenance information. 

The fifth and final tab contains private information, such as where and when you purchased the item, how much you paid, where you now store the item and any other notes you may require.  While any NeoCollect collection (and any item) may be marked either public or private, this personal information is always kept private, even for publicly viewable items. 

You can then save the item to your NeoCollect collection and add another, or save it and go back to the item listing or all the way back to the collection to see how the item looks in its new NeoCollect setting. 

If you made a mistake or later decide to enter additional information you can always go back to view the information originally entered and change it, or fill in new fields. 

If you would like to enter another item that is very similar to an item you have already entered, click on the “Copy Another Item...” link at the bottom of the item entry template, choose the item you wish to copy and then just edit that copied item to create the new item. 

This NeoCollect pilot website is currently set up for medals only, but we will soon be adding templates for tokens, ancient coins, and eventually for a broad spectrum of fine art, antiques and other valuable collectibles. 

Please watch the other videos on Organizing Your Collection, Privacy & Sharing, Creating Catalogs and Slideshows, and Joining NeoCollect Communities. 

And of course, please e-mail or call us if you need help or more information. 

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