Introducing Collect by HobbyMonitor

We've been building something that I think a lot of collectors have been waiting for. It's called Collect, and it's coming to HobbyMonitor in February 2026.

Here's the short version: Collect is a dedicated app for managing your card collection. Track what you own, what you paid, what it's worth now, and share your collection with others. It integrates directly with the HobbyMonitor platform you already know.

But that's not why I'm excited about it.

The Problem We're Solving

Every collector I know has the same problem. Their collection tracking is a mess.

Some use spreadsheets. Others use notes apps, or a combination of both. Some have tried third-party collection apps that never quite fit their workflow, or that nickel-and-dime them for basic features, or that just... disappeared one day.

And then there's the "I'll remember what I paid for that card" crowd. (Narrator: They did not remember.)

What Collect Actually Does

Let me walk you through the core features.

Collection Organization

You can create multiple collections to organize however makes sense for you. Maybe one for baseball, one for basketball. Or organize by player, by era, by grading status. Your call.

Each collection has its own stats: total value, total cost basis, number of cards, and unrealized gains or losses. You'll see at a glance whether your Mike Trout PC is up 15% or if that vintage Mantle was a better investment.

Card Tracking That Actually Works

Every card you add gets proper metadata:

• Player, year, set, manufacturer, card number
• Parallel type and print run (for those /25 and /10 hits)
• Grading company and grade, or raw condition
• Purchase price and source
• Current value
• Serial numbers, if applicable
• Notes for whatever else matters to you

You can flag cards as "for sale" and track where they're physically located. If you're like me and have cards spread across three different storage locations... you'll appreciate that last one.

Bulk Import

Nobody wants to enter 500 cards one at a time. So we built bulk imports in a couple ways.

Upload a spreadsheet, map your columns to our fields, and we'll handle the rest. The system processes up to 5,000 rows per import, with intelligent parsing that understands common formats. If you've been maintaining a spreadsheet for years, you can bring all that data into Collect without starting from scratch.

Or bulk add up to 20 cards at once through image processing, tweak the details, and get through hundreds of cards an hour. For graded cards, scan the QR code on your slab to instantly pull in cert data from PSA, BGS, SGC, or CGC.

Public Sharing

Want to show off your collection? Make it public and share the link.

Public collections display your cards with total value and collection stats. It's a clean, read-only view that works great for showing fellow collectors what you've built or for flexing that collection on social media. Short URLs make sharing easy. Share an inventory for an upcoming card show or what not stream. Share all the break hits with whoever joined your breaks. Make a collection work for you.

We're planning to add custom themes to customize your public collection. Make it a gallery uniquely yours to share with the broader collector community.

We're launching day one with a founder theme, available exclusively to subscribers only until April 2026.

The Card Researcher

This is the feature I'm maybe most excited about. I have always been interested in building AI into the platform in thoughtful ways, where AI works for you but isn't driving the entire experience.

Card Researcher uses AI to help you price and research cards in your collection. Enter the card details, and it pulls real, current market data to give you current valuations, recent sales context, and pricing insights.

It's not a magic price oracle. Markets move, sales vary, and condition matters in ways that are hard to standardize. But it's a solid starting point for understanding what your cards are worth especially for cards that don't have obvious comps or recent sales data.

Card Researcher is available for Premium and Pro subscribers. It draws from your monthly AI credits pool, which is shared across HobbyMonitor features like Market Pulse. Each Card Researcher query uses 5 AI credits, while Market Pulse uses 1 credit per search. Premium gets 25 AI credits per month, Pro gets 50. We'll closely monitor how it's used (AI can be expensive to run at scale) to see how we can tweak these limits further.

How It Integrates With HobbyMonitor

If you already have a HobbyMonitor account, you're set. Same login, same subscription. Collect recognizes your existing tier and applies the appropriate limits automatically.

Here's how the tiers break down for Collect:

Free tier gets you started with one collection and up to 50 cards. That's enough to try the system and see if it fits your workflow. Premium opens up real portfolio tracking with multiple collections, 25 AI credits for Card Researcher and Market Pulse, and data export. Pro is for serious collectors with large holdings who want the highest limits and 50 AI credits monthly.

What About Images?

Yes, you can upload card images. Front and back, for each card.

We support JPG, PNG, and even HEIC (which iPhones use by default). Images are stored securely and displayed alongside your card data. It's useful for insurance documentation, for remembering what condition a card was in when you bought it, and for making your public collections look polished.

The Technical Stuff (If You Care)

Collect is a standalone web app at collect.hobbymonitor.com, built on the same infrastructure as the main HobbyMonitor platform. Same database, same authentication, same security practices.

It's fast, it will work on mobile, but it doesn't require downloading anything. Just log in and start tracking. Collect features will be coming soon to the mobile apps as well, likely Apple first in early March, and Android a few weeks behind.

Coming February 2026

We're putting the finishing touches on Collect now and planning to launch in February 2026. If you're a current HobbyMonitor subscriber, you'll get access automatically. If you're not, this might be a good time to consider it.

I've been using Collect for my own collection while we build it, and I can tell you it changes how you think about what you own. When you can see your total cost and value, group things flexibly and search across everything you have... the hobby feels a bit more manageable. And it adds some reality to what you might have or what you already spent. Being able to create a quick sharing link to share with friends is also pretty cool!

And that's really the goal. Collecting should be fun, not stressful. But if you're doing a lot of it, having the right tools helps. Simple, fast, and flexible for the modern hobby.

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What's Next

We'll share more details as we get closer to launch, including a deeper dive into specific features and some tips for migrating your existing collection data. If you're maintaining a spreadsheet right now, start thinking about getting it cleaned up as February will be here faster than you think.

Questions? Feedback? We're always listening. Drop us a line through the feedback form or connect on social.

See you in February.

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Collect by HobbyMonitor launches February 2026. Pricing and feature availability subject to your HobbyMonitor subscription tier. Visit hobbymonitor.com/about for current subscription options.