What's new in collecting and cataloging
What we are building, what just changed, and what the collecting world keeps teaching us. News and notes from the samla.ai team.
- Company
Welcome to the samla.ai blog
The samla.ai blog is open: product news, collecting stories and practical ways to know, enjoy and pass on the things you own. Here is what to expect from us.
samla.ai2 min read
The coin jar nobody has sorted
How to catalog a mixed coin jar: photograph both sides, read year and mint mark, and get a list that separates holiday change from the pieces worth a second look.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team2 min read
Moving out: catalog what you take with you
How to catalog what leaves the family house for a first apartment: scan what you pack, leave a list of what stays, and keep the record for the next move.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team3 min read
Photograph your holiday decorations once
How to catalog holiday decorations in September so December starts with a list: photograph each box, give it a place, skip the attic dig.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team2 min read
What's new in samla.ai 1.1.142: Value tracker on Analytics
samla.ai 1.1.142: Value tracker on collection and inventory Analytics, walk-in location selection, add-item estimates in your currency, plus stability fixes.
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team1 min read
Brick sets: sealed, built, or missing a bag
How to catalog brick sets so completeness is visible: sealed box, built model, spare bags counted, instructions kept with the set.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team2 min read
Board games and sealed boxes: when completeness changes the price
How to catalog board games so completeness is visible: sealed or opened, punchboard intact, spare cards counted, missing bits named.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team2 min read
The jewelry drawer nobody has valued
How to catalog a jewelry drawer: photograph each piece, keep hallmarks and clasps in the shot, and get a list with estimates you can take to a jeweler or an insurer.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team3 min read
First editions hiding on ordinary shelves
How to find first editions already sitting on a normal bookshelf: photograph the shelf, then read the copyright page on anything that looks early.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team3 min read
Look it up before you buy it
At a flea market, a Discogs cart or a Tradera listing, one photo answers what this is and what people actually pay. Look up mode checks that without adding anything to your shelf.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team3 min read
What happens when something leaves your collection
Sold, drunk, gifted, lost: samla.ai records the departure instead of deleting the item. How to mark one, where the item goes, how to bring it back, and why deleting was the wrong model.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
Get your collection out as a PDF or a CSV
For the insurer, the executor, the accountant and the spreadsheet: how to export your catalog or a filtered slice of it, what each format contains, and why export exists at all. A Pro and Ultra feature.
- Product
The samla.ai development team3 min read
Let the AI write the classified ad
For everywhere you sell that is not a connected marketplace: generate a ready-to-post ad from an item you already scanned, in your language and with local pricing. A Pro and Ultra feature.
- Product
The samla.ai development team4 min read
What's new in samla.ai 1.1.118: a value tracker for your items
What's new in samla.ai 1.1.118: a value tracker for your items, with a price history and comparables on every item, one Workbench list for everything you track, a note for the AI when you scan, and Sign in with Apple.
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team3 min read
Put a listing on Discogs, Reverb or eBay without retyping it
The item you already scanned is most of the listing. How to connect a marketplace, publish from the item screen, track the listing status and end a listing.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
Share one item as a web page anyone can open
Turn a single item into a public samla.ai page and send the link. What the page shows, what it never shows, how to revoke it, and why it is free on every plan.
- Product
- Engineering
The samla.ai development team4 min read
Finding one thing in a collection of five hundred
Search, filter, sort and switch views inside a collection room. How the Collection Explorer keeps a big collection usable, which filters each category gives you, and when to use list view instead of grid.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
Give your collection the same shape as your house
Where is the Blue Note box? Places in samla.ai store the answer, from the building down to the shelf. How to set a location while you scan, photograph a place, and move a lot of items at once.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
How do we catalog the house together?
Invite the household with a code so everyone catalogs into the same samla.ai collection. Pro includes two family members, Ultra up to six, and monthly scans are shared.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team5 min read
Look up mode: what is this worth, before you own it
Price-check a whole flea market table without adding anything to your collection. How Look up mode and the Look up box work, what they cost, and what happens to the results you never decide on.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
How to scan your first item with samla.ai
Point your phone at one thing you own and watch samla.ai name it, file it and fill in the details. A four-step walkthrough of the Add flow, what the AI fills in for you, and what it costs.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai development team4 min read
Downsizing without losing track of what matters
How to downsize a full house calmly: scan every room first, give the family a real list to choose from, then let each object's verdict - keep, gift, sell, donate - settle itself.
- Collecting
The samla.ai team3 min read
From shelf to sold: listing an item in two taps
Why selling stalls between intention and listing, and how a cataloged item skips the hard part: photos taken, details filled in, an estimate to anchor the price, listing text drafted.
- Product
- Trends
The samla.ai team3 min read
Svepet, a quieter scan, and a PDF you can send
What's new in samla.ai: a wordmark we named Svepet, a PDF export that opens on a cover page, and a scan queue that stays out of your way.
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team2 min read
I inherited a stamp collection - now what?
What to do with inherited stamp albums: catalog them first, share the record with the family, then keep, sell or donate album by album - with estimates and specialists to guide you.
- Collecting
The samla.ai team3 min read
Are my old trading cards worth anything?
The honest answer: most cards are worth little, a few are worth a lot, and set, print run and condition decide which is which. Here is how to find out what is really in your binder.
- Collecting
- Trends
The samla.ai team4 min read
Know what is in every box before you tape it shut
How to keep track of what is in every moving box: scan items on the way in, give each box a photo and a place, and find anything months later with one search.
- Collecting
- Product
The samla.ai team3 min read
Sorting a parent's home, room by room
How to sort a parent's home: start with the easy rooms, scan as you go so every object gets a photo, an estimate and a place, and give the family one shared record to decide from.
- Collecting
The samla.ai team4 min read
Why home inventories never get finished
Why do home inventories stall after one shelf? The work per item is small, but it multiplies. AI changes the arithmetic and what a finished inventory can do.
- Company
- Collecting
Johan Bjerke6 min read
What an insurance claim actually asks for
The four questions a home insurance claim asks per item - description, origin, condition, value - and how a room-by-room photo catalog answers them before anyone asks.
- Collecting
The samla.ai team3 min read
Your sneaker rotation is a collection - treat it like one
How to catalog a sneaker rotation: which details to record per pair, why condition photos carry the story, and how a cataloged pair is already listed-ready when you sell.
- Community
- Collecting
The samla.ai team3 min read
samla.ai is on Google Play
The Android version of samla.ai is live on Google Play. What is the same as the iPhone app, how your plan and collection follow you across platforms, and why a collection app on one platform was only ever half built.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
A wine cellar you can search from the couch
Racks you cannot see into, bottles bought in batches, drinking windows kept in your head - a photographed cellar answers 'do we still have that Barolo?' without a trip downstairs.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai team3 min read
Bring your record collection online (without typing all weekend)
The fastest way to catalog a record collection: scan sleeves with your phone, let the AI fill in the details, and search your shelf by artist, label or year from anywhere.
- Product
- Collecting
The samla.ai team4 min read
There is money in your attic
Which attic finds are worth real money, how to value boxes of old cameras, records and toys with your phone, and what to do once every item has an estimate.
- Trends
- Collecting
The samla.ai team4 min read
Reuse is the greenest thing in your house
Why reuse beats recycling on the numbers, how big second-hand has become, and how a photographed home turns good intentions into things that actually move on.
- Trends
- Collecting
samla.ai research4 min read
Thirteen collectible categories, and why they are not one form
Handbags, musical instruments and footwear each became first-class categories this summer. Why a date code, a serial number and a style code deserve their own fields, and what the app now keeps private.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
Sharing an item is now free for everyone
Public item pages started as a paid feature and moved to the free plan. Why a feature went down a tier, what the page shows, and what stays private no matter which plan you are on.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
The selling update: from cataloged to listed
Publishing to Discogs, Tradera and eBay from an item you already scanned, a Selling Center that shows every listing in one place, and classified ads you can steer. Why each of them shipped.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
The look up and review update
Two features that pull in opposite directions and shipped together: Look up mode, for pricing things you do not own, and the review queue, for everything the AI was unsure about. Both free on every plan.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
samla.ai 1.0 is on the App Store
The first version of samla.ai, and the three decisions it was built on: camera first, an AI that admits when it is unsure, and a free plan that stays free. Also what 1.0 deliberately left out.
- Company
- Product
The samla.ai marketing team4 min read
Put the whole shelf in your pocket
Photograph an item and samla.ai identifies it, fills in the details that decide its value, and files it where it lives.
