2020 Project: Personal OLH

[El Presidente]

FOH Auctions MK II launches next month (March latest if Habanos Festival interferes too much). More on this next week. 

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One of the other projects we are considering for 2020 is the design of the ultimate personal OLH manager.

Essentially a one stop shop where you could set up your own personal cigar inventory. Maybe it can allow trades for approved members. Maybe it can link to FOH Auctions or other auction sites. We are at the design stage. 

Web Apps are/would be ideal but as you know, the global crusade against tobacco will likely see none of the existing app options survive long term. 

We are lucky enough to have a superb developer with us later this week for the sole purpose of assisting in the design of this project. Again, we are in the  design and feasibility stage. 

Our developer can let us know what can be done. 

We would like to know what you would like in such a product. 

If you could write the ultimate cigar data OLH (on- line humidor).....what features would  make it an indispensable part of your hobby?  

Help us put it together 

 

[Meklown]

1. Scoring
It would be nice to be able to score individual sticks smoked from each box, and then be able to view the aggregated score for that box.
From a back-end developer's point of view, this may even be a global database to aggregate scores for factory codes, etc, almost like a poll where you cannot view individual responses.

2. Tasting notes
To take a leaf out of whiskybase.com, include a bunch of "standard" tastes. The user can simply click on a few notes that they taste for that cigar.
Again, globally this will become a huge base of tasting notes for each marca/vitola.

3. Scanner
The reason why I don't have a proper inventory is because I am too lazy to type it all out. If possible, the app can recognise a photo of the box (maybe a few snaps for each side), and add it to my inventory. If possible, the app can even detect the shape / band of individual sticks and identify the cigar it is.

4. Location
I may or may not always store cigars in their original boxes. Some may be in the desktop humidor, some may be elsewhere. It would be great to be able to access my inventory from different angles, sorted by original boxes, marca, location, etc.

5. Currency
To be able to include the price where I bought it for (both purchase currency and my "home" currency), at the time of purchase.

6. Date of purchase, Starting to rest date

 

So I'm imagining processes like this - 

Adding new cigars
Flip open the app > select "add new box" > take a few pictures
Flip open the app > select "add individual sticks" > take a few pictures 

Checking my inventory
Flip open the app > select "inventory by marca" > click on "Bolivar" > app shows me I have 20 BBF and 15 BRC in my inventory > click on BBF > app shows me breakdown of the 20 sticks, box code of each, etc > set alert for 24:24 / click on 1 stick > shows me the stick details, box code, aggregated score for the box, location of stick
Flip open the app > select "inventory by location" > click on "office humidor" > app shows me I have 1 Monte Edmundo left
Flip open the app > select "inventory by box" > app shows me a table of marca, vitola, box code, number of sticks left, current aggregated box score > click on 1 box > app shows me details of the box, including the individual scores of the smoked cigars, and aggregated tasting notes, including how many times I pressed each taste

When I smoke something in my inventory - 
Flip open the app > select "inventory by location" > click on "office humidor" > app shows me I have 1 Monte Edmundo left > select "smoke this now" > app alerts me that this cigar has not rested for 90 days (function can be switched on/off) > I press the button "Noted with thanks but I really wanna smoke this" > app brings me to a page where I can input scores (for taste, look, feel, constructions, etc, etc), and a list of tasting buttons where I can press, a button that I can press if I had to do a relight > select "done smoking" > app displays a summary of my smoke, including smoke time, no of relights, tasting notes > I can opt to change/remove certain details or "confirm"

During blind tasting competition -
Flip open the app > scan the cigar > select tasting notes > app shows me what it thinks I am smoking

[ElJavi76]

Inventory alerts, where once you hit your desired threshold you get the alert to buy more of said cigar. 

Fields for

Date received in hand

Vendor

Price

LE / RE 

Discontinued radio button maybe.

If auctions will be allowed then a hide or show on any inventory. This way the collector has the option to show or keep to him/herself what others see.

These are just a few ideas from my personal spreadsheet. Some might matter to the masses, and others might not.

Cheers!

 

[Connoisseur Kim]

For minor implement, I found Korean provinces listed on FOH Auctions are using old school notation which is no longer used in my country. I think it would be better for first time Korean FOHAuction users if it uses new school notation for name of Korean provinces (e.g. using Seoul instead of Soul-t'ukpyolsi).

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[benfica_77]

Great initiative! My OCD-like tendencies would greatly appreciate this. 
 

I would love the following Fields 

Marca  from a drop down menu

Cigar itself (CoRo, BBF etc) from a drop down menu

Box Code 

Check box indicated if it's LE/RE/Discontinued 

Vendor / Location Sourced 

Tasting Notes text box

Score / Avg Score for Cigar 

Inventory / # of Cigars  

Wishlist 

 

 

 

[FireMedic]

To just add to what has already been stated. 

 

If you have a marca drop down menu then vitolas in the next drop down that exist or have existed for that marca, that would be optimal. So if I select Cohiba in the marca drop down only cohiba vitolas would populate the vitola drop down. I'd prefer that to photo recognition most of the time. 

An ability to track my tasting notes as I go through a certain box over time. So I would be able to see box A, cigar smoked date B, tasting notes C. That way over time I can see where that 1 particular box is and how it's evolving. 

 

Our electronic patient care reports programs in Emergency medicine are a great tool. Everything is drop down menus, each selection on a drop down eliminates things not related to that selection, making each additional selection more intuitive. The bigger drop down menus have a search function built into them so you can type two or three letters of the item you are looking for then just click on the item. Everything in them is built for speed and ease of operation because let's face it, we are simple hose dragging knuckle draggers. 

[El Presidente]

11 hours ago, Meklown said:

 

So I'm imagining processes like this - 

Adding new cigars
Flip open the app > select "add new box" > take a few pictures
Flip open the app > select "add individual sticks" > take a few pictures 

Checking my inventory
Flip open the app > select "inventory by marca" > click on "Bolivar" > app shows me I have 20 BBF and 15 BRC in my inventory > click on BBF > app shows me breakdown of the 20 sticks, box code of each, etc > set alert for 24:24 / click on 1 stick > shows me the stick details, box code, aggregated score for the box, location of stick
Flip open the app > select "inventory by location" > click on "office humidor" > app shows me I have 1 Monte Edmundo left
Flip open the app > select "inventory by box" > app shows me a table of marca, vitola, box code, number of sticks left, current aggregated box score > click on 1 box > app shows me details of the box, including the individual scores of the smoked cigars, and aggregated tasting notes, including how many times I pressed each taste

When I smoke something in my inventory - 
Flip open the app > select "inventory by location" > click on "office humidor" > app shows me I have 1 Monte Edmundo left > select "smoke this now" > app alerts me that this cigar has not rested for 90 days (function can be switched on/off) > I press the button "Noted with thanks but I really wanna smoke this" > app brings me to a page where I can input scores (for taste, look, feel, constructions, etc, etc), and a list of tasting buttons where I can press, a button that I can press if I had to do a relight > select "done smoking" > app displays a summary of my smoke, including smoke time, no of relights, tasting notes > I can opt to change/remove certain details or "confirm"

During blind tasting competition -
Flip open the app > scan the cigar > select tasting notes > app shows me what it thinks I am smoking

Some great input 

The problem with the app route is you immediately rule out Apple.  Google will no doubt follow. 

[Habana Mike]

CCW's collection component has some pretty great features you could consider. 

[El Presidente]

Thanks to all who have jumped on this thread as well as via PM and email 

We have plenty to get us underway. 

[Meklown]

4 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Some great input 

The problem with the app route is you immediately rule out Apple.  Google will no doubt follow. 

I'm no expert but I think the store will simply not host unapproved apps, but instead you can have them available for download separately (I think)

[El Presidente]

This project has moved to the next stage. We should have an update for you in the next week or so 

[gojira]

Nothing much to add to what has been said. I already have my sticks in 2 online humidors and wouldn't mind putting them into a third one as the back-up of my back-up.

I like to know how much I paid for a stick or box. So if you add a field for purchase price and the currency that the cigars were purchased in please make sure that this actually works. There's a bug in one of the online humidors that I use and when I have multiple lines for the same cigar (and I have quite a few of these as I have multiple boxes with different code/date/purchase date) the currency of the last purchase will automatically change the currency of the previous lines. Let's say that I have 2 boxes of Dip 2 that have been purchased in USD, when I add a box that has been purchased in Euros that line will automatically change the currency of the two prevoius boxes to Euro. This drives me crazy, lol!

[RDB]

Crucial thing for me is being able to search other people's tasting notes. Even if I didn't use this to record my own stock, I would use it a lot to do that.

[rcarlson]

You should include a button that imports a 24:24 purchase data.  It'd spare us the stream of posts asking for 24:24 info after the post is removed. 

Better yet, a 24:24 pipeline projector.

Naaahhh.  We'd never figure out what to do with all the free'd up time.  ?  

[Monocle]

CellarTracker is a fantastic equivalent for wine storage/collecting. Have the developers check out CT for ideas. A good deal of what has been discussed above is integrated into CT. 

[Haaltert]

Nothing much to add to what has been said. I already have my sticks in 2 online humidors and wouldn't mind putting them into a third one as the back-up of my back-up.
I like to know how much I paid for a stick or box. So if you add a field for purchase price and the currency that the cigars were purchased in please make sure that this actually works. There's a bug in one of the online humidors that I use and when I have multiple lines for the same cigar (and I have quite a few of these as I have multiple boxes with different code/date/purchase date) the currency of the last purchase will automatically change the currency of the previous lines. Let's say that I have 2 boxes of Dip 2 that have been purchased in USD, when I add a box that has been purchased in Euros that line will automatically change the currency of the two prevoius boxes to Euro. This drives me crazy, lol!

Do you really want to know the value of what you purchased Mike???


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[gojira]

15 hours ago, Haaltert said:

 

Do you really want to know the value of what you purchased Mike???


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I like to know how much I paid for a cigar in case I want to sell a few singles or a box. I will never add up all my purchase prices though. Otherwise I would never get a good nights sleep again......

[Haaltert]

So true. I guess the wife doesnt want to know either if you add up


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[SenorPerfecto]

A forum/app for personal cigar sales would be preferable to another way to manage inventory. I suspect those who either have so much that they need to track it, and/or are so OCD that they "need" to track it, already are. But alternatives to the existing (bad) online sales forums would be great.

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, SenorPerfecto said:

A forum/app for personal cigar sales would be preferable to another way to manage inventory. I suspect those who either have so much that they need to track it, and/or are so OCD that they "need" to track it, already are. But alternatives to the existing (bad) online sales forums would be great.

part solution not too far away. 

[SenorPerfecto]

Thanks Rob, Ben and Co.!

[Mikeltee]

This app does not have to be labeled as a cigar inventory app. A front end to a database is a front end to a database... You can do so much more with an app... what they dont know isnt going to hurt anyone. I think you would get much more participation with a dedicated app. A java app can be ported between android and mac pretty easily as well. You then would not have to worry about relying on a browser to determine what your front end looks like.

[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, Mikeltee said:

 what they dont know isnt going to hurt anyone. I think you would get much more participation with a dedicated app.

It would be great I know.

Commercially, it is a safer proposition to take as a given that all cigar/tobacco related apps/activities will eventually be removed from the platforms of the tech behemoths. 

It is safer to work from that premise